Collin Morikawa once described his putting as if it were ‘done by a blind man. It was a brutal self-assessment that set the stage for a desperate solution soon. However, it didn’t improve until he ‘stole’ the putter from none other than Kurt Kitayama, a close friend and rival dating back to their middle school days.

“I think I play a lot with my feel, and I play a lot with my gut, and unfortunately, that changes a lot. This putter I actually stole from Kurt Kitayama two weeks ago; we were at home,” Morikawa said after a third-round 10-under-par 62 at the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“It’s kind of settling nicely to where it allows it to flow a little bit, but it doesn’t have as much toe hang as the neck assumes just because of the mallet look. So it’s doing what I want. Hopefully, we can start them online tomorrow and see if they drop.”

The arrival of the stolen putter marks a sharp turn in a 2026 season that began with a missed cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole on Friday that left him exactly one stroke short of the weekend. Following the disappointment in Hawaii, Morikawa took a short break. Then he returned to the field at the WM Phoenix Open and finished T54. Definitely not great, but better than the Sony Open.

Now, two weeks after meeting with Kitayama, the change was immediate and dramatic. During his Saturday 62, Morikawa didn’t just play well; he was statistically flawless, hitting all 18 greens and gaining a career-best 8.891 shots on the field with his approach play alone. This stunning performance vaulted him into contention. Morikawa is tied for second place with Sepp Straka and Jake Knapp, with 17 under, just two shots behind the leader, Akshay Bhatia.

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Despite this weekend’s breakthrough, it’s a stark contrast to his season-long performance, where he ranks a dismal 159th on Tour in strokes gained: putting. This isn’t a new issue; his putting woes have been a consistent theme, with his SG: Putting rank plummeting to 156th in 2025, marking the third time he’s been outside the top 100 since his winless streak began in 2022.

After Morikawa found himself undone by his putter during the 2025 Rocket Classic, he said he was putting like a blind man.

“Putted like a blind man, honestly,” Morikawa said at that time. “It’s just an uncomfortable feeling shoving everything and not being able to square up the face. It’s tough.”

Morikawa ranked 106th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting that time. And over time, it became much worse. He ranked 156th on Tour in SG: Putting in 2025, the third time he ranked worse than 100th on Tour in the same category since the winning drought started in 2023.

The change this weekend came from a shift in mindset, not skill or tool upgrade.

“[Mental coach Rick Sessinghaus] reminded me yesterday when I first came out and turned pro, like I didn’t care about honestly making cuts or top-20s, I came out to win,” Morikawa said Saturday. “When he told me that yesterday, there was that mindset switch going into today. I wanted to come out and win, win the weekend, win the tournament.”

But beyond putting, the two are close friends. Their relationship dates back to their days as junior golf rivals, and being friends in middle school, before they both joined the PGA Tour. They live in Las Vegas and teamed up as partners for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in both 2024 and 2025.

Morikawa joins a long tradition of PGA Tour pros finding magic with borrowed gear. From Tiger Woods nearly winning the 1998 Open with Mark O’Meara’s backup to Wyndham Clark capturing a U.S. Open with a replica of Rickie Fowler’s putter, sometimes a friendly loan is all it takes to change a player’s fortunes.

Collin Morikawa’s performance adds to the history of borrowed brilliance on the PGA Tour

Tiger Woods used a backup Ping Anser 2 putter from his friend Mark O’Meara during the 1998 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. The Big Cat almost won the whole tournament with that borrowed club, finishing just one shot out of a playoff that O’Meara won. O’Meara famously teased him that time, “Why do you think it’s the backup? It always comes up one shot shy.”

Lucas Glover once ordered an L.A.B. Mezz. 1 Max broomstick putter built to ‘Adam Scott specs.’ He taught himself the method in his garage and won back-to-back events at the Wyndham Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Wyndham Clark watched Rickie Fowler make every single putt during a game with a 38 5/8-inch Odyssey Versa Jailbird. He asked his equipment team to build an exact replica of Rickie’s special Jailbird putter. Clark used that same club to win the 2023 U.S. Open just weeks later.

From Camilo Villegas trying Scott’s L.A.B. putter to Jack Fleck defeating his idol Ben Hogan with a club that Hogan had personally delivered to him, golf history is full of these stories.

As Morikawa enters the final day, he trails Akshay Bhatia (-19) by two strokes. While Bhatia has been untouchable throughout the tournament, Morikawa’s past record at Pebble Beach offers significant reason for optimism. Morikawa finished here in T14 in 2024 and T17 in 2025.