Collin Morikawa walked into TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour’s $25 million flagship Players Championship, with real heat. He had just won at Pebble Beach, stacked up more top-10s, and looked ready to chase another big title. Then one practice swing on the 11th tee changed everything. Then, after an on-site evaluation, medical staff carted him off the course as he sat visibly distraught. Now, with the Masters only two weeks away, we need to know whether the 2-time Major champion can make the field, and Golfweek’s Adam Schupak has that answer.

According to Schupak, ESPN’s Marty Smith reported that Morikawa is recovering well from the back injury, with rehab progressing smoothly ahead of a planned return. He expects to be at full strength for the upcoming major.

“My team and I are running a series of tests to make sure we protect the area and continuously get stronger to make sure things like this never happen again,” Morikawa said, according to Smith, during the TGL semifinals between Atlanta and Los Angeles.

There’s a reason for this concern. These back problems have chased him like a shadow. He struggled with pain during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Later, he had to quit the Memorial Tournament in 2023 because his back muscles started to shake.

And the latest injury bears an uncanny resemblance to his 2023 Travelers Championship withdrawal. At that time, Morikawa was just two shots behind the leader entering the final round when his back spasmed while warming up. In a bizarre scene caught on camera, he appeared to tweak his back while simply stretching and attempting to pick something up. He returned to the green two weeks later at the U.S. Open and finished T14, only to be injured again in that same year after he broke his two-year-long trophy drought by winning the 2023 Zozo Championship when the injury resurfaced. He had to pull out of The Netflix Cup that time.

And Morikawa is not the only golfer who has suffered from these recurring issues. Players like Jason Day and Tiger Woods have also felt their bodies break from hard swings. Day, who reached world No. 1 at 29, even once thought about retiring because of these issues. Similarly, Woods has undergone seven back procedures most recently before finally returning to the field at the TGL S2 finale. Players are never the same once these issues start.

Since his withdrawal from TPC Sawgrass, Morikawa has remained sidelined from all competitive action, including missing the TGL semifinals for his Los Angeles team. He also missed the Valspar Championship. Now, only a few days remain before the Masters 2026. Morikawa said he “feels really positive” about his chances and is set for a return to the Valero Texas Open, the last stop before the first major of the year.

Can Collin Morikawa reclaim his golden momentum?

Before the collapse at the PGA Tour flagship event, Morikawa was arguably the hottest player of 2026. After a bad T54 finish at the Phoenix Open, he responded with a historic performance at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. That run peaked with a career-best 10-under 62 in the third round at Pebble Beach, where his approach play was so dominant it graded out as the second-best single-round performance in the ShotLink era.

He won the trophy at Pebble Beach, his first in 848 days. It was also a milestone for his personal life. Moments after securing the $3.6 million prize on February 15, an emotional Morikawa announced that he and his wife, Katherine Zhu, are expecting their first child later this year.

This ‘happiest week of his life’ propelled him to the top of the FedEx Cup standings (1,182 points) and a world ranking of No. 4 before everything collapsed like a house of cards at the Players Championship.

Now to win the Green Jacket in April, Morikawa will need to summon some ‘Ben Hogan’ energy. Hogan famously won the 1950 U.S. Open just 16 months after a horrific car crash that left him with a fractured pelvis and blood clots. But given his current form and record at the historic golf course, the world #8 has a real path to contention if his body holds up through Augusta’s early rounds. Now, everything hinges on how he responds at the Valero Texas Open—the final test before the Masters.

Morikawa has never missed a cut at Augusta, recording five consecutive top-20 finishes and a career-best T3 in 2024.