The Scottish Open Is Giving Golf What It Has Been Missing

The Scottish Open Is Giving Golf What It Has Been Missing

The Scottish Open Is Giving Golf What It Has Been Missing Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. The Scottish Open has always been one of the best lead-ins to the Open Championship. Rory McIlroy’s shot into 18. Robert MacIntyre winning his national open. Phil Mickelson using it as a springboard before winning at Muirfield in 2013. But this year feels a little different. Because this year, the Scottish Open has something golf fans have wanted since the sport split apart: a field that actually brings everybody back together. Everybody in the Same Place Justin Ray put it perfectly. This is the most excited he has ever been for the word co-sanctioned. Because with the Scottish Open co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the field gets a lot more interesting. Jon Rahm is there. Tyrrell Hatton is there. Patrick Reed is there. Rory McIlroy is there. Chris Gotterup is defending. And suddenly, this feels like more than just the week before the Open Championship. It feels like golf looking the way it is supposed to look. Trey’s point is simple. Whatever happens next with LIV, the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour or the future structure of the sport, this is what fans want. The best players competing against the best players. That part does not need to be complicated. Why the Scottish Open Works National opens just feel different. The US Open. The Italian Open. The Spanish Open. The Scottish Open. There is a pride and energy around those events that you cannot fake. The crowd cares differently. The players feel it differently. And when Robert MacIntyre nearly won in 2023, then came back and won his national open in 2024, it reminded everyone why this tournament matters. The Scottish Open is not a major. But when the field is this strong and the Open Championship is sitting right behind it, the week has real weight. Justin also makes the point that this tournament has quietly delivered year after year. Aaron Rai beating Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff. Min Woo Lee beating Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff. Xander Schauffele winning by one. Rory beating MacIntyre by one. MacIntyre winning by one. Gotterup beating Rory and Marco Penge by two. As Justin says, it has been banger after banger. The Rahm Factor Jon Rahm is one of the biggest reasons this field matters. Justin brings up a wild stat: Rahm is still third on the PGA Tour in wins in the 2020s, behind only Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, even though he has been gone for more than two years. That is the reminder. Rahm has not disappeared as a player. We just do not see him in this kind of setting as often anymore. So when he does show up against Rory, Hatton, Reed, Gotterup and the rest of this field, it gives the week a different kind of edge. This is the part golf has been missing. What It Means for the Open Trey asks the question everyone asks this time of year: how much does the Scottish Open actually tell us about the Open Championship? Justin says there is some correlation, but it is not perfect. Sometimes it is just hot players staying hot. Sometimes the conditions line up. Sometimes they do not. Phil Mickelson won the Scottish Open in 2013 and then won the Open Championship the next week. Chris Gotterup won the Scottish Open last year and played well at the Open. So it can matter. It is not a guarantee, but it gives us clues. And this year, with the kind of field that is showing up, those clues are a lot more interesting. The Phil Mickelson Conversation The Scottish Open also brought the conversation back to Phil Mickelson. In 2013, Phil won the Scottish Open, then went on to win the Open Championship at Muirfield. For a player who never got the US Open, that Open title became one of the defining wins of his career. Trey and Justin talk about how strange it is to look at where Phil’s story is now compared to where it was just a few years ago. After winning the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah and becoming the oldest major champion ever, Phil had a very different place in the sport. He was still not Tiger, but he had become something like golf’s cool uncle. The Wanamaker Trophy. The jokes. The “hit bombs” persona. The whole thing worked. And then it changed fast. The LIV fallout, the gambling stories, the reported allegations and everything else around him have completely reshaped the way people talk about Phil. Trey is clear that none of the alleged behavior is being excused. Justin’s word for the whole thing is simple: sad. Maybe there is another chapter eventually. But right now, it is hard to know what that would even look like. Why This Week Matters That is why this Scottish Open feels bigger than usual. It has Rory. It has Rahm. It has Hatton. It has Reed. It has Gotterup defending. It has a national open crowd. It has the Open Championship waiting on the other side. For one week, golf gets closer to what everyone has been asking for. The best players. Same field. Same tournament. That is what we wanted. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Gotterup Is Suddenly in Scottie and Rory Territory

