It’s hard to leave the joy of the Grand Slam. Collin Morikawa explains why

Charlotte, North Carolina – This week there is a special wall co-city in the Quail hollow dressing room that houses about 300 square feet this week.

In the center of this room, located in the center of a large dressing room, sitting with Quail’s other meaningful trophys is a replica of the Wanamaker trophy. President’s Cup, Wells Fargo (now Truist) champion, and even member of the year – Gist. These trophys surround the lockers of these trophys, whose names are engraved on that silver. It’s a pop-up championship dressing room, hidden in sight, so inconspicuous that defending champion Xander Schauffele had a hard time finding it early in the week.

At the end of the week – when players drag their luggage out the door, put gloves, balls and even clubs in a dumpster as a donation to the local first T-shirt – we found our place in the world’s 2020 champion and world fourth player Collin Morikawa, who is in his mood.

It’s been a hot week for many in the wild. Quail Hollow (the course they know very well) performs differently from what they expect, and nature relies on scale. And the best players in the world, leading and running away. Morikawa put it together better than most people – he didn’t throw any clubs or get caught on the radio – kept passing the final putt. Just not here.

As he approached the score, he found his long-term coach and agent waiting for him and shared a loud three-word evaluation of his game:

“Sad F-King Golf.”

He signed 72 points before returning to his coach Rick Sessinghaus for a stern show with new caddie Joe Greiner, which was in public. It lasted about 15 minutes as players came and went. Bryson DeChambeau heads to the first serving area. Rory McIlroy has gone through a lot of intentions no About his week, talk to a reporter (or anyone other than the club owner).

Morikava need Talk about it.

“I wouldn’t be so harsh,” Morikava told me, the duffel bag on her shoulders, just a few steps away from the championship wall. “But you just have to talk about things. I don’t think people are doing enough with the teams around them. They’re kind of internalized.

This frustration is why I am curious about Morikava’s point of view. Emotions are the center of the golf story. Human journey. But another reason is that back in March, Morikawa lost the lead in the final few holes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and refused to talk to reporters. A few days later, at the players, he explained the day in detail throughout the press conference, but announced that he had no explanation for anyone that was announced as headlines. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He wants to leave Orlando as soon as possible. But he also said that in that passionate view, he also said one thing: if he gave him an hour or so, he would be able to chat clearly. This is an increasingly popular sentiment for professionals.

So about an hour after Morikawa announced his “pathetic f-king” variety of games, we were there.

“It’s a small matter,” he said. “Because I know this game is like this – everything is just a thread of a needle, right? A small margin can mean a big result. At the end of the day, I can live with bad golf. But for me, bad golf is a bad swing, you know, and poor execution.

“When I give up pictures of what I don’t think I should be – I feel like a spiritual player – that’s frustrating.”

In the end, he said, something was confusing about his game. (That’s golf.) Annoyed him on the 18th hole of rounds 1, 2 and 3 for a while and may continue to do so until he plays a better game on Truist next spring. But Morikawa is proud of not showing frustration in the ropes. In the locker room, he struggles to point out the details of the little mental errors, or maybe he just leaves them for himself. I guess his team probably knows it. He recalled the 2022 season when his swing had just deviated a bit and he couldn’t fully explain it. He said this week is a little physical and a little mental. He described the pain of six Sunday bogeys – a sigh followed by three seconds of silence, which sounded like they caused his personal offense. Maybe that’s what it looks like on the stage with the smallest edge.

Anyway, it felt like a particularly insightful, meaningful moment, the dressing room scene, and more realistic than he said in front of the microphone. Like the conversations among us that care about professional golf – golf nerds, golf media, golf gamblers, sports fans peeking in the Grand Slams, and even casuals who only Morikava in the Netflix revelry – will find it interesting and inspiring. How do the missing big champions settle with top professionals? If we don’t fully grasp his valley, how will we understand his next peak? Although he might have won some anxiety unnecessarily two months ago, it was obvious on Sunday at least: Morikawa got it. His eyes are still full of emotion, he is straightforward, raw and generous. The conversation with his team, coupled with the time of exhaling, prepares him to discuss what happened and what it means.

When we started to close, he said, “I set a high bar for myself, and when you don’t get to them, sometimes you go crazy.” “But sometimes it wakes you up. To me, it comes down to it, like, how I wake up and fire.

Scheffler developed a trick for this. He’s so good, his best thinking about the world Their The bestwhat happens and what is needed to get there. The best thing about Morikava is the reason why he started in that championship locker room. This game is full of things like that. Remind you where you have been and where you want to go.