‘It Wasn’t An Easy Talk’ - Collin Morikawa Opens Up On Surprise Caddie Switch

Two-time Major champion Collin Morikawa has explained the thinking behind his switch from long-term caddie JJ Jakovac to Joe Greiner.

After a successful six-year partnership with Jakovac that included Major victories at the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open, Morikawa split with his regular bagman.

Instead, Morikawa made the switch to Max Homa's former caddie Greiner, who recently helped Justin Thomas claim his first victory since the 2022 PGA Championship at the RBC Heritage.

The move, first reported by Colt Knost on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, was something of a surprise with Morikawa in decent form this year despite not yet picking up a win.

But, speaking to Dan Rapaport's 'Dan On Golf Show' he said the decision was more than just about simple results and more down to just a feeling that a change was needed.

"Firstly, it doesn't take anything away from what JJ and I have done over the last six years, but sometimes things just aren't feeling right," Morikawa told Rapaport.

"I think when people look at it in the macro perspective of 'OK, Collin's playing great, he's contending, he's trying to close out tournaments'.

"Even at the beginning of the year everything looked very, very good, but sometimes, on the golf course things just don't feel right."

Morikawa hopes Jakovac will get plenty of interest in his services after helping him to such success at the start of his career.

"It wasn't an easy talk and I hope all the best for him," Morikawa added. "I hope guys are lining up for him because, look, if you look at his resume, if you look at what we've done just simply over the past six years it's incredible."

Greiner, who split from Homa at the start of April, began caddying for Justin Thomas temporarily after his full-time bagman, Matt Minister, sustained a back injury.

He stepped in at the last minute at Augusta National to help Thomas to a T36 finish at The Masters before then seeing his long-awaited victory at Harbour Town.

And Morikawa is looking forward to getting started with his new looper having already talked to him about their partnership.

"For me, what I've seen with Joe, he's someone who wants to continue to learn and get better," he added. "We've already talked numerous times on how we're going to get started.

"He's a great caddie, he's one of the best out there, obviously what he did with JT. Sometimes when you have a new caddie it frees people up and obviously it helped JT for those two events."