Chris Gotterup Is Suddenly in Scottie and Rory Territory Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Chris Gotterup just won again. And the list he is now on is almost hard to believe. Since mid-May of 2024, the players with the most wins on the PGA Tour are Scottie Scheffler with ten, Rory McIlroy with five, and Chris Gotterup with five. That is the conversation now. Not whether Gotterup can have a nice career. Not whether he can occasionally pop up on the leaderboard. Whether he has become one of the most dangerous American players in golf. And after another final-round charge at the John Deere, Trey Wingo and Justin Ray are starting to look at Gotterup differently. The List That Changes the Conversation Justin puts the number in perspective right away. One year ago, Gotterup was heading into the Scottish Open as a one-time PGA Tour winner. Now he has five PGA Tour wins. The company matters. Scottie. Rory. Gotterup. That does not mean he is Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy. It does mean the résumé is changing quickly. And the way he is winning might be even more impressive than the total itself. There have been four times this season where a player has won on the PGA Tour with a final round of 64 or lower. Three of them belong to Chris Gotterup. The other was Wyndham Clark shooting 60 in Dallas. Justin could not find another modern-era example of a player winning three PGA Tour events in one season with a final round of 64 or lower. That is not normal Sunday golf. That is a player who can go nuclear when the tournament is there to be taken. Why Gotterup’s Ceiling Looks Different Now The obvious part of Gotterup’s game is the power. He is excellent off the tee and that has always been the starting point of the conversation. But Justin points out the part that makes the ceiling feel real — he is also a top-30 putter this season in strokes gained. That combination is why this is no longer just a “hot player” conversation. He has won on different kinds of golf courses, in different environments, with different asks. The Scottish Open is not Phoenix. Phoenix is not the John Deere. That matters. He is not proving he can only win one specific type of event. Trey asks the bigger question: is this a guy you now have to think about as a major championship factor for the next decade? Justin’s answer is pretty clear. He would be surprised if Gotterup does not pick off a major in the next few years. He already had a strong Open Championship last year. He now returns to the Scottish Open as a defending champion. And if this version of Gotterup shows up overseas, he is going to be a problem. The PGA Tour’s New Gotterup Problem The conversation gets more complicated when Trey brings up the PGA Tour’s new two-track future — the working-title Championship Series and Challenger Series. Gotterup just won the John Deere. The event clearly matters to him. But if the John Deere eventually becomes part of the Challenger side of the new structure, what happens if Gotterup is a Championship Series player and still wants to go back? What happens if Scottie Scheffler wants to play the Byron Nelson? Or Colonial? What happens when the biggest names in the sport want to support events that mean something to them, but their presence takes a spot from a player trying to earn his way up? That is the issue Trey had not fully considered until a friend brought it up. If a top player drops down for one week and takes a spot, and someone else misses a chance to move into the Championship Series because of it, that becomes a real problem. Justin thinks there will have to be some kind of middle ground. Maybe a once-a-year exemption. Maybe a past champion rule. Maybe a compensatory points system. Nobody has the exact answer yet. But this is the kind of detail that will decide whether the new structure works. Rigid in the vision. Flexible in the details. This is one of the details. Max Homa and Lucas Glover Deserve a Mention The John Deere also gave Trey and Justin two other stories worth noting. Lucas Glover nearly won again in his mid-40s and led the field tee to green. Trey has said it before and says it again here — years from now, Lucas Glover as PGA Tour commissioner would not shock him. The way he thinks about the game, the way he talks about structure, and the way he carries himself all point in that direction. Then there is Max Homa, who finally looked more like Max Homa again. Justin noticed it on the back nine Sunday. The walk. The expression. The look of a player who believed he was going to make the next one. For a guy who has been grinding through a difficult stretch, that is not a small thing. Trey puts it simply: it looked like Max was playing golf again, not playing golf swing. The Morikawa Reminder Colin Morikawa also enters the conversation after Trey sat down with him at the Travelers. The line that stuck: until you win all of them. That is the goal stated without fully stating the goal. Justin brings the numbers behind why Morikawa can talk that way. