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Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning

21 min · 6 de jul de 2026

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Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Colin Morikawa is 29 years old. He has two major championships. He was the first player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. And when Trey Wingo asked him what comes next — what is enough — his answer was immediate and unambiguous. More. The answer is always more. This is the full conversation. What the Travelers Does Right Morikawa opens by explaining what he genuinely loves about the Travelers Championship — and it has nothing to do with the course rating or the purse size. Pizza and ice cream on the range. Umbrellas and chairs for caddies. The dining room stays open late. The family atmosphere. Coming off the grind of the US Open at Shinnecock, this is the week players actually look forward to. He uses the same line Trey has heard from every player he spoke to at TPC River Highlands — the Travelers knows who it is and embraces it. Like Harbour Town the week after the Masters. A breather. A welcome one. Shinnecock and the USGA His take on how the USGA set up Shinnecock is clean and direct. Show a fan the final score without showing them a single shot — five under par wins by two strokes, three players finish under par — and they would call it a great US Open. That is the test. The USGA passed it. He remembers the era when setups were getting out of hand — watering greens between groups at the 2004 US Open, courses pushed past difficult into genuinely unfair. That era is over. They have found their identity and they are executing it well. The Wyndham Clark Situation Morikawa's reaction to the crowd behavior at Shinnecock toward Wyndham Clark is measured but pointed. It did not add up. He is an American playing on American soil. He has won the US Open before. Morikawa spent significant time with Wyndham on the Olympic team and calls him a fantastic guy. He understands that sports fans need someone to root against — but the level of hostility at Shinnecock surprised him. He gives Wyndham full credit for playing through it and calls his performance amazing under the circumstances. He also adds something worth noting about Wyndham's putter — he cannot think of another player who has putted this well over this long a stretch and had it make this dramatic a difference in their results. Eleven under at the Byron Nelson when everyone was watching Scotty and Si Woo Kim. Two US Opens. An extended hot streak that has made him nearly unbeatable when the putter is on. The New PGA Tour Structure Morikawa read the Rolapp announcement and his single favorite element is simple — when you have a PGA Tour card you know exactly where you are playing. The uncertainty ends. The waiting game ends. Whether Championship Series or Challenger Series every player knows what they are competing for and against whom. That is a fundamental improvement over what exists now. He loves the regular season champion concept for the same reason. A player can dominate for five months and lose the FedEx Cup in one bad week. That disconnect has always bothered him. Acknowledging the regular season champion separately from the playoff format is the right call. And when the conversation turns to Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point as potential tour championship venues — his eyes light up. That is the juice. That is the buzz. People get excited about courses they have never seen. The Walker Cup at Cypress Point a few years ago was appointment viewing. Bandon Dunes for the US Amateur generated the same energy. Those courses create moments that traditional tour venues cannot. He loves everything about it. Playing Augusta on a Bad Back This is the most revealing part of the conversation. Morikawa played Augusta National this year with a back injury that made him uncertain about every step he took. Not the swinging — the walking. Every time he moved he did not know if something was going to give out. He never considered withdrawing. He wanted to compete. He wanted to find a way. Augusta suited him oddly well given the circumstances — the slopes let him work around the golf course in a way that minimized the physical demands. He managed it hole by hole. And then on the 12th hole in the final round, after grinding and surviving and saying nothing about what he was dealing with, he turned to his caddy and said four words. Let's do something special. Every putt started dropping. Birdies started coming. The mental battle he had been fighting all week turned in his favor in a single stretch of holes. He calls it more mental than physical — and says sometimes you just find a way. That is the competitor he is and has always been. The Tiger Comparison First player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. When Trey puts that in front of him — what does it mean to hear your name in that sentence? It means you are doing something right. He is careful not to overweight it. Early in his career he admits he cared too much about living in that comparison, about staying in that realm. When he had a few bad tournaments it felt like something was wrong because the bar he had set for himself was impossibly high. Mark O'Meara's advice recalibrated him — mellow out the bottoms, enjoy the highs, stay present in the moments. Now when he hears the Tiger comparison it motivates him rather than pressuring him. He wants a long career. He believes he can keep competing at the highest level. And he feels like he is just getting started. What Comes Next More majors. Starred and highlighted in his calendar. He knows it takes a great week, the right bounces, the right conditions, the shots falling at the right moments. He gives himself a chance on Sunday and trusts that the results will follow. He cannot be picky about which majors yet. That changes when he has won all of them. Until then — every one is on the list. Pebble Beach 2027 for the US Open is circled. He won there in 2019. He knows what that golf course demands when the USGA sets it up for a major versus how it plays for the Pro Am. Completely different. Firmer. Faster. Rougher. He is not concerned about the scoring numbers at the Pro Am — that is a different test. The 2027 US Open test is one he has solved before. He wants to solve it again. Two majors. A bad back at Augusta. A Tiger comparison. A long career ahead. And an answer to the question of what is enough that never changes. More. Always more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Xander Schauffele on Two Majors, the US Open Streak, and What Comes Next

