Morikawa remains miffed with media
Frustrated major winner has conjured petty controversies; Garcia ekes into Open
A frustrated Collin Morikawa has been quick to spar with the media (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Collin Morikawa’s frustrations this year are understandable. He’s too good of a player to go so long between victories, his last in 2023. He’s twice since April made caddie switches. He’s gone back to his old coach. And he’s gotten into a couple of needless squabbles with the media.
The latest occurred at the Rocket Classic last week after it was learned that he had switched away from caddie Joe Greiner, whom he’d only hired several months prior after parting ways with long-time caddie J.J. Jokovic.
The issue wasn’t the caddie switch but his feeing that Golfweek’s Adam Schupak had made him look bad because Morikawa was unwilling to give him any substantive info about the switch when asked about it during the Rocket Classic pro-am. Schupak had confirmed the switch with the caddie and with Morikawa but looked to get a bit more from the player while walking in the pro-am. Morikawa said he’d talk to him at his scheduled news conference later that day, information that the reporter included in his story.
It should have ended there. But when asked about the caddie switch during his news conference, Morikawa called out Schupak.
“I read your article that you wrote,” Morikawa said. “Look, I’m not here to tell people how to do their jobs, but I don’t get why you would make me sound bad because you put out my quote that I was playing with pro-am partners out front.”
Morikawa said he wanted to give all his attention to his pro-am partners. Fair enough. But it’s also fair that reporters sometimes get time with players during a pro-am when they’re allowed to walk inside the ropes. It was pretty mundane stuff. Schupak simply included in an internet story that he would be updating that the golfer preferred to wait. Morikawa took it wrong. And it blew up.
Instead of letting it go, Morikawa doubled down on it the next day the same way he doubled down on his “I don’t owe [the media] anything” battle in the days after not speaking after his runner-up finish in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“I have to stand up for myself because I’m not going to let someone throw little jabs at me and just make me into someone I’m not because I know who I am and that’s all that matters,” Morikawa said after the first round in Detroit. “I know my people, my team, my family know who I am, but this whole perception out there right now is just, it’s a little ridiculous. Granted, you know, we’ve seen a few players do it as well, but that’s not who I am. I am here for you guys, but it’s just, you know, did it one time and so be it.”
It was all so unnecessary. Morikawa turned a nothing issue into a story for two days and reminded everyone of his mini dust-up in March at the Players Championship in the wake of not talking to the media after letting a back-nine lead slip away to Russell Henley at Bay Hill.
Two days later before the Players, he opened a vein and explained his frustrations. Nobody was taking him to task for what occurred on the Sunday but he let drop a line — “I don’t owe you guys anything” — that didn’t go over well.
A story that would have ended there suddenly had legs. The talking heads, including Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley on the Golf Channel, were all over Morikawa for the remarks. While there is no PGA Tour requirement for players to speak to the media — as Rory McIlroy has made abundantly clear — there is a perceived obligation, especially for runner-ups or players of Morikawa’s stature.
Still, it happens. And everyone would have moved on. Instead, Morikawa made more of it a few days later, bringing the issue up unprompted and causing more attention to be brought to an issue that most in the media had already moved past.
Morikawa tied for eighth on Sunday in the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club, where Aldrich Potgieter prevailed in a five-hole sudden-death playoff over Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk. The two-time major winner has not won since the fall of 2023 at the Zozo Championship. It’s a sign of his consistency that he remains ranked No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking despite not winning for more than 18 months.
Clearly, however, he’s frustrated. Before the Sunday result, Morikawa had not been among the top 10 since he tied for 10th at the Players the week after finishing second at the Arnold Palmer. So maybe these media dust-ups are elevating his play.
“I’ve been so focused on hitting my irons better that I haven’t put enough honestly time into putting,” Morikawa said after the first round in Detroit, adding “I’ve been putting like a blind man.