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained approach this season. A few years ago, he led the tour in average proximity from 125 to 150, 150 to 175, and 175 to 200 yards — what Justin calls the iron play triple crown. When Morikawa is in full flight, the only real debate is whether he or Scottie Scheffler is the best approach player in the men’s game. He already has a PGA Championship. He already has an Open Championship. If the game is getting healthy again, nobody should be surprised if he shows up overseas and posts one of those rounds that changes a tournament. The Open Championship Build Begins Trey and Justin also start the show with a reminder of why this stretch of the golf calendar is different. The Scottish Open comes first. Then the Open Championship. The history, the links golf, the weather, the early mornings, the coffee, the entire experience of going overseas for the oldest major in the sport. For Trey, the Open Championship is still his favorite major. Justin is right there with him. And now Gotterup enters that stretch as one of the most fascinating players in the sport. Five wins since last May. A Scottish Open title defense coming. A major ceiling that suddenly feels much more real. Scottie. Rory. Gotterup. That is the list. And that is why the conversation has changed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Xander Schauffele on Two Majors, the US Open Streak, and What Comes Next

Xander Schauffele — Two Majors, a Gold Medal His Dad Slept With, and What Comes Next Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Xander Schauffele sat down with Trey Wingo at the Travelers Championship for a conversation that goes well beyond what most golf interviews cover. Two majors. Ten consecutive top-15 finishes at the US Open — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has exceeded in the history of the championship. A gold medal his parents still have because it means more to his family than it could ever mean to a trophy case. And an honest assessment of where his game is, where it is going, and why his time will come. The US Open Streak — Badge of Honor or Badge of Frustration? Ten US Opens. Ten top-15 finishes. The only player in the history of the US Open with a longer consecutive top-15 streak is Jack Nicklaus. Xander found out about this stat recently — he is not on social media and has not been since the 2020 Masters, which he says has helped him live longer. His wife has Instagram. He gets screen recordings from the group chat when something is funny. That is the extent of it. His honest reaction to the streak — a mix of both. Having his name on a list with those names is something he is not complaining about. Objectively it is remarkable. Personally it would be nice to be a little closer to the lead. Be a little more a part of the mix. But his answer on where that leaves him is the line that defines the whole conversation — my time will come. He is going to keep paying it forward and he genuinely enjoys what he calls the psycho challenge of trying to play good golf on really hard golf courses. Shinnecock — What Actually Happened Xander's honest assessment of his week at Shinnecock is refreshingly direct. He felt like he could never get anything going. Leaving putts short. Not making birdies. Running out of holes. He tried to stay patient and let the golf come to him and it just never did. He was not playing good enough and he knows it. What he does know is that his game is built for US Open setups. The risk management, the course management, the discipline of knowing when to be aggressive and when to lay back — that is the kind of golf he enjoys and the kind of golf US Opens reward. His caddy Austin has become exceptional at analyzing risk in major championship settings, understanding exactly what score is needed on any given hole across any given round. The example that sticks — on 13 at Shinnecock coming off two doubles, Austin told him to hit driver when Xander had a four-iron in his hand. He hit it to a foot and made birdie. Small moments, big decisions, trusted relationships. US Opens are war. That is his word for it. Mental war first, physical war second — dinner at 10 PM, up at 3:30 AM for a restart, grinding for four days on courses designed to punish you for every small mistake. And that is exactly why winning one feels so validating. The difficulty is the point. The New PGA Tour Structure Xander has been paying attention to what Rolapp announced and