Collin Morikawa has offered a candid and somewhat concerning update on his persistent back injury ahead of his return to PGA Tour action at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto this week, his first start in nearly a month.
The 29-year-old from Los Angeles began 2026 in spectacular fashion, ending a lengthy title drought by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, his first victory since October 2023. But his momentum was brutally halted the following month when he was forced to withdraw from The Players Championship after just one hole, citing back trouble that has plagued him ever since.
Concerns deepened during the PGA Championship at Aronimink, where Collin Morikawa was visibly uncomfortable throughout the week, leaving fans and pundits worried about his health heading into one of the most demanding stretches of the major season.
Speaking to reporters in Toronto on Wednesday, Collin Morikawa was refreshingly honest about where things stand both physically and mentally.
“I left the PGA Championship uncomfortable in a way,” he said. “I’ve been grinding this kind of back injury since THE PLAYERS. It still hadn’t felt that comfortable. So it was nice to take a full reset. And just focus on other things going on in life.”
The two-time major champion acknowledged that the time away from competitive golf had helped, but stopped well short of declaring himself fully fit with the U.S. Open just a week away.
“I think after that I’ve just been able to relax a little bit more,” he said. “There’s still a trust factor that I’m looking for that I’m trying to find this week, I think, going into tomorrow and into next week essentially. But it’s a lot better of a swing than I’ve been putting on and that’s for me a positive thing.”
Collin Morikawa also hinted at the psychological dimension of his struggles, something that perhaps goes beyond the purely physical. He described his experience of the injury as something resembling trauma, a strikingly candid admission from a player who has historically been one of the most composed ball-strikers in the game.
“I’m still a little bit on edge just because I don’t want it to happen again,” he admitted. “I’m doing the right steps to prevent it, but when it happens like that it’s in a sense a little bit of trauma that you just kind of have to deal with.”
Collin Morikawa Press Conference
Despite everything, Collin Morikawa remains cautiously optimistic that a complete return to form is close at hand. He spoke of needing that final piece of the puzzle, full physical relaxation, to unlock the consistency he knows he is capable of.
“I think when the body fully is able to kind of have that last little puzzle piece of fully relaxing, I think the game’s going to be exactly how I want,” he said. “I still feel like I hit great shots when I need to. But just consistency-wise, I think if I can build that into this week it will be a great boost into next week.”
Whether Collin Morikawa can rediscover that trust in his body this week in Canada remains to be seen, but with the U.S. Open looming, the timing could hardly be more critical.
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