Masters of entitlement

Looked up at the TV yesterday and there were the azaleas and Rae's Creek and late-afternoon sunlight slanting through the pines  -- it's always late afternoon in this place, and the sunlight always slants -- and I thought, "Gee, it must be Masters week again."

Then I thought, "Gee, I wonder if Collin Morikawa will finally win a green jacket?"

Then I thought, "Gee, if he's leading on Sunday, and Amen Corner jumps out of the bushes and throws his ball in Rae's Creek or one of those tranquil ponds or up against one of those slanting-sunlight ponds, will he go Dixie on the media again?"

Because, see, Morikawa did that last month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he was closing in on the "W" until Russell Henley eagled 16 and swiped it right off his plate. Morikawa was so pissed he bagged the post-match presser, then defended his bail-out by saying he didn't owe the media anything but his golf game. In fact, he said he didn't owe anyone anything.

This was not the wisest thing for him to say. Oh, not because he stiffed the media; every ink-stained wretch who went to a decent journalism school learns very quickly that no one has an obligation to talk to us. And most of the time it's no skin off our carcasses either way.

Doesn't mean we still won't write, however. 'Cause we will.

No, the reason it wasn't wise for Morikawa to say he didn't owe anyone anything is because it reinforced the perception that pro golfers are a bunch of pampered snots who wouldn't know what to do without a courtesy car, balls fresh from the sleeve and someone to lug their sticks. No doubt there'll be a few of those out there this week -- call 'em Masters of entitlement, if you will -- but there'll be many more who understand that without the ink-stained wretches, TV cameras and "Get in the hole!" Joe Visors on the other side of the ropes, they'd all be selling whole-life insurance for a living.

So Collin Morikawa said what he said, and then doubled down on what he said, and here came a proper bashing from the media. Golf commentator Brandel Chamblee took him to task for it. Fellow commentator Rocco Mediate really took him to task for it, saying it was "a horses*** thing to say" and Collin was dead wrong. And the website Awful Announcing did a whole deal on the controversy, including that Rory McIlroy basically backed Morikawa's play in his media availability yesterday.

Morikawa, meanwhile, intimated that the media was just too lazy to track him down and get a comment after the Palmer tournament, because he hung around the premises afterward and could have been tracked down. 

Gotta say, I halfway agree with him on that one.

Best and worst thing about big-league events like a Super Bowl or a Final Four or, yes, a Masters or Arnold Palmer Invitational? It's how media availability, and thus easy-bake features, are perpetually at your fingertips.

There are daily gang pressers and quote sheets and transcripts piled high as an elephant's eye from the daily gang pressers. One year at the Super Bowl, I walked past a table groaning with stacks and stacks of those transcripts, and figured half the trees in North America must have given their lives so Peyton Manning could explain the Colts audible system. It was that excessive.

All of this, of course, tempts you into taking the easy path, because the easy path is eight lanes wide and smoother than a clean shave. Hey, it's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I'm lazy. Now where's that Julian Edelman transcript?

In other words, Morikawa's point is taken, if not always well-taken. The PGA media guy tells you he ain't showin', but might still be on the premises, you grab your notepad and go looking for him. You can call him a gutless punk for not facing the music, but if you track him down and he obligingly sings, maybe he's not such a gutless punk after all.

Which still doesn't let him off the hook for saying he doesn't owe anyone anything. That part he needs to take back.

And if he doesn't, make him carry his own sticks. That'll learn him.