Collin Morikawa has been battling significant back spasms for a few weeks now. He sustained the injury during the practice round at THE PLAYERS Championship and had to withdraw from the tournament within the first round. Despite the discomfort, he pushed through the Masters Tournament and finished T7th. But now, after he scored a bogey-free four-under 67 at the RBC Heritage, Morikawa opened up on his injury. 

Talking to the media at Harbour Town, Morikawa said, “I’m not in pain. I know it looked painful, but I’m just very scared, and I’ve never been this scared in my life to go out and play. But I think it’s because it happened on the golf course. I’ve never had any back stuff happen on the golf course. Every time in the gym. Then I’d go out and swing, I’m just saying, do I feel good enough to swing.”

It seems like his central nervous system essentially logged a trauma event. And now, his brain is aggressively mapping the specific biomechanical sequencing of his golf swing to that acute trauma. Even if the underlying muscle or ligament has healed, his CNS is engaging in muscle guarding. Before he even reaches the top of his backswing, his brain is pre-emptively sending inhibitory signals to his muscles to stop them from entering the red zone. 

He continued, “I’ve just been so timid and so shy in a way because the buildup was going okay, kind of had a minor setback, and then at the end of the day it was like, I need to tee it up at the Masters. There was a point where it was like, okay, let’s stop pushing to see how far we can get and let’s see what I can just work with. I’ve had back issues over the past three years. We’ve seen it. I’ve just got to find a way to kind of protect it a little bit more.”

But what can he do to stop being scared? Well, there are a few ways. Collin Morikawa needs a systematic desensitization. He has to execute his swing mechanics in a highly controlled environment and track his progress without triggering a pain response. And he has to treat his daily swing count like a strict inventory. All while ensuring that he doesn’t go into systemic fatigue and let his CNS panic and trigger another spasm. 

Morikawa admitted that he’s going to take some time off at home to push past his current limits. Of course, he’s beginning to swing a bit better. But the yips tend to stay until they’re aggressively and strategically removed from the mind. 

He said, “I feel like I’m swinging a little bit better in the motion, at least, but I wouldn’t say I’m putting more effort into it because, like I said, I need to be at home to say, ‘Okay, let’s turn up the gears.’ If I do feel a little uncomfortable, at least I’m home, I’m not trying to play a tournament where I essentially need to make it 72 holes.”

Yet, he began the first round of the RBC Heritage in style. But while it seemed like the 29-year-old was returning to his form, there was a tougher game in play. 

Collin Morikawa weighs in on his bogey-free performance at RBC Heritage

Talking about how he felt while swinging at Harbour Town, Morikawa said, “It was great. Still kind of dinking it around, slapping it. Limited to the shots I can play. But this is a course where I feel comfortable just being able to kind of plot my way around. The misses can’t be as big as last week, which favored me last week, which was very nice. But I kept it in front of me, hit some really, really good-quality iron shots, and yeah, just kind of continued the good play.”

Considering he ended up in the top 10 at Augusta National, while top contestants like Bryson DeChambeau stumbled badly, marked it as a good event for Morikawa. He even branded it as one of his best tournaments. But this week, he hopes for some good news on Sunday. 

But there’s another factor that’s pushing him towards a win. And that’s his unborn child. He claimed that it was motivation for him to get healthy. After all, he wants to pick his kid up and play after the birth in May 2026. And for that, he direly needs to put in some work.

For now, Morikawa is playing a delicate game of chess with his own body. If he can continue to post bogey-free 67s while playing as timid and shy golf, the PGA Tour should be terrified of his prowess. But we shall still wait for Sunday to witness how far Morikawa has come to heal his injury.