When Collin Morikawa burst onto the scene, praise for his maturity was abundant.
During the 2020 Players Championship, Golf Digest published a feature headlined, “Collin Morikawa is the PGA Tour’s most polished 23-year-old.” In that piece, there’s an anecdote where Morikawa is waxing poetic about his caddie, J.J. Jakovac, who Morikawa parted ways with earlier this year, saying, “When I look back at the people he’s caddied for, it’s not like he’s bouncing around.”
Then, Morikawa caught himself mid-sentence, making sure he wasn’t being disparaging to bouncing around loopers.
“But I know caddie’s a tough job,” he said, “and day by day it can go by in a second.”
At the time, that was a perfectly on-brand reaction.
“[Morikawa’s] a robot,” Max Homa told Golf Digest in 2020. “I don’t know that there’s one thing that you could even knock about the guy. He is nice, he’s brilliant, he’s thoughtful, he keeps to himself when he needs to.”
But five years later, the tides might have turned.
Morikawa, now a two-time major winner, has had a series of contentious interactions with the media this year, one of which ironically stems from not talking to scribes.
Now he’s something he never was before: divisive.
Since winning the 2021 British Open, Morikawa hasn’t emulated the success he had early in his career. Despite currently being ranked fifth in the world, his only victory in the last four years is the 2023 Zozo Championship.
He nearly ended his drought by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year, but lost a three-stroke lead on the back nine and finished runner-up.
Afterward, he skipped his media obligations, causing people to raise an eyebrow. Two days later, in a presser ahead of the Players Championship, the former Cal Bear explained his stance.
“Just heated. Just pissed,” Morikawa said. “Like I don’t owe anyone anything. No offense to you guys, but for me in the moment of that time, I didn’t want to be around anyone. … Honestly, if it was an hour later, I would have talked to you guys, but an hour later I was on my way out of here.”
That created a firestorm.
“I mean, that is the dumbest, most selfish garbage you could ever say," Rocco Mediate said on his SiriusXM show. “[Arnold] Palmer would’ve hunted [Morikawa] down. Trust me on that one because Mr. Palmer told me one thing that stuck with me: ‘You know what, Rock, it’s real easy to go in and talk to somebody when you won or when you’ve played well, but can you do it when you don’t? That's the key.’ Obviously, he can’t.”
So three days later, Morikawa unpromptedly doubled down on the criticism.
“I might bite my tongue after saying this, but to the Brandel Chamblees, to the Paul McGinleys [of Golf Channel], to the Rocco Mediates of the world, I don’t regret anything I said,” Morikawa said.“It might have been a little bit harsh that I don’t owe anyone, but I don’t owe anyone.”
No doubt, flare-ups with reporters boost page views, but distrust of the press is detrimental to any sport.
Morikawa’s words stirred up a debate in the golf world. The general consensus was that the PGA Tour is an entertainment product, and talking after a tough loss is a way to show humanity to the fans. Not to mention, he collected $2.2 million for his second-place finish at Bay Hill. He can’t just say he’s disappointed and congratulate champion Russell Henley? That would have avoided this whole kerfuffle.
Eventually, the news cycle shifted to Rory McIlroy’s media boycott at the PGA Championship and Shane Lowry’s fierce exchange at the Masters, where he echoed Morikawa’s sentiment that players need more time to decompress after rounds before meeting the press, like in tennis.
Then at last week’s Rocket Classic, Morikawa put himself under the microscope again.
The 28-year-old split with his new caddie Joe Greiner after only five events together. Now, Morikawa is looking for his third caddie this season (which seems out of character based on his comments in 2020 about Jakovac). Looking to confirm the news, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak approached Morikawa during the pro-am, but Morikawa told him, “Ask me anything you want in my press conference later. I’m with my pro-am partners now.”
Then, at the podium, Morikawa chastised the reporter for printing that quote, believing it painted him in a bad light.
“I’m not here to tell people how to do their jobs,” Morikawa said, “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. Those guys are paying a lot of money.”
He added: “You can write whatever you want, this is America, but don’t put me down like that because it’s two and a half hours.”
When the reporter explained his intent was to give credit for respecting his pro-am partners, Morikawa replied, “We can all read it very differently.”
The spat went viral, and the next day the six-time Tour winner was asked why he didn’t mince his words.
“This whole idea that I don’t [respect the media],” Morikawa said, “I mean, I’ve looked up how many times I’ve finished second, it’s not once.
“You know, I think for me to—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 … but this whole perception out there right now is just, it’s a little ridiculous.”
It’s worth noting that after finishing T8, he accepted every interview request and signed autographs for everyone before departing Detroit Golf Club.
But his recent tiffs have people questioning who the real Morikawa is: the robot or the antagonist?
There can be nuance in this discussion. As a top player in the world, constantly answering questions can be exhausting. And as much as the media tries to get inside players’s heads, maybe only those closest to them truly know who they are.
One thing’s certain, though. Five years ago, a story like this about Morikawa would have been surprising.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Collin Morikawa Is Making Himself Heard, for Better or Worse.
