The 25-year-old lifted the Claret Jug on his Open debut at Royal St George’s last year. The week before, the American finished in a tie for 71st at The Renaissance Club, North Berwick. “The plan is absolutely to come back and play the Scottish Open,” said world number three Morikawa. “I owe a lot to that tournament for getting me ready and actually making me realize that I needed to change some irons. “Those two weeks last year my game was in some of the best shape I could have had then at the Scottish I started hitting irons shots, nine irons to 45 feet, missing greens and it was just frustrating. “I wanted to blame it on my clubs and rarely that’s the case, but I really did and stuck with it, I made some changes at Royal St George’s on the Monday and ended up winning. “The R&A have announced this years 150th Open Championship at St Andrews will have a record crowd, with 290,000 tickets sold for the event. Morikawa, who has never played at the famous Fife course, is relishing playing to packed galleries in Scotland after his success on the Kent coast. “The fans make everything,” he said. “We go back a couple of years and Covid came by and it was getting a little bland. “We love playing golf, but the energy of the fans brings out the best in us.”When it comes to St Andrews, there is obviously the history and everything it represents. People ask me if I’m going to go over early or take a couple trips. I really have never done that for any majors. “I need to go out there Monday through Wednesday and do my normal work. I can’t play it like people have played it in the past. We don’t know what the weather is going to be like. We don’t know what the little changes might be in front of us.”In the long run, I just have to be prepared and know how I’m going to prepare now for links golf. I think having an experience of a year ago, I’m going to be able to kind of adjust a little quicker than I did last year. “Last year I took a lot of risks, changing some irons, changing a little bit in the putter set up. But I think I’ll be a little more prepared this year to just be out there and ready to figure out how to dissect this golf course to the best of my abilities.”

COURTESY