Pro Golfers Have a Duty to Face The Media

Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Collin Morikawa all have something in common this year of which they should not be proud.

They have all chosen to walk away from golf tournaments without speaking to the media. 

In the case of Lowry and Morikawa it came after heartbreaking near-misses. For McIlroy, he took the bizarre decision not to fulfil his media duties at the US PGA Championship - it was something that left many scratching their heads given that he arrived at Quail Hollow having finally won The Masters and secured the career grand slam. You would have thought that he would be bursting to share his thoughts with the press.

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Both Morikawa and Lowry defended their actions in different ways. Morikawa claimed that he doesn’t owe the media (or the golfing public) anything. After he lost the Arnold Palmer Invitational to Russell Henley he stormed off the course and headed for the airport without a word. When criticised for his actions he vigorously defended his actions. There was no hint of an apology.

Lowry looked like he was going to win the Truist Championship until a dreadful finish saw him lose out to fellow European Sepp Straka. He was furious with himself and refused to speak to the press. 

He later said that there needed to be a rethink, claiming that he would have spoken to journalists if he had been allowed half an hour to clear his thoughts and calm down. Morikawa said much the same thing.

The Irishman has a spikey relationship with the press. While being interviewed during The Masters he lost his cool when asked whether he thought that McIlroy could win and land the career grand slam. As he rightly said, he was trying to win the tournament himself and was not there to talk up McIlroy’s chances.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

You will also remember that after losing the US Open 12 months ago, McIlroy climbed into his courtesy car and drove off without a word to anybody. While his disappointment was understandable, it was all pretty disappointing. When Bryson DeChambeau lost the US PGA Championship a month earlier he waited beside the 18th green to congratulate winner Xander Schauffele. It was a classy thing to do - and it was the right thing to do.

The Northern Irishman has made headlines for the wrong reasons again this past week with his surprising decision to give the Memorial Tournament a miss. He is, of course, perfectly entitled to do so but this is a Signature event, staged just two weeks before the US Open and is hosted by the legendary Jack Nicklaus.

The Golden Bear said that he understood McIlroy’s decision but there was a caveat.

Nicklaus said: "Yeah, it surprised me but guys have schedules and things they do. And I haven’t talked to Rory for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played, to play or not play, and sometimes it wasn’t popular…

"I don’t hold anything against Rory for that. He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a US Open. And so he, that’s what he’s doing. So, you know, I really don’t have a comment on it. It’s very difficult, very difficult."

Now I know that McIlroy has a busy life but it is disappointing to learn that he could not find the time to pick up a phone and tell Nicklaus why he was giving the tournament a miss.

I watched a lot of Nicklaus in his prime and, for me at least, he remains the greatest player ever to bestride the fairways of the world. He was also a class act in everything that he did. The best golf tournament I have ever seen was the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry when Nicklaus and Tom Watson went at it like hammer and tongs for 72 holes, with Watson coming out on top by a single shot. Afterwards, Nicklaus was happy to face the press, just as he was every time he finished second.

He said: "I’ve always felt that you guys and gals [the media] have a job to do, and for you to do your job you need to talk to me. And whether I played well or whether I played poorly, if you still want to talk to me, I’ll talk to you. And I always have."

Messrs McIlroy, Lowry and Morikawa would do well to follow the Golden Bear’s example. It is harsh reality of our sport that you are going to lose far more often than you win and how you deal with those defeats says a great deal about you.