PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Collin Morikawa had made it through his 5-hour round plus 5 minutes and 30 seconds of media Friday before he spotted an opportunity and said, “I just want to add one more thing.”
After admitting Tuesday that he reads a lot of golf coverage, Morikawa proved it Friday, responding to criticism from Brandel Chamblee and Rocco Mediate, and doubling down on his belief that he doesn’t “owe anyone anything.” That includes speaking with media directly after a defeat.
If you’re just catching up, on Sunday Morikawa finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational behind Russell Henley. After what was a stinging defeat, he declined to speak with the media.
On Tuesday, Morikawa answered question after question for 20 minutes in his Players Championship press conference, many of them about that Sunday defeat. He was happy to answer them at that point and in a much better mood. When asked why he didn’t explain his feelings Sunday night, Morikawa said, “Yeah, just heated. Just pissed. 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. Like, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t need any sorries. I didn’t need any ‘good playings.’ Like, you’re just pissed.”
He added that if he’d had an hour or so to blow off steam, he would have felt differently, but in the moment he didn’t want to talk to anyone, and he thinks it’s fair to decline interviews in those moments. Chamblee, Mediate and Paul McGinley — all hailing from a different pro-golf generation than Morikawa — all disagree.
Mediate spoke out on Morikawa via Sirius XM radio show, calling it the “Biggest bunch of horses—t you could ever say, period. I mean, that is the dumbest, most selfish garbage you could ever say.”
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Mediate invoked the tournament’s namesake, positing that Arnold Palmer would have taken issue with Morikawa’s actions. Chamblee, while speaking on Golf Channel’s Live From the Players, said that Morikawa’s media-ducking isn’t just robbing the press of information, but the fans, sponsors and “entire ecosystem of golf,” too. Chamblee called to mind other more crushing defeats than Morikawa’s and how certain players gathered themselves to share “the humanity of losing.”
Finally, McGinley cited a belief that modern players are earning a reputation of greed with their actions, adding “I don’t know if history is going to reflect back on this generation of players as being good for the game.”
Morikawa seemed to have heard all of it.
“I might bite my tongue after saying this,” he began Friday at Sawgrass, “but to the Brandel Chamblees, to the Paul McGinleys, to the Rocco Mediates of the world — I don’t regret anything I said. You know, it might have been a little bit harsh that I don’t owe anyone, but I don’t owe anyone.”
Morikawa spoke straight into the lens of the press conference camera, as if he sensed Chamblee, Mediate and McGinley were looking back at him from the other side.
“I respect the fans,” Morikawa continued. “I’m very thankful for them. I’m grateful. It makes me emotional, but it’s just — it hurts to hear people say this, and especially you guys, because I finished the round and I went to go sign for 10 minutes, 15 minutes for all the people after. Not a single person from media went to go follow me because, I don’t know. But that’s me.”
Morikawa appears to be irked that the narrative was he stormed out of Bay Hill. Instead, he says, he stayed and signed autographs before heading out of Orlando.
“So for people to be calling me out — it’s interesting,” he said. “It just, it doesn’t show anything. I mean, I get what you guys are saying. But I was there. I was signing for every single person right after the round, whether they wanted it or not. I finished second. They could care less. But yeah, I’m going to leave it at that, all right? So thank you guys.”
With that, he was off. Morikawa shot 65 in the second round, finishing nine under through 36 holes and as of this writing was just two shots back of the lead at the Players.