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”.

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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.

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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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