Latest news with #WorkdayCharityOpen
Daily Mirror
19 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Jack Nicklaus had to apologise for text he sent to PGA Tour star after mishap
Jack Nicklaus was left looking a bit sheepish after mistakenly congratulating Justin Thomas at a charity golf tournament before boarding a flight Jack Nicklaus landed in an awkward spot after he prematurely congratulated Justin Thomas during a high-stakes playoff at a charity golf event, prior to boarding his flight. Nicklaus made the mistake of sending a 'well done' text to the American golfer too early during a tense playoff match-up against Collin Morikawa. In 2020, Thomas and Morikawa were tied at the Workday Charity Open, which was held at Nicklaus' Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. The Golden Bear was staying at his home in Florida but had planned to jet back to Ohio to meet the eventual champion. With the final day's tee times pushed forward due to weather predictions, Nicklaus found himself stepping onto his plane just as the pivotal moments of the tournament were unfolding. Upon witnessing Thomas drain a phenomenal 50-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, a thrilled Nicklaus quickly reached out to him with a celebratory text, as reported by Golf Digest. Nicklaus said at the time: "Barbara and I both texted Justin and said to him, 'Wow, what a fantastic putt, unbelievable fantastic super putt, can't believe that you made that putt. Now you've got the chance to win two in a row.'" Yet, the tables turned as Morikawa responded with a remarkable 24-foot putt of his own to equal Thomas and continue the playoff, ultimately triumphing on the third additional hole. Nicklaus added: "And then we got up in the air, and we picked up Wi-Fi after 10,000 feet, and we found out Morikawa won the tournament, and so I had to send him another text and say, 'Oops, a little premature.' "He was good about it. He texted back and he said, 'All's good, it's OK.'" Thomas' classy response highlighted his true colours, as he didn't take the celebratory blunder to heart. This display of sportsmanship came long before Rory McIlroy's decision not to contact Nicklaus after joining him and an elite group of golfers. Last month, Nicklaus disclosed that he hadn't heard from McIlroy since he joined him in the hall of fame as one of six golfers to win the career Grand Slam. Notably, McIlroy did not attend May's Memorial Tournament, run by Nicklaus, for the first time since 2017. In a conversation with AP, the 85-year-old expressed uncertainty about McIlroy's absence from the event and mentioned he hadn't spoken to the Northern Irishman since the Masters in April. Nicklaus said: "I really don't know why Rory didn't talk to me. I can't answer that question. There's nothing I can answer. I know he has to make a schedule that works for him and what he has to do. And I understand, because I had to do the same thing. We just weren't included this year." He went on to defend McIlroy, as he added: "I am not throwing Rory under the bus. I like Rory too much. He's a good kid. He's played some great golf. He's had a lot of things that have happened to him. He's got to make his own call on things. "Could he have done them differently? Probably. But that's all right. I could probably have done some of mine differently, too. I'm not complaining about Rory."
USA Today
29-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Collin Morikawa is crazy like a fox at the Memorial, where he says he 'loves the place'
Collin Morikawa is crazy like a fox at the Memorial, where he says he 'loves the place' DUBLIN, Ohio – Collin Morikawa always has been crazy about Muirfield Village Golf Club. 'This is probably the only golf course where I've stepped foot on it before I actually played and said, like, I love this place, no matter how I play, and it's kind of rare to find that,' he said. Morikawa won here at the 2020 Workday Charity Open and has twice finished second at the Memorial, including last year. On Thursday, he birdied three holes in a four-hole stretch on the front nine and made six birdies in all en route to posting 5-under 67 in the first round, two off the pace set by Ben Griffin. 'I woke up today kind of not knowing how the swing was going to produce. I spent a couple hours on the range after the pro-am yesterday and was just trying to find something,' he explained. 'Yeah, kind of went to some old swing thoughts, and it's hard to filter through that, but did it on the range, and kind of was just able to go play golf. I got to trust myself that I'm playing good enough golf to go out there and win and that's what I did today.' Asked if it was the same swing thought as a week ago, Morikawa shook his head from side to side. 'No, it's more of a swing thought that I had around Bay Hill. Shocker that I didn't stick with it,' he said of the site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he finished second in March. 'Like I said yesterday, we're crazy. We think one thing's good, so then you just go away from that and try something new. But it's just, honestly it's just posture and making sure my posture's really good from the ground up and allowing my body to just go from there and swing it.' Whatever the case, it worked. Morikawa topped the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and ranked second in SG: Approach. He birdied both par 5s on the front nine at Nos. 5 and 7 and laced a mid-iron at the downhill, 214-yard par-3 8th to inside 5 feet. On the backside, he drilled a 22-foot birdie putt at No. 10 and sandwiched birdies at Nos. 14 and 16 around his lone bogey of the day, taking three putts from 57 feet. Still, it was a crazy good start, his third-lowest score in 18 career rounds at Jack's Place. By Morikawa's own estimation, he's just flat out crazy, and it didn't take his new caddie, Joe Greiner, long to reach the same conclusion. 'He's already called me crazy a lot. And that's fine. Like, I think golfers are generally crazy. I know I am. I mean, you give me eight weeks off this off-season, you should hear about the amount of things I tried. Just, I mean I had seven different grips, different wraps on my grips, like I was going through it all,' Morikawa said. 'You just give me a little too much time and I just go down rabbit holes.' The 28-year-old Morikawa's game has been better than most. He is ranked fourth in the world but the six-time Tour winner is winless since October 2023. So, the search to get across the finish line continues. 'I'm in a weird spot right now. I feel like I'm really close, but yet sometimes you don't know what you're searching for. I know it's something small and that's the click that I need to just play free,' he said. 'But it's hard to find that.' Could Morikawa end his winless drought at the Memorial this week? Nothing crazy about that at all.
