Collin Morikawa is unfortunately familiar with wildfires devastating a place he knows and loves.
Morikawa, a native of La Canada in Los Angeles County, has roots on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where his grandfather once owned a restaurant in the town of Lahaina.
When Lahaina was hit by massive wildfires in 2023, Morikawa decided he’d donate $1,000 per birdie throughout the FedEx Cup Playoffs that year.
He’s bringing back that pledge at this week’s Genesis Invitational, which was moved from Los Angeles to San Diego due to last month’s fires in L.A. Morikawa pledged $1,000 per birdie and $2,000 per eagle (between his last tournament and the Genesis) to the California Community Foundation and the L.A. Fire Department Foundation.
“Just to kind of do a little bit of support and just create awareness,” Morikawa said Tuesday. “We’ve seen this too often. I think even with the most recent one for me that hit home was the Lahaina fires. Fires happen. People kind of forget and then you move on to the next cycle. I realize that’s how news and media works, but for how big of an impact Los Angeles has gone through with everything with the fires, you just have to keep creating awareness as much as you can.
“It’s amazing to help out in my little bit and, hopefully, we make a lot of birdies starting Thursday.”
Morikawa, 28, said Los Angeles has changed drastically since he was young and will continue to change, but it’s a place where a diverse group of people are currently helping one another and rallying together to rebuild.
“That’s what amazes me and that’s what makes me proud to be an Angeleno,” he said. “You see that and you’re like, wow, that’s true community right there. You see that a lot in small cities, smaller places around the country that always band together and you’re really proud to be from there.
“When things like the fires happen, the community comes together, people want to help out and that’s what you want to see. So it’s good to be from there. I’m very, very proud of it and I’ll always try to represent L.A. as best as I can.”
The fourth-ranked player in the world will make just his third start of the season following a runner-up finish at The Sentry and a T17 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He didn’t play the Farmers Insurance Open, while many in this week’s field got a preview of Torrey Pines that week that may help them this week at the relocated Genesis.
“I watched obviously a little bit of the Farmers and saw how firm and fast everything was and just assumed the rough was going to be growing out. They definitely did that this week,” Morikawa said.
“With the forecast, the weather, the rain, it’s going to play really tough. … Torrey Pines is already a very, very difficult golf course. I look forward to that. Just have a challenge in front of us.”
–Field Level Media
