Collin Morikawa closed the RBC Heritage with a strong enough finish to climb into the top 10, but the result came with an even bigger story: the seven-time PGA TOUR winner is still managing the fear and uncertainty that followed a back injury at THE PLAYERS Championship. He said he was “very scared” in the first round at Harbour Town Golf Links and admitted that his schedule remains “unknown” as he decides how his body responds next.
Morikawa’s back issue has not kept him off the leaderboard, but it has limited how he plays. Coming off a T7 at the Masters, he said he was still swinging at about 50% and felt constrained in the shots he could attempt.
Playing through fear, not pain
Morikawa made it clear that the main challenge was mental as much as physical. On Thursday, he said, “I’m not in pain,” but added that the experience had left him with a strong sense of caution because the injury happened on the course.
That fear showed in how he moved around Harbour Town during the week. He was careful with practice swings, moved gingerly in and out of bunkers, and handled the course in a way that reflected the limits he was feeling.
Even so, he kept scoring well enough to remain in contention. His final-round 4-under 67 lifted him to 13-under for the tournament and a T4 finish, five shots behind winner Matt Fitzpatrick.
A steady finish after a difficult stretch
Morikawa said the two weeks of golf had felt unusually demanding, even when compared with a longer stretch on tour. After the final round, he described the effort as a grind and said he had learned from the process of competing without full physical freedom.
He also showed enough control to post three sub-60 rounds across the stretch, a sign that his game has stayed sharp despite the injury concern. On Sunday, he found a better rhythm, made six birdies, hit 14 greens in regulation, and finished second in Strokes Gained: Approach for the week.
That consistency has extended his strong run as well. Excluding his withdrawal after one hole at THE PLAYERS, this was Morikawa’s fifth straight top-seven finish, a stretch that began with his win at the season’s first Signature Event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
What comes next is still unclear
Morikawa’s next steps are not fully mapped out yet. He and his wife Katherine announced that they are expecting their first child later this spring, and he said he will skip the Zurich Classic of New Orleans while he recovers and tests his swing in a “comfortable, at-home setting.”
That leaves his schedule beyond the next stretch of PGA TOUR events unresolved. The tour’s calendar moves through Signature Events in Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to the PGA Championship, where Morikawa won his first major in 2020 before adding The Open Championship in 2021.
For now, he is focused on how the body responds and on avoiding the sharp tug that has made the injury feel so unpredictable. “Unknown,” he said when asked about the schedule, adding that everything will be handled “week by week now.”
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