PGA Tour star Collin Morikawa confirms shock split ahead of Rocket Classic

Collin Morikawa has split with caddie Joe Greiner ahead of this week's Rocket Classic on the PGA Tour.

Morikawa, who starts tournament favourite at odds of 14/1, has today called time on his short stint with Max Homa's former long-time looper Greiner.

Two-time major champion Morikawa picked up Greiner after splitting with the only previous caddie of his PGA Tour career, JJ Jakovac, after The Masters in late April. 

Greiner left Homa's bag in March, and then stepped in for Justin Thomas when his caddie Matt Minister went down injured, and he helped him win the RBC Heritage. 

Two weeks later, Greiner joined Morikawa's bag at the Truist Championship.

Morikawa and Greiner teamed up for five events on the PGA Tour before calling time on their short partnership ahead of this week's event at Detroit Golf Club.

Morikawa first confirmed the news to Golfweek's Adam Schupak ahead of Thursday's first round of the Rocket Classic.

He later admitted during his press conference that he was left unimpressed by the way Schupak approached him for comment about the subject while he was playing in Wednesday morning's pro-am. 

Morikawa confirmed during his press conference that he split with Joe simply because they saw things differently on the course.

Here's what Morikawa said:

"I think Joe is an amazing caddie, but I think just the way we kind of saw things or just day to day how we kind of went about it, we were just a little bit on a different page. That doesn't mean it's right or wrong, but for me it just didn't feel right. I have to explore other options. I knew that coming in. I knew it was going to be a great start and it was going to be a fun thing for me to test out that I knew I put myself in, but at the end of the day you don't know how you're going to be, because we spend more time with them than anyone else in the world honestly. I spend more time with them than my wife sometimes. It's a true relationship. Look, I wish J.J. and Joe all the best, but for right now it just felt like I needed a fill-in. Got my buddy on the bag who played Berkeley with me who's actually still on the Korn Ferry, so I appreciate him doing that and we're going to go out and have a blast."

Despite starting tournament favourite this week, Morikawa has slipped from fourth to fifth in the world rankings this month and has registered just two top-20 finishes in his last five starts.

Not disastrous form, but Morikawa remains winless now in 20 months. 

As Morikawa mentions above, he has elected to get his good friend KK Limbhasut on his bag at the Rocket Classic.

Limbhasut is Morikawa's former colleague teammate at California. 

He will only be caddying for Morikawa this week though.

Limbhasut plays golf on the Korn Ferry Tour. 

He has played in five tournaments this season on conditional status.

Despite making all five cuts, he is ranked 159th on the points list. 

It remains to be seen who will pick up Morikawa's bag on a full-time basis. 

Morikawa will be looking for a solid replacement, especially with the Scottish Open and The Open on the horizon.

He is also likely assured of a place on the US Ryder Cup team, but will want to pick up his form to leave nothing to chance.

Morikawa ranks one spot outside of the automatic top six in the US Ryder Cup standings at the moment. 

He will be looking to pick up the pace at this week's Rocket Classic, where he lost in a playoff to Rickie Fowler in 2023.

That was his sole start in this event. 

Morikawa is one of our three picks for the W this week. 

Check out our golf betting tips the Rocket Classic.