CROMWELL, Conn. – Collin Morikawa stepped to the tee at TPC River Highlands’ par-3 16th hole Thursday … without a glove on … and striped a short iron to inside 5 feet.

If you noticed this, your eyes weren’t deceiving you. For the first time in his career, Morikawa hit shots in a competitive round without a glove – and he felt good about it.

Morikawa opened the Travelers Championship in 3-under 67, five off the early lead shared by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Austin Eckroat, a solid start to the season’s final Signature Event. His gloveless approach was borne in a range session Monday afternoon; trying to find a good feel for the week, he hit a few shots without a glove and felt something click. In his mind, he had been tugging too many shots of late – “I just kept missing 30 feet left,” he said. As one of the game’s preeminent iron players, that was no good.

“Look, we're crazy,” Morikawa said Thursday. “Honestly, we're crazy because we try a lot of things, but that's what makes us really good is we're trying to find the little things … Even though last week I think I was top-five or whatever in approach, it's like, I know I can get better and feel more comfortable. Even though it ends up close, it's a comfort factor of just being less stressed out there.”

(Perhaps the craziest part? Morikawa led the U.S. Open field in Strokes Gained: Approach – and still wanted more.)

So although Morikawa kept the glove on for his wedge shots Thursday at TPC River Highlands, he went gloveless for most of his mid-irons and long irons. He ranked a solid 16th of 72 players in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green in the first round at TPC River Highlands, and he made four birdies Thursday against just one bogey – the bogey was the product of an errant tee shot that required a punch-out that remained in the rough.

“Look, when it comes down to it, our hands are what makes us such good athletes and such good golfers is that we have so much feel,” Morikawa said. “For some reason when I've taken the glove off this week, it's kind of worked. It's just … problem is it's really hot and it's sweaty.

“But honestly, I started seeing shots that I was hitting, and even the bad ones were not good, but like that's kind of where I expect them to be … (No.) 16 was exactly how I am used to seeing shots. Obviously it doesn't have to be 5 feet, but just the curvature of the shot is what I was really, really happy to see about that.”

This doesn’t appear to be a common tactic on TOUR (but we’ll monitor the situation). Don’t expect Scheffler, for example, to try it anytime soon.

“I've tried to hit without my glove and I'm not any good at it,” Scheffler said afterward. “You definitely won't see me doing that. I've got sweaty hands, so that ain't going to work.”

How often will Morikawa employ this technique in the coming days and weeks? We’ll wait and see.

“It's very, very weird,” Morikawa added. “Trust me.”

PGA TOUR’s Sean Martin contributed to this report