Sawt Falasteen - No.5 Morikawa still battles back issues as PGA start looms

Fifth-ranked Morikawa, the 2020 PGA Championship winner and 2024 British Open champion, snapped a 28-month win drought with a PGA Tour victory at Pebble Beach in February.

But the 29-year-old American has been battling a sore back since withdrawing from The Players Championship on the second hole in March, hurting himself on a practice swing.

Morikawa recovered to finish seventh at the Masters and fourth the following week at the Heritage but was 62nd at Doral and skipped a planned event last week at Quail Hollow.

"Still kind of dealing with some back stuff," Morikawa said. "I wish I was 100% healthy. The body doesn't feel bad, just it's uncomfortable, and there's a trust factor I've never had to deal with.

"It's just a very weird feeling of not trusting the body and yet knowing things are going to be OK. It's just taking it day by day, doing what I need to do.

"I'm going to find a way to hopefully play some great golf starting Thursday."

Morikawa said he must rely on his mental focus to overcome his back worries and push himself into the hunt as he did at Augusta National.

"The mental game is a big aspect of it," Morikawa said. "You're able to push yourself that much farther. Trust me, it was very uncomfortable to play the Masters and very uncomfortable to play the week after at Hilton Head, but you just have to keep pushing."

Morikawa is having to control his frustrations at being unable to play his best on golf's biggest stages.

"It will be interesting to see whether I get frustrated or not considering that the body feels a little bit better," Morikawa said. "I hope to take that mentality I had at Augusta and just continue that into the rest of the year, because that's a mentality I think the best have."

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST