Welcome to Status Update — a free Friday newsletter featuring long and short stories, general ramblings from the week that was, the most interesting things to have recently caught my eye and any other golf-related nonsense I believe to be worth your time.
The Opening Drive
Hey guys, it’s been a couple weeks. That one is on me as the traveling bug and Players Championship plague got the best of me. Safe to say we have missed a lot in our time apart.
Rory McIlroy won the Players Championship (media members age 30-50 rejoice everywhere). My man, Russell Henley, won the Arnold Palmer Invitational (I am still rejoicing). And members of the PGA Tour hate the media!
Now we are talking.
For those not in the know, Collin Morikawa skipped his media obligations following his loss at the Arnold Palmer Invitational a couple weeks ago. Rocco Mediate blasted him. Brandel Chamblee blasted him. Paul McGinley blasted him. Long story short…he got blasted.
Morikawa was none too pleased about this because he is someone who prides himself on having a squeaky clean image. From the little time I have spent with him coupled with interviews and press conferences, he seems to be someone who believes he has the utmost self awareness. He knows how he comes across.
There is great irony in both those sentences.
The two-time major champion held a pre-tournament press conference last week where he fielded questions about his Arnold Palmer Invitational defeat (kudos to him for finally facing the music). During his time up on the stand, he proceeded to say he did not owe anyone anything (mainly the media in this context).
Morikawa let out a little laugh after his comments. Most — even those in the room — believed it was because it was light-hearted and innocent. I took it as an awkward laugh because he was actually telling the truth and was trying to break the tension.
Well, a couple days later the truth did come out. Morikawa stepped onto his soapbox, doubled down and looked directly into the camera to deliver the cringiest monologue in recent memory. He was shocked by the outburst by the media — all three of whom are former players, mind you — and could not believe the media did not follow him to the autograph zone following the completion of play at Bay Hill.
Sources say they were at the winner’s press conference. Zing!
People were up in arms about it and still even trickling into the week. Where I originally stood was a place of simplicity.
I generally do not care what Collin Morikawa does. His words or actions will have little effect on my life. He is a grown man. He can make his decisions. He can be upset and cry when the outcome is not what was expected. It’s only himself that he is hurting.
And for the record, it wasn’t just Morikawa whining. It was Rory. It was even Scottie to an extent which led to a wider #DISCUSSION.
I mean we have Max Homa tossing 80s out there like they are Jamie Moyer fastballs and he still does interviews and little post-round meet ups. It’s commendable. It’s easy to respect someone like that, and it’s easy to root for someone like that.
But I did leave TPC Sawgrass thinking, damn, are these guys really this soft? Or are we really that annoying?
And I use the term “we” very loosely. I operate in a perpetual gray area — you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING!
Where was I? Oh, yes, my line of thought. I was transfixed on this conundrum, read numerous articles from media members about it and was still shaking my head.
Are these really necessary? I thought. Is it necessary that I drink my own… ahh nevermind. FOCUS!
Then Wednesday happened, and I got a much better understanding of the player perspective.
Two days ago, Augusta National Golf Club held its annual pre-Masters virtual press conference with the defending champion. This year that is Scheffler. The two-time champion revealed his champions dinner menu and fielded questions from the media for 30 minutes while wearing the green jacket at his kitchen table.
I had my question ready to go, but admittedly I took about 10 minutes to figure out the “raise hand” feature on Zoom and by then I was last in a very long line.
While I was trying to decipher the DaVinci Code, Scheffler was stuck answering some terrible questions (and some good ones, don’t get me wrong). I couldn’t believe some of them. I had to make a notable effort to keep a straight face and not react since my camera was on.
Fun fact: My senior consultant my first year at Deloitte told me that I was horrible at hiding my thoughts via my facial expressions. I think that still rings true today.
The questions kept rolling in. We are still asking about LIV Golf? We are asking what he thinks of his betting odds? We are still asking about his menu that is nearly identical to his last? We are still asking about his menu that is nearly identical to his last? Sorry, I wrote that sentence twice. It felt necessary since it was asked about five times. We are asking about something that didn’t even happen?
“Oops, I was thinking about something else.” Come on!
I was steaming! We have the world No. 1 right in front of us, people. Uninterrupted! The defending champ! Argh! And to make matters worse when the 30-minute window closed, I was left with my left hand up like I was a Commies fan.
I technically was this postseason but that is neither here nor there.
Nothing notable came out of the press conference, but the aggregators did their jobs and started aggregating the transcripts. They chose to highlight Scheffler’s quote about members of LIV Golf that was a throw-away comment at best and it made its rounds thanks to the boys and girls at NUCLR and ZIRE who I have chosen to block, and you should too.
#DISCUSSION 🚨
If I’m Scheffler I’m probably a little irked by some of the questions and I am probably a little more than a little irked by that quote getting blasted everywhere. Everyone is getting blasted it seems.
Scheffler doesn’t have time to discern between serious journalists, legacy media, independent outlets, podcasters, dumbasses (oh crap, my hand is still raised!!!) and social media pages, so he probably buckets it all into one. I’m sure he is not alone either.
So all of this to say is I see where the players come from. Some questions stink. Some accounts are purely clickbait and it may be hard to sift through all those for the actual golden nuggets.
As for what to make of this ordeal or what needs to be done, I actually think it is quite simple. Everyone just needs to be better.
Media needs to do their homework, come prepared and ask good questions that make players think. Fans — yes, you — need to not give those accounts a platform #BLOCKED 😳. Players need to realize if you’re good with the media — in good times and bad — not only does the outlet benefit, not only do the fans benefit, but most of all, you benefit.
Quote of the week
“JFK files this. JFK files that. Can someone tell me what the hell happened to Patrick Reed’s Porsche?”