19th Hole
‘I don’t like to hear that’ – Collin Morikawa left fuming by analyst Trevor Immelman’s comments
2022 Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman said he would be calling two-time major winner Collin Morikawa to clear up his comments that the 26-year-olds early career was “his bar, his standard”.
When Morikawa won six tournaments in his first three seasons on tour, the golf world predicted he would carry on in that vein for years to come, and whilst he hasn’t won an event for 20-plus tournaments, he remains a world top-10 ranked player with the best days to come.
Second only to Tiger Woods for consecutive cuts-made at the start of a professional career, the 25-year-old’s form between June 2019 and November 2021 includes the PGA Championship, Open Championship and the DP World Tour Championship – three of the most prestigious events in the sport.
One result of that early success is to keep finding more, not only to satisfy yourself but those that scrutinize the sport in every detail, although Immelman may have had his latest comments misinterpreted by not only the player but by the press.
After Morikawa had signed for a five-birdie, two-bogie 68 in his third round at Mayakoba, Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis asked him about Immelman’s comments.
“You know, Trevor Immelman mentioned it in our broadcast when watching you play, that you came out and played so well early in your career that that was possibly your bar, your standard. Did you go through that?”
Morikawa, who contributed two points from three matches in the USA’s defence of the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow, did not appear to be over-enamoured by the question:
“Wow, that’s hard to hear from him,” replied the player, whose best recent finish was runner-up at the Genesis Invitational in February.
“To be honest, I could not care less what he says there because I don’t think that’s my bar,” stated Morikawa, before continuing:
“I think I’ve got so much more to improve. I’ve been near last on putting and I don’t think I’ve even finished close to being average on putting. If I just get my putting to be average, I think there is so much more to improve.”
The figures clearly hurt, as they should. Morikawa was 131st in strokes-gained-putting for the 2022 season but currently ranks 202nd out of 206 players for 2023.
“So I don’t know. I don’t know where that came from, but that kind of stings there. I don’t like to hear that.”
The former top-ranked amateur has been a constant in the top-10 player in ball-striking for several years and, over the last four events, has averaged around plus-five shots per tournament for tee-to-green.
The problem lies very much with the short stick – over those same four events. Morikawa has not exploited his top-class long game, losing shots in three, with losses of over six shots at East Lake and Congaree. Whilst no strokes-gained figures were available at the Zozo, he ranked 71st for putting average from 19th in greens-in-regulation.
It happens, and we’ve seen it happen with an awful lot of players over the years, but it clearly hurts when pointed out.
When advised that Immelman meant his comments as a compliment, pointing out his quality, they did not impress Morikawa:
“I don’t know if that was a compliment. I’ll be honest. If he did, maybe it came off wrong from what I heard,” admitted the player.
He continued, “For me, I’ve never seen a ceiling. I just want to keep improving. Obviously, we took a couple of steps back this year, but it’s just trying to get better every day and improve on little things.”
“I expect myself to play well. I set high goals for myself, and it just sucks when they don’t come through.”
Immelman, though, said he was ready to explain how his comments may have been taken out of context:
“Yeah I believe he misunderstood what I said, said the 2008 Masters champion.
“What I was saying was that he got off to such an incredible start in the early part of his career, winning two majors quite quickly. In a lot of ways, you start to extra pressure on yourself to keep that up. I think that extra pressure wasn’t really needed. Maybe take a step back, get some perspective, understand how incredible that is and then just let that come to you a little bit more.”
He again inferred that his words may have been taken out of context:
“We all know how great he is. I’ve been saying over the last couple of days how I anticipate he will get back on a run like that.”
“But don’t put too much pressure on yourself, because he’s been saying a lot of times the last few weeks that maybe his swing hasn’t felt as comfortable, but when I look at the stats last season, he’s still third in strokes-gained approach and that is a massive weapon. It’s an incredible asset to have to your game.”
In conclusion, Immelman stated he wanted to clear the air:
“Maybe a little miscommunication there. I’ll be giving Collin a call later today.”
The former Masters champ confirmed via Twitter that he had spoken to Collin and cleared up the misunderstanding.
Complete misunderstanding.
Spoke to Collin on the phone last night and in person on the range this morning. All good.— Trevor Immelman (@TrevorImmelman) November 6, 2022
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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