Tranlate this title Collin Morikawa says Tiger Woods and Kevin Kisner helped change his putting in spanish

Collin Morikawa has found himself in a very good position at the Tour Championship, and one part of his game that has helped him a lot at East Lake is his putting.

The American opened the tournament with a 64 before following it with a 67 in the second round, leaving him at nine-under and only one shot behind Ryan Gerard and Viktor Hovland going into the weekend.

Morikawa has always been known more for his iron play than his putting, but things have looked a little different recently. The 29-year-old has been much more comfortable on the greens, and after his second round he explained that a conversation with Tiger Woods, Kevin Kisner and Max Homa during TGL had an important role in that change.

For Morikawa, the biggest lesson was not some complicated technical change. It was actually the opposite.

Morikawa on what changed with his putting

“I’m telling you, I had a great talk at TGL with Tiger, Kis; I probably should give most of the credit to Kis. I don’t want to, but he deserves it ; and Max. It just stuck with me. It was very simple,” Morikawa said.

The two-time major champion parted ways with putting coach Stephen Sweeney earlier this season, and that left him trying to find something he could trust from one tournament to another.

“I felt like I got a lot of knowledge of what I need to do, but I just needed to find something that stuck week in and week out,” he explained.

“I feel like I kind of found something. You just watch my warmup, it’s very, very simple, I’m not doing much, but I’m kind of incorporating things here and there that I’ve learned throughout the year.

It’s very, very simple right now. I’m trusting my stroke. The putter feels great. It’s nice when you feel like you can start them on line and you’re seeing the lines.”

Morikawa is second in Strokes Gained: Putting at East Lake through two rounds, which is quite encouraging for a player who has not always felt this comfortable with the putter.

His connection with Woods and Kisner through TGL gave him a chance to talk with two players who see putting in very different ways. Kisner has long been known as one of the better putters on Tour, while Woods has decades of experience dealing with different greens and pressure situations.

Morikawa did not make the conversation sound complicated, and that seems to be exactly why it helped him.

The American now has a real chance to finish the season with another title if that part of his game continues working over the weekend.

Morikawa has also dealt with back problems this year

The putting improvement comes during a season that has not been completely easy for Morikawa. The well-known golfer tried to change certain things in his game, but at one point it seemed that things simply were not going his way. That naturally brought frustration, but he still tried to give his best day after day.

He started 2026 very well by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then finished inside the top 10 at both The Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational, but things changed at THE PLAYERS Championship in March.

Morikawa was forced to withdraw after only one hole because of a back problem, something that clearly frustrated him after he had arrived at TPC Sawgrass playing good golf.

“I felt fine in warm-up,” Morikawa said at the time. “And teed it up on 11, and took one practice swing, and I just knew it was gone.”

He admitted that the feeling was familiar and that he immediately understood he could not swing properly through impact.

The physical problem continued to affect him mentally even after the pain became better. Morikawa later explained that he was worried the back could suddenly cause another problem during a full swing, which made it harder for him to completely trust his body.

He did not allow anything to shake him, and in fact, the serious challenges only gave him even more motivation.

He finished tied seventh at the Masters and followed that with another top-five result at the RBC Heritage, showing that he could continue competing even when he did not feel completely free with his swing.

Morikawa said after Friday’s round that his putting feels good, but he still wants to find more fairways before the final two rounds.

“I just have to find a few more fairways,” he said.

“When you can play out of the fairways on this golf course, you can score, and you can have some good wedge shots where it kind of stops on a dime.”

Morikawa will play the third round alongside Chris Gotterup, with Gerard and Hovland in the final pairing behind them. With only one shot separating him from the lead, the American enters the weekend with a real chance to win the Tour Championship if his putting continues to give him the same confidence.