Why an old Jordan Spieth quote sticks with Collin Morikawa

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Jordan Spieth may not physically be here this week but he definitely is in spirit … at least for Collin Morikawa. 

Spieth would normally be competing in the Scottish Open, held annually at Renaissance Club, but he’s home nursing his way back from a neck injury suffered at the Travelers Championship three weeks ago. But it’s oddly a quote from three years ago that comes to mind for Morikawa whenever he is playing links golf.

“Jordan talked about being creative, and I think that’s exactly what you have to be out here,” Morikawa said Thursday after an opening 68. 

Now, Spieth is one of the best talkers in the game, but some fantastic links golf quote from years ago? Nothing sprang to mind for me, a media member professional press conference transcript reader and contributor. 

“This was like two or three years ago,” Morikawa said after I pressed for specifics. “He was talking about just playing golf out here and it really stuck with me.” 

Let it serve as a reminder that pro golfers are readers, too. They follow golf accounts on social media. People share links with them. They watch Golf Channel. Morikawa is chief among them, reading a lot — probably more than most! — about the sport within which he is a major piece. When other pros talk shop, he’s listening, hoping to glean a bit of info over here that may help over there. For Morikawa, it was 2022, on the weekend of the Scottish Open, after Spieth had just shot 66. 

Morikawa had just missed the cut and was likely already up in St. Andrews when he saw it, prepping to defend his title at The Open. Spieth was asked about his great third round and, in particular, what he was trying to do with his approach on the 15th hole. Spieth said he was trying to play a “float-cutter” shot downwind, take a sizable hop and have the right pace to get near the hole. You can watch the result here. Spieth holed out for an eagle 2, his second eagle of the day.

A reporter asked Spieth after the round if it feels like he hits an “inordinate amount of crazy shots.” A downwind, spinny wedge off concrete turf that catches just enough to side-spin into the jar seemed to fit the definition of crazy.

Spieth said he wasn’t sure, but that he believed he has “a knack for just getting it in the hole however I can and some days that means ball-striking and some days that means scrambling. I think the ability to try to find a way to shoot lower scores and willing it in has some effect. Had my fair share of breaks over the years. The ones that go in with the right speed are the ones that I walk away even happier with.” 

That’s all good and fair and even fun. Spieth certainly has a knack for making a decent score out of less-than-perfect days. But it was how he pivoted the convo that seemed to actually catch Morikawa’s mind. 

“I think the creativity, and not just on and around the greens,” Spieth said. “There are shots here that we would not even think about playing in the States, and what I mean by that is how low you flight some shots, how much club you’re hitting. How little club you’re hitting from certain yardages is pretty uncomfortable knowing pins are on corners of greens, and sometimes it’s just a little bit hard to believe. Sometimes it’s nice to get over here on links turf and play some shots in the wind, and ahead of the Open next week.”

Now three years later, that quote still sticks with Morikawa. Or maybe just the idea of different golf. He brought it up Thursday, and even mentioned it during the 2023 Open at Royal Liverpool. Being “creative” is a key to unlocking links success. Maybe that feels obvious, but it goes a bit deeper at the pro level, according to what Morikawa said in 2023. You have to be creative, sure, but you also have to know when to reign it in and not “get stupid with it.”

Rattle through the transcripts of any Scottish Open — for many Tour pros the first links golf they’ll play in many months — and you see that C-word frequently. Thursday’s first-round leader, Jake Knapp, mentioned it when talking about ball-flight trajectories. Nico Echavarria, from Colombia, is also atop the leaderboard, and mentioned it, too, saying the ground requires a different type of compression he hadn’t figured out when he missed the cut last year.

A lot of people call this stretch on the PGA Tour links season, but we may need to reframe it as the Month of Creativity. That seems to be the catch-all word for Morikawa.

“Just the word creativity,” he said, when I asked what was so special about Spieth’s thoughts. “That’s kind of how — you have to be creative out here. When you think of, ‘What is a creative golfer?’ you think of someone who works the ball, hits all the different shots and is able to control their golf ball. You have to be able to do that out here.”