“You guys write the stories,” said Collin Morikawa, addressing the media lined up in front of him ahead of this week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, “and you guys can write the stories about anyone. … We hear a lot about players that are here and come to these press conferences, but you guys maybe don’t write about other people that are interesting. … I think it’s your job to go out and find these stories.”
Our reigning Open champion is not alone in suggesting many members of DP World Tour and PGA Tour are getting a bit fed up with the extent to which the media have been focussing on the LIV Golf Invitational Series, its converts and its billions. “It’s time to let go,” he said. “I want to focus on tournaments.”
With as gentlemanly a player as Morikawa doing the talking, you doubt whether anyone among the media took offence.
Finding another story was not out of the question, even if this tale, too, is related to the LIV scene and how it has taken over from everything else.
Jamie Aitken, the head greenkeeper at the Renaissance, told Global Golf Post how the face of the recently revetted bunker at the 12th had collapsed on the eve of this week, perhaps because of the elements. His men, of whom he has 19, came in at 4 a.m. and were there until 9 p.m. putting it to rights. Though they did a grand job, he doubted whether anyone other than the greenkeepers either knew or cared.
“In terms of the game’s hierarchy, we’re down here,” Aitken said good-naturedly as he lowered his hand to the length of the rough. He knew all the chat among the players was about LIV, but that did not stop him from making the point: “Without us, there wouldn’t be a tournament. We’ve worked continuously over the last four years to get the course where it is now, and there’s never been a winter when I’ve told the team that they can take things easy for a couple of months.
“I get paid for what I do,” he added, “and it’s never been about the money. As much as anything, I love the team spirit, the unbreakable bond among the staff and how we rally together.”
“They shouldn’t be coming back over here to play the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour. To say that they wanted to also support this tour or the PGA Tour going forward, while playing the LIV tour, is completely asinine, in my opinion.” – Billy Horschel
Aitken cited the 12th-hole bunker incident and said none among his charges had moaned when they were working nonstop on the repairs, “because first and foremost, they just love what they do.”
“If you were to ask me what I want most from this championship,” Aitken said, “it would be for my boys to get a mention.”
Aitken happens to be a great fan of Tommy Fleetwood on the grounds that when everyone else was complaining about the weather and its effect on the course in 2020, he was never less than positive. “Tommy looked to me as if love of the game came first for him. (He knew nothing of the rumours – quite possibly nonsense – that Fleetwood might be one of the next candidates to repair to the money-first LIV tour.)
One way or another, the situation at the Scottish Open was not so very different from that on the days leading up to the 2013 Open at Muirfield. Then, all the talk was of how Muirfield was a male-only club at a time when there were strong pointers to how the R&A soon would be calling for all Open venues to take female members.
In the longer term, the negative pre-tournament publicity worked out for the better, what with Muirfield voting to take women as members four years later and now being less than a month away from hosting the AIG Women’s Open.
In the short-term, however, all the hard work which had gone into polishing the course for the championship of ’13 was ignored and the Honourable Company’s greenkeepers were no different from Aitken in finding it hard to take. When GGP ran into one member of that hard-working corps on Thursday morning and mentioned how good everything was looking, his reply was along the lines that he was grateful that someone had noticed.
Scottish spectators have a reputation for knowing their stuff, but we will see today whether they feel uncomfortable enough to steer clear of the LIV contingent.
It is not for nothing that the DP World Tour has kept the LIV players together for the first couple of rounds at the Renaissance in the only two-ball pairings. Justin Harding is out with Adrian Otegui at 7:15 a.m. today, with Brandon Grace and Ian Poulter at 12:25 p.m. “Judging from what we are hearing,” said one of the officials, “we could not be sure that too many of the other players would be comfortable going out with any of them.” No less than Rory McIlroy, he suspected that Poulter’s decision to take his home circuit to court (to get reinstated for the present at least) would only fuel resentment among the professionals on the traditional tours.
Billy Horschel, though he said that he would not have complained had he been drawn to playing alongside one of the out-of-favour four, nonetheless had made it abundantly clear that he vehemently disagreed with them being in the field at all.
“Having decided to go and play on the LIV tour, they should go play that tour,” he began.
“They shouldn’t be coming back over here to play the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour. To say that they wanted to also support this tour or the PGA Tour going forward, while playing the LIV tour, is completely asinine, in my opinion.”
Scottish spectators have a reputation for knowing their stuff, but we will see today whether they feel uncomfortable enough to steer clear of the LIV contingent.
That, in itself, will make for enough of a story to add to the overflowing caldron of LIV news.