Xander Schauffele — Two Majors, a Gold Medal His Dad Slept With, and What Comes Next Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Xander Schauffele sat down with Trey Wingo at the Travelers Championship for a conversation that goes well beyond what most golf interviews cover. Two majors. Ten consecutive top-15 finishes at the US Open — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has exceeded in the history of the championship. A gold medal his parents still have because it means more to his family than it could ever mean to a trophy case. And an honest assessment of where his game is, where it is going, and why his time will come. The US Open Streak — Badge of Honor or Badge of Frustration? Ten US Opens. Ten top-15 finishes. The only player in the history of the US Open with a longer consecutive top-15 streak is Jack Nicklaus. Xander found out about this stat recently — he is not on social media and has not been since the 2020 Masters, which he says has helped him live longer. His wife has Instagram. He gets screen recordings from the group chat when something is funny. That is the extent of it. His honest reaction to the streak — a mix of both. Having his name on a list with those names is something he is not complaining about. Objectively it is remarkable. Personally it would be nice to be a little closer to the lead. Be a little more a part of the mix. But his answer on where that leaves him is the line that defines the whole conversation — my time will come. He is going to keep paying it forward and he genuinely enjoys what he calls the psycho challenge of trying to play good golf on really hard golf courses. Shinnecock — What Actually Happened Xander's honest assessment of his week at Shinnecock is refreshingly direct. He felt like he could never get anything going. Leaving putts short. Not making birdies. Running out of holes. He tried to stay patient and let the golf come to him and it just never did. He was not playing good enough and he knows it. What he does know is that his game is built for US Open setups. The risk management, the course management, the discipline of knowing when to be aggressive and when to lay back — that is the kind of golf he enjoys and the kind of golf US Opens reward. His caddy Austin has become exceptional at analyzing risk in major championship settings, understanding exactly what score is needed on any given hole across any given round. The example that sticks — on 13 at Shinnecock coming off two doubles, Austin told him to hit driver when Xander had a four-iron in his hand. He hit it to a foot and made birdie. Small moments, big decisions, trusted relationships. US Opens are war. That is his word for it. Mental war first, physical war second — dinner at 10 PM, up at 3:30 AM for a restart, grinding for four days on courses designed to punish you for every small mistake. And that is exactly why winning one feels so validating. The difficulty is the point. The New PGA Tour Structure Xander has been paying attention to what Rolapp announced and his overall reaction is genuinely positive — but the thing he keeps coming back to is not the match play or the iconic courses or the regular season champion. It is the certainty. The last four years of his career have been all over the place in terms of knowing what events are happening, who the sponsors are, where the schedule is going, how the points system works. The points structure changed every year. The playoff format kept evolving. There was no stable foundation to plan around. The new structure — whatever the working titles end up being — gives players a framework that is supposed to be set for generations. He knows what he is playing for. He knows what it looks like. He knows what the path is from February through the playoffs. For a player who is a creature of habit, that matters enormously. His take on the core philosophy — Brian Rolapp used the phrase "you eat what you kill" in the meetings. Xander loves that framing. If you want to play professional golf and you are not ready for that kind of language, professional golf is probably not for you. Play bad, make zero dollars. That is how it has always worked at the highest level and the new structure just makes it more explicit and more honest about what the meritocracy actually looks like. He also loves the match play concept — thinks Brian's background in the NFL means he understands what fan interaction looks like and if match play is done at the right venues it could be genuinely incredible for the sport. And when the subject of Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point came up in the press conference — those whispers are real and he is excited about them. Harry Higgs — The Most Heartwarming Story of the US Open Xander had a moment at Shinnecock that had nothing to do with his own round. Harry Higgs made the cut. The Big Rig — who had not made a single cut all year, had made zero dollars on the PGA Tour in 2026, and was fighting his way back from losing his tour card — made the cut at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Xander gave him a huge hug. They are both new dads. Their kids were born not far apart. He knows Harry is super happy at home right now and super unhappy with his golf. Seeing him make the cut and make some money and get back on the horse — Xander hopes that is the beginning of the comeback. That one moment was one of the more heartwarming things of the entire week for him. The Gold Medal — The Real Story This is the part of the conversation that stays with you long after the interview is over. Xander's father was his swing coach until Xander was about 30 years old. Before that — before any of this — his dad trained to be a decathlete in Germany. He trained hard, worked toward competing in the Olympics, and got in a terrible accident that ended all of it. Everything he had learned, everything his coaches had taught him, all the wisdom and discipline and mental preparation that goes into being an elite Olympic-level athlete — he poured all of it into Xander's brain from the time he was a young kid. When Xander won the gold medal in Tokyo it was at the COVID Olympics — no crowds, no spectators, almost no one allowed in. His caddy and his dad. Those were the two people with him. That was it. His dad slept with the gold medal the night they won. Xander does not have the gold medal. His parents have it. And the way he says that — the tone, the matter-of-factness of it, the quiet pride — tells you everything about what that moment meant and still means to his family. His dad gave his Olympic dream to his son. His son gave him the gold medal back. Two majors. A PGA Championship. An Open Championship. A gold medal. And a US Open streak that only Jack Nicklaus has beaten. Xander Schauffele is 33 years old. His time will come. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

8 de jul de 202615 min

Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning

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