“I’m here to win majors”: Collin Morikawa shuns LIV series

Collin Morikawa insisted majors are more important than money as he insisted he doesn’t care who plays in a controversial breakaway league.

The LIV Invitational Series, backed by the Saudi government, has been gathering pace in recent weeks with as many as 15 of the top 100 players in the world requesting permission to play in its first event in June.

A significant part of the appeal of the Saudi-backed league is the money on offer, with June’s inaugural event set to break records for the richest event in golf history thanks to its $25 million purse.

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But Morikawa, who was previously critical of the Greg Norman-fronted plans, dismissed questions over whether his head could be turned.

“My alliance is to the PGA Tour,” he said.

“Will I still watch what’s going on? Yeah. You’re curious to what’s going on. But do I care who’s going to be playing or do I care who’s going to be making money? No, not at all.

“At the end of the day I’m here to win majors. I’m here to win PGA Tour tournaments, and hopefully return and defend my Race to Dubai title. There’s a lot of other things that are on my mind and a lot of goals that I set at the beginning of the year that I look forward to.”

“When it comes down to it, it’s just the love for the game,” the 25-year-old added.

“I think what the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have aligned themselves to do and what we’re going to be growing into is great. I’m not complaining about where I’m at right now, and I love the position where I’m at, and I want to keep winning more.

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“Obviously money is a great second part of it, but at the end of the day I didn’t finish The Open last year asking what I made.

“I could not tell you what I made last year at all. At the end of the day, I’m telling you about the memories of holding the Claret Jug and showing it to people and bringing it around town and showing it to family. Those are the memories you’re going to make, not hey, I made X amount of dollars; I’m good because of that.”

The big question in recent days has been the identity of those who have applied to play in the first LIV event at Centurion Club in London.

Phil Mickelson is so far the only confirmed applicant, although Louis Oosthuizen and Sergio Garcia have been widely reported as having done so. Others, including Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, have been openly courted by the venture.

However, Morikawa claimed he is none the wiser as to who has signed up.

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“We don’t know who they are, and we don’t know if they’re actually going to compete,” he said.

“At the end of the day nothing has been concrete, and that’s what I’ve said since day one is that nothing has been factual. Yes, people have signed up but that doesn’t mean they’re going to play. It just means that they wanted that option.

“There’s nothing against that, but at the end of the day we don’t know who’s going to be playing, and there’s nothing to talk about if we don’t know who’s going to be playing.”