his overall reaction is genuinely positive — but the thing he keeps coming back to is not the match play or the iconic courses or the regular season champion. It is the certainty. The last four years of his career have been all over the place in terms of knowing what events are happening, who the sponsors are, where the schedule is going, how the points system works. The points structure changed every year. The playoff format kept evolving. There was no stable foundation to plan around. The new structure — whatever the working titles end up being — gives players a framework that is supposed to be set for generations. He knows what he is playing for. He knows what it looks like. He knows what the path is from February through the playoffs. For a player who is a creature of habit, that matters enormously. His take on the core philosophy — Brian Rolapp used the phrase "you eat what you kill" in the meetings. Xander loves that framing. If you want to play professional golf and you are not ready for that kind of language, professional golf is probably not for you. Play bad, make zero dollars. That is how it has always worked at the highest level and the new structure just makes it more explicit and more honest about what the meritocracy actually looks like. He also loves the match play concept — thinks Brian's background in the NFL means he understands what fan interaction looks like and if match play is done at the right venues it could be genuinely incredible for the sport. And when the subject of Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point came up in the press conference — those whispers are real and he is excited about them. Harry Higgs — The Most Heartwarming Story of the US Open Xander had a moment at Shinnecock that had nothing to do with his own round. Harry Higgs made the cut. The Big Rig — who had not made a single cut all year, had made zero dollars on the PGA Tour in 2026, and was fighting his way back from losing his tour card — made the cut at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Xander gave him a huge hug. They are both new dads. Their kids were born not far apart. He knows Harry is super happy at home right now and super unhappy with his golf. Seeing him make the cut and make some money and get back on the horse — Xander hopes that is the beginning of the comeback. That one moment was one of the more heartwarming things of the entire week for him. The Gold Medal — The Real Story This is the part of the conversation that stays with you long after the interview is over. Xander's father was his swing coach until Xander was about 30 years old. Before that — before any of this — his dad trained to be a decathlete in Germany. He trained hard, worked toward competing in the Olympics, and got in a terrible accident that ended all of it. Everything he had learned, everything his coaches had taught him, all the wisdom and discipline and mental preparation that goes into being an elite Olympic-level athlete — he poured all of it into Xander's brain from the time he was a young kid. When Xander won the gold medal in Tokyo it was at the COVID Olympics — no crowds, no spectators, almost no one allowed in. His caddy and his dad. Those were the two people with him. That was it. His dad slept with the gold medal the night they won. Xander does not have the gold medal. His parents have it. And the way he says that — the tone, the matter-of-factness of it, the quiet pride — tells you everything about what that moment meant and still means to his family. His dad gave his Olympic dream to his son. His son gave him the gold medal back. Two majors. A PGA Championship. An Open Championship. A gold medal. And a US Open streak that only Jack Nicklaus has beaten. Xander Schauffele is 33 years old. His time will come. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Gotterup Wins the John Deere. The Scottish Open Is Next. Phil Mickelson's Fall. Nelly at the Evian. | GOLF LIVE

Everything Happening in Golf — Gotterup Wins, Phil's Fall From Grace, Scottish Open, and the Evian | GOLF LIVE Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. A massive week in golf. Chris Gotterup goes nuclear at the John Deere. The Scottish Open brings together the best players in the world for the first time in years. Phil Mickelson's story takes another turn nobody wanted to see. And Nelly Korda heads to France chasing history at the Evian Championship. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray break down all of it. Chris Gotterup Wins the John Deere — Again Chris Gotterup shot a final round 62 to win the John Deere Classic. His third win of the season. His fifth PGA Tour win overall. And the numbers around how he wins are almost impossible to believe. Four times this season a player has won on the PGA Tour shooting a final round of 64 or lower. Three of those four wins belong to Gotterup. The other one was Wyndham Clark shooting 60 at the Byron Nelson. