Collin Morikawa is known for being one of the best iron players on the PGA Tour, but this has been an interesting season for him as his fastball hasn’t been as reliable as usual.
In his four full seasons on the PGA Tour from 2020-2023, Morikawa ranked no lower than third in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green for a season. This year, he is 51st.
| Year | Morikawa SG: Approach Rank | SG: Approach Value |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 51 | 0.27 |
| 2023 | 2 | 1.012 |
| 2022 | 3 | 0.854 |
| 2021 | 1 | 1.17 |
| 2020 | 2 | 0.884 |
Last year, Morikawa split with his childhood coach of 18 years, Rick Sessinghaus, and began working with instructor Mark Blackburn last fall — right before winning the Zozo Championship in Japan.
However, Morikawa felt lost with his swing after The Players Championship and split with Blackburn in March. He struggled in his next start at the Valero Texas Open, where he tied for 75th and lost strokes approaching the green for a third straight start.
That was a significant point in both the season and Morikawa’s career because the man known for his iron play had never lost strokes on approach for three consecutive events in his professional career until this point.
He and Sessinghaus began speaking informally after that as Morikawa got ready for the Masters the following week. Getting back to those familiar feels under his childhood instructor paid off resoundingly.
Since that uncharacteristically poor stretch, Morikawa has been on a tear with top-16 finishes in all six individual starts, including four top-four results, highlighted by a tie for third at the Masters and a tie for fourth at the PGA Championship.
Over this six-tournament span, Morikawa has gained 0.82 strokes on approach per round, which would rank fourth on Tour for the entire season.
Morikawa’s irons are back, and the rest of his game is clicking.
Per Data Golf’s True Strokes Gained data, Morikawa is better than he has ever been in his professional career in all three of True Strokes Gained: Putting, Around the Green and Off the Tee.
While Morikawa’s approach play has elevated over the past six events, his Driving Accuracy has also gone to the next level as he has been at least 12% more accurate than the field in each of the six events. This is impressive because he had only been 12% or more accurate off the tee relative to the field in just one of his prior seven starts this season.
As a result, Morikawa leads the PGA Tour in Driving Accuracy in 2024 by hitting 77.72% of his fairways and has been better off the tee than any other year of his career.
Morikawa’s putting and short game are better than they ever have been, his driver is the most accurate on the PGA Tour and his irons are rounding back into his typically elite form just in time for this week’s U.S. Open.
Per Data Golf’s True Strokes Gained data, Morikawa had never gained strokes in all four Strokes Gained categories for consecutive PGA Tour events in his entire career … until the past two events, where he gained strokes Putting, Around the Green, Approaching the Green and Off the Tee.
Just a week before the last major championship, Xander Schauffele was out-dueled on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship, but bounced back to win the PGA Championship. Morikawa hopes to accomplish a similar feat at this week’s U.S. Open after Scottie Scheffler held him off at the Memorial Tournament this past weekend.
I bet Morikawa last week at the Memorial, and I'm going back to him this week at 17-1 to win his third major championship.
