Collin Morikawa: In The Bag of the new Open champion

Collin Morikawa has just won The Open Championship on debut - just as he did as the US PGA in August last year - so it's probably a good time for us to delve deep into his incredibly hot TaylorMade bag. 

Morikawa, 24, becomes the first player in the men's game to win two majors on their debut. 

REPORT: COLLIN MORIKAWA WINS THE OPEN

The newly-promoted World No.3 carded a flawless final-round 66 at Royal St George's to tally 15-under par and see out a two-shot victory over compatriot and 2017 Open champion Jordan Spieth.

The victory marks Morikawa's second major in less than 12 months and he becomes just one of six players to win The Open on debut in the last 100 years and 10th in total. 

Morikawa brought his A-game to Sandwich, splitting fairways and peppering pins with regularity and draining putts with ease - and he did it all with his trusted TaylorMade clubs.

The five-time PGA Tour winner made a significant change to his iron set up this week following his first links experience the week prior at the Scottish Open and it clearly paid off.

Working with TaylorMade's Adrian Rietveld, Morikawa was looking to improve his centre strike on his mid and short irons on the firmer and tighter links turf.

"As the question came through to me from Collin, I just told him I needed to think about it," said TaylorMade's Sports Marketing Rep Adrian Rietveld.

"He’s just that type of guy that nothing is going to change unless there’s an out-and-out reason to change, and he just felt as if he was mis-hitting his irons, but he couldn’t understand why."

Prior to this week, Morikawa had a P series combo set consisting of P770 4 iron, P7MC 5-6 and then P730 7-PW.

After some discussion and watching Morikawa go through his warm up routine, Rietveld noticed the issue could be in the transition from his 6 iron (P7MC) to his 7 iron (P730) due to the different sole geometry of the two models.

"It was interesting, as he was warming up, the sound off the P730 was not Collin-like," said Rietveld.

"It’s unique to say this, but it was just fractionally different to what I’m used to hearing. Then he goes into the P7MC and you can hear the strike come back."

Rietveld added: "Let’s say a 7-iron spins at 7,000 RPMs and launches at 14 to 15 degrees, then when he hits the draw, which is a slightly lower window, he’d probably spin the P7MC about 6,600 RPMs.

"But with the P730, he was at 6,200 to 6,300 RPMs, which was too hot in the air. The spin in the P7MC was aiding his distance control. That’s something he really needs to know."

Morikawa said: "I changed my irons, my 9 through 7 iron that I normally have blades in. I changed to the P7MCs strictly because I couldn't find the centre of the face.

"I was hitting these iron shots last week at the Scottish Open that I just normally don't and my swing felt good, but it was a huge learning opportunity."

Another significant change that Morikawa made on the eve of the Open Championship was adding weight to his TP Juno.

Playing on the PGA TOUR's faster greens all year, when Collin arrived at the Scottish Open the week before, he struggled to get the ball to the hole on the slower links greens.

Again, working with Rietveld, Collin switched the weights in his TP Juno from 2.5 gram heel and toe (5 gram total), to the heavier 7.5 gram heel and toe weights adding a combined 10 grams total.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: WHAT'S IN THE BAG

DRIVER: TAYLORMADE SIM (8 DEGREES)

FAIRWAY WOODS: TAYLORMADE SIM (14 DEGREES), SIM2 (19 DEGREES)

IRONS: TAYLORMADE P770 (4), P7MC (5-9), P730 (PW)

WEDGES: TAYLORMADE MG2 (50 DEGREES), TITLEIST VOKEY SM8 (56 DEGREES), TAYLORMADE HI-TOE (60 DEGREES) 

PUTTER: TAYLORMADE TP JUNO

BALL: TAYLORMADE TP5 2021

APPAREL & FOOTWEAR: ADIDAS GOLF