6x PGA Tour winner RIPS Collin Morikawa for not speaking with media after loss at Arnold Palmer Invitational

Collin Morikawa had a 3-shot lead in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational but still ended up losing the event.

6x PGA Tour winner RIPS Collin Morikawa for not speaking with media after loss at Arnold Palmer Invitational

Collin Morikawa (Image via MSN)

Last Saturday, Collin Morikawa headed to the locker room as the solo leader of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Despite having a 3 shot lead on Sunday, the golfer was not able to finish the job and lost the event. After that, he refused to speak to the media which has led to a 6-time PGA Tour winner blasting him.

Morikawa was leading the pack and had a 3-stroke lead after the front nine. Even after a bogey-par-birdie to start the back nine, he was still leading. He then proceeded to make a bogey on the par-3 14th hole.

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Russell Henley would turn the tournament around after a chip-in eagle at the 16th hole. This saw him go from even par to 2-under for the event, and overtook Morikawa as the leader of the event. He would make even pars on both 17th and the 18th hole.

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Morikawa, on the other hand was unable to make any more birdies and finished the event 1 stroke behind Henley and lost the title. Following this loss, the 2-time major champion refused to speak to the media and headed straight out. At the Players Championship press conference, the 28-year-old did admit that he was “pissed” about the loss and thus decided not to show up.

A PGA Tour veteran, Rocco Mediate, was not pleased with this actions from Morikawa. While speaking on the Sirius XM PGA Tour radio, he ripped into Morikawa.

Biggest bunch of horses**** you could ever say, period. I mean, that is the dumbest, most selfish garbage you could ever say… Your job is to tell people what happened… He said, ‘I don’t owe anybody anything.’ Actually, he does. The people that are watching. The reporters that bust their a** to write stories about our sorry a****. And I get this s***? No, pathetic.

Rocco Mediate said on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio

Mediate also claimed that if Arnold Palmer had been alive, he would have grabbed Morikawa to the side and spoken with him regarding this behavior. The 7-time major champion, who passed away in 2016, would shake hands with the winner after the final putt dropped. As per Mediate, he would have “hunted” down Morikawa for his loss.

Collin Morikawa addressed his loss at Arnold Palmer Invitational on social media

Collin Morikawa was looking for this first triumph on the PGA Tour since 2023. His last win came at the Zozo Championship that year. Since then, there had been some up and downs for the 2-time major champion. After the heartbreaking loss, he refused to address the media and left the course early. He though did address his loss on social media.

Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa (Image via X)

Taking to his Instagram account, the golfer shared an image of him and dropped a 15-word message. During this he admitted that this defeat “stings” for him.

No excuses. Never had any, but always a nice reminder. Honestly though, this one stings.

Collin Morikawa on Instagram

This was not the first time in recent years that Morikawa had led a huge lead slip by. At The Sentry of Champions in 2023, he was leading the event at by 6 shots.

In the final round, he would struggle once again and carded a score of 1-under 72 with three consecutive bogeys. Meanwhile, Jon Rahm fired a 10-under 63 score to overtake him and win the event. He had also lost the Hero World Challenge in 2021 to Viktor Hovland after leading the event by 5 strokes at one stage.

Collin Morikawa suggests stricter penalties to tackle slow pace-of-play problem

A major issue that the PGA Tour is currently facing is the slow pace-of-play. To tackle this, the tour is looking to introduce some fines. Collin Morikawa has suggested for much stricter penalties to handle this problem.

Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa (Image via SB Nation)

Speaking during The Players Championship press conference, the American golfer claimed that the tour should start handing out penalty strokes for slow play golfers. He said this after expressing that the monetary fines the tour currently gives are “useless“.

In his annual press conference at The Players Championship, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan did claim that the tour will publicly name the slow players by releasing “player-related statistics” regarding the speed of play. A new policy regarding the pace-of-play issue will also be released on the Korn Ferry Tour next month.