Morikawa added 10g of weight to his putter to counteract the relatively slow speed of the greens at Royal St George’s
Prior to this week, Morikawa had a P series combo set consisting of P770 4 iron, P7MC 5-6 and then P730 7-PW. After some discussion and watching Morikawa go through his warm-up routine, Rietveld noticed the issue could be in the transition from his 6-iron (P7MC) to his 7-iron (P730) due to the different sole geometry of the two models.
Rietveld said: “It was interesting, as Collin was warming up, the sound off the P730 was not Collin-like. It was just fractionally different to what I’m used to hearing. Then he goes into the P7MC and you can hear the strike come back.
“Let’s say a 7-iron spins at 7,000 rpm and launches at 14 to 15 degrees, then when he hits the draw, which is a slightly lower window, he’d probably spin the P7MC about 6,600 rpm. But with the P730, he was at 6,200 to 6,300 rpm which was too hot in the air. The spin in the P7MC was aiding his distance control. That’s something he really needs to know.”
Speaking about the set up change, Morikawa said: “I changed to the P7MCs strictly because I couldn’t find the centre of the face with my blade irons. I was hitting these iron shots last week at the Scottish Open that I just normally don’t and my swing felt good, but it was a huge learning opportunity.”
Another significant change that Morikawa made on the eve of the Open Championship was adding weight to his TP Juno putter. Playing on the PGA Tour’s faster greens all year, when he played at the Scottish Open the week before, he struggled to get the ball to the hole on the slower links greens.
Again, working with TaylorMade’s tour team, Morikawa switched the weights in from 2.5g heel and 2.5g toe to the heavier 7.5g heel and toe weights adding a combined 10g in total.
“It’s a learning process. Links greens can be slow and you’ve just got to figure out how to putt. I feel like my putting stroke has been good. I just had to figure out speed, and I was able to hit some good putts with speed with the new set up.”
COLLIN MORIKAWA’S WINNING GEAR
Driver: TaylorMade SIM (8°)
Fairway Woods: TaylorMade SIM 3 (14°), TaylorMade SIM2 5 (19°)
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-9), P730 (PW)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG2 (50°), MG2 Hi-Toe (60°)
Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno
Ball: TaylorMade TP5 2021