Collin Morikawa hit a cool left-handed chip in Scottish Open, and it wasn't a fluke

It was one of those cool golf shots that only the pros can pull off. Collin Morikawa had one on Friday in second round of the Genesis Scottish Open, and the fact he had a fun back story for it made it all the better.

As we all know, with slopes and pot bunkers on the links courses across the pond unlike most in America, the predicaments players find themselves in can be both comical and seemingly impossible. Morikawa had one of those in North Berwick when his ball came to rest just behind a bunker, and there was no way to take a right-handed stance. So, the 2021 British Open champion flipped over his club to play left-handed, the tip of his blade touching the ground, and Morikawa struck a deft chip that rolled about six feet past the hole.

It'd be nice to report that he made a par save, but Morikawa missed the putt, though still shot 66 to go into the weekend tied for fifth.

Sure, the lefty shot probably wasn’t up to Phil Mickelson’s standards, but Morikawa looked like he knew what he was doing. And there’s a good reason for that. He said that in May he asked TaylorMade for a left-handed 8-iron and began working on his shots from the opposite side to feel more comfortable with them.

“We all say we’re going to do certain things and we never actually do it,” Morikawa said after the round. “Everyone always talks about how much we swing one way. Literally, we all swing right-handed, or whatever way you swing. If I spend five minutes a day when I’m at home swinging left-handed, it can’t hurt. I’m not trying to be the best at it. I’m just trying to make contact. I’ve seen some decent ones. I’m not awful.”

Morikawa said he took the lefty iron to Tiger Jam this year, and “Tiger [Woods] actually hit it. We were both screwing around with it.”

“It’s just the complete opposite of what you think of,” Morikawa explained of the learning process. “For me, it comes so natural to hit right-handed, obviously. And when you switch the other way, I have no idea where the clubface is. I don’t know what kind of swing I’m trying to produce. Honestly, I don’t think I bow [my wrist] at all, which is really weird."

The process hardly matters if you pull off the shot.

“I don’t know if I should or shouldn’t. But it’s just nice to get the body out of the way," Morikawa said. "Did it help on the shot? Maybe five percent.”