Collin Morikawa is arguably the best iron player in the world right now, with the American topping the charts in a number of iron approach statistics. However, at the Valspar Championship (opens in new tab), Morikawa himself revealed that there is one player who he believes is better than him in that department.
"To me, I still think Tiger has the best iron game," explained Morikawa (opens in new tab) at his press conference on Wednesday. "Like, even now. Like, I haven't seen him hit a ball for a while, but when we had our TaylorMade shoots, you would see him out there and I'd talk to him and we did a little 10-minute video of watching him hit irons, it is amazing."
Morikawa and Woods walk up the fairway
The 25-year-old went on to add that Tiger: "Just hit every shot on command. I mean, it was, and I can go out with some buddies or go out in a pro-am like this and tell them, oh, I'm going to hit this shot, right? But you could tell that he knew exactly what he was going to do and he came out exactly in the same window and it was so simple.
"Like, we want to make it that simple, but sometimes, for me, cut shot comes easier than a draw. I'm working to hit that draw probably a little more than he's working to hit the draw. It was just so efficient. It was so easy. And that's how you want to make golf."
Tiger made a return to golf at the 2021 PNC Championship following a serious car crash in February 2021
Along with Tiger, Morikawa also praised Justin Thomas' (opens in new tab) iron game, with the original question from a reporter actually mentioning the fact that "Thomas and Morikawa are the two best iron players in golf right now."
"I mean, look, JT's iron game I've loved and I've admired," said Morikawa. "But do I think he's better? I mean, I still think when my iron game's on, like, it's better than everyone. It would be bad for me to think otherwise because then I'm showing up to these events thinking, okay, I've got to do everything so perfect. I still think I can play an okay game and still get away with it and possibly win."
If Morikawa were to win this week then he would actually jump to the top of the world rankings. (opens in new tab) However, Viktor Hovland could leapfrog Morikawa and current world number 1, Jon Rahm, into the top position if he were to win at the Valspar Championship this weekend.