“The last couple weeks haven’t been great, but they haven’t felt as bad. Today was just, you know, nothing starting online, and that’s tough when your speed’s a little bit off, not starting online. You’re just essentially wishing, and not ideal for a course like this where you’ve got to take it low.”
Morikawa played well enough to get into the top 10 using a friend for his caddie. He’s got another decision to make on who to bring on for his next tournament at the Genesis Scottish Open the week before the Open at Royal Portrush.
Sergio Garcia held on to his top-five LIV standing to gain Open berth (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)
Sergio backs into LIV’s Open invite
Sergio Garcia is safely through the back door for next month’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush — no thanks to anything he’s done since before the Masters.
Despite not banking a single point since LIV Golf Miami at Doral in early April, Garcia held onto a top-five position in the LIV Golf season standings and thus earned LIV Golf’s exemption into the Open Championship. The four players ahead of Garcia in the standings are already qualified for the Open, leaving the exemption to the 45-year-old Spaniard as the only player not previously qualified among the top five.
Garcia admitted Sunday that he was fortunate to be getting LIV Golf’s exemption. He hung onto fifth spot after Patrick Reed moved passed him following his playoff victory.
“It’s one of the goals that you have at the beginning of the year, to try to play as many majors as you can with the limitations that we get,” Garcia said. “I didn’t help myself very much the last three months, but I’m glad that I got enough work done in the first third of the year, I guess, in the first part of the season. I’m excited about it, and hopefully I’ll play well.”
Before the final round, Garcia’s edge in the season standings over fellow Spaniard and Fireballs teammate David Puig was down to less than three points.
Puig started Sunday’s final round in Dallas tied for fourth while Garcia was outside the points in a tie for 37th. A victory by Puig would have netted him 40 points in the individual standings, easily vaulting him past Garcia. Puig could have still secured the exemption by finishing solo fourth (18 points) or better if Garcia placed outside the points (top 24). Garcia started the week 17.90 points ahead of Puig in the standings.
But Puig opened his final round with a quadruple-bogey 8 and fell back into an eventual tie for 13th, which wasn’t good enough. Garcia shot 2-under 70 Sunday to finish outside the points at T25 but hung onto his top-five spot in the standings despite not registering a top-24 finish or any points in his fourth straight LIV start (50, T42, T38 and T25). He was passed in the standings by LIV Dallas winner Reed, who like the top three of Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm is already qualified for the Open.
Puig was one of 17 LIV players originally scheduled to take part in 36-hole qualifying on Tuesday at one of the four final qualifying sites for the Open. Several have already withdrawn, but Puig is listed in the Royal Cinque Ports field along with Graeme McDowell, who is attempting to earn a trip to his hometown of Portrush, Northern Ireland.
When first congratulated after the tournament for reaching the Open, Garcia was cautious: “I want to make sure that it is true,” he said.
Told it was confirmed, Garcia was pleased to get the chance to play his first Open since 2022 — just over a month after joining LIV.
“It’s going to be my second time playing at Royal Portrush, and it’s obviously nice,” said Garcia, who played in 24 consecutive Opens from 1998-2022.
Despite his under-par finish in tough conditions Sunday, Garcia’s recent form has reflected the pressure to try to hang on for an Open spot.
“It’s been tough because I feel like I played a little bit better this week than I have been in the last couple of months,” he said. “But both of my first rounds I finished terrible. I bogeyed three out of the last four in the first round, and I shot 6-over in the last seven holes yesterday. So obviously I knew that I was putting myself in a tough spot, and this course is not playing easy, but I was able to play a little bit better today. Drove the ball better, hit a few more greens, and I was able to make a couple putts here and there that were important.”
Garcia will play the next four consecutive weeks including the Open directly on the heels of Dallas — BMW International Open on the DP World Tour, LIV Golf Andalucía (Valderrama), British Open and LIV Golf UK (JCB G&CC).
“So it’s a big stretch, but thankfully I’m doing well physically, even at my age, and hopefully I’ll be able to get through the five weeks well,” he said.