Collin Morikawa savors full field at Masters, senses golf took pre-LIV life for granted

Collin Morikawa went through most of last season "guessing" whether he could execute any given golf shot and decided the only way forward was to return to the starting line. He's fairly confident LIV Golf and the PGA Tour could benefit from doing the same.

"It's really hard to do that, really hard to take two steps back. I don't think a lot of guys could admit they've taken two steps backwards," Morikawa said at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday. "And that's what I had to do. Start from the very basics of my golf game into college and say, 'What are the pieces we're going to, not rebuild, but just fit back together. Piece together and layer one on top of the other.' The only way to do that is to take two steps back."

Morikawa, the World No. 4, said he's excited to share the course with one-time Tour peers and top-ranked players who've jumped to LIV Golf for the first time since the Ryder Cup in Paris, and wondering if his peers took the harmony of professional golf for granted.

"I enjoy it. I think everyone enjoys it. All those guys were amazing to me. They still are. Look, I think the golf world enjoys seeing everyone playing together. I don't think anyone would say no to that," Morikawa said of sharing the Masters' field with Jon Rahm and others who've defected from the traditional circuit.

"It's amazing how much we take for granted ... in life, I think."

Asked what he meant by the ending statement, Morikawa continued: "You look back at whenever LIV started, this whole debacle started, back then when I first turned pro, no one really complained. Right? You just, we enjoyed it. But then this all happened.

"You take things for granted - you get my point? You look back and you're like, man, we had it pretty good. Everyone