Collin Morikawa’s 2026 season has got off to a great start and he continued his fine form by shooting an opening round of six-under-par 66 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday.

Morikawa has already won on the PGA Tour in 2026 after he returned to the winners’ circle at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February.

The 29-year-old was in scintillating form on Thursday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

In fact, Morikawa’s game was in great shape ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and he lived up to the high expectations he has set for himself this season on day one at Bay Hill.

Seven birdies and an eagle were accompanied by three bogeys and seven pars.

So it was not a typical Morikawa round, but he ended the day in second place, three shots adrift of the shock first-round leader, Daniel Berger.

And the two-time major champion’s fine form may well be down to the work he did on his body during the off-season.

Collin Morikawa explains why he had to fix his body

Morikawa spoke to reporters after he fired a 66 in Orlando on Thursday.

He was asked about any changes he made during the off-season, after he was so bullish about one change he made in late 2024 which he thought would help him eliminate the left side of the golf course.

“I think last year I had to believe that it was going to be the change that I needed, right, Morikawa admitted.

“Then until November, December when I said, screw it, like I’m going to put every ounce of my energy into fixing my body instead of trying to fix the golf swing.

“I’m going to fix, you know, fix the back, be healthy, get healthier, move better. Not that I was playing injured every single week, but there’s a difference of moving freely and not being scared of doing things.

“And compare, the last couple years, maybe dancing around other aspects of the body. So that was the biggest thing is now it feels like when I wake up and I go and warm-up I’m ready to go.

“Versus trying to get into it and hopefully, and hoping that the one swing thought is going to sync up with how the body’s moving.

“I’m really diligent with making sure the body’s in a great spot every morning to then say, okay, the same feels are being able to translate into the rest of the game.“

Collin Morikawa has learned from his 2025 form

The two-time major champion was asked by reporters how much his poor form in 2025 is still playing on his mind this year.

“Yeah, I’m never going to forget how I played last year. You don’t want to forget about it,“ Morikawa insisted.

“Like I still played solid. But you want to close out events. You don’t dwell on it. You learn from it, you move on, you live from it and that’s the biggest thing is, how do I take a lot of the good shots I had from last year — and this is a course, coming into last year, like I said yesterday, I think I had two missed cuts in a row.

“So you go into it saying, okay, maybe there is a way I can come out here and figure out the golf course and then plot my way around. It’s just nice to be able to continue that.

“Today I felt like I was kind of back and forth. Playing good golf, made some bogeys made some mistakes and to have that finish is a nice way to go into the next few days and say okay, how many days can we continue the good golf.“

Morikawa’s golf so far in 2026 has been like night and day from what he produced last year.

He has already found his way back into the winners’ circle, and after his round of 66 on day one at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he may well be victorious once again this week.