Why this Sentry contender is trying an unusual pre-shoot routine

Collin Morikawa Knocking down flagstaffs with his irons is nothing new, but he has a new trigger to help him do it this week in sentry.

Morikawa didn’t win in 2024, but he ended up finishing second in the tournament championship and matched his career high with eight top-10s. And he did it all with his worst ball-striking year on Tour, finishing 44th in strokes gained: coming close to never finishing outside the top four in the stat his first four years on PGA Tour.

So during the offseason, Morikawa used eight weeks off for it mess up his game bit and he ended up with a new pre-shot routine.

“If you look at a lot of my shots today, I was doing this little forehand thing before a lot of my iron shots,” Morikawa said Thursday after opening with a seven-under 66. where it should be on the stroke. But, yes, it has worked, which has been good. It wasn’t a two-day-and-then-throw-it-in thing.”

On many of his irons and woods, before Morikawa swings the club, he steps into his lead foot by rotating his open hips to mimic his hitting position.

It’s a subtle change, but one that’s paying big dividends for Morikawa through two and a half rounds in Kapalua. Through 11 holes of the third round on Saturday, Morikawa was fifth in the field in strokes gained: approach, winning more than 4.3 strokes over the course so far. He has also missed just two greens in the first 47 holes of the tournament.

On Friday, he explained that he came up with the routine to help prevent injuries.

“I’ve been through some back injuries, I just changed it up a little bit here,” he explained after a second-round 65. “I think when I try and—I don’t play through it, but your body gets used to certain positions, and we do so much repetition with our body that sometimes you just build bad patterns.

I just had to tell myself that I can roll over and stay in that position and that’s all it really does. I’m not thinking about it. It means, okay, you’re sure to go there, just let it go. And it’s been nice to see the cut come back a little more with a little more space.”

On Saturday, during a mid-round interview with NBC’s Todd Lewis, Morikawa called it a trigger and said it was putting him in a good frame of mind for the week.

“It’s just a little trigger just to say, ‘OK, let the body go there,'” he said. “And let me send the ball where I want. There is no thought really. Just do it and let it happen.”

With Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama pulling four shots from the field midway through the third round, it’s clear the new trigger is working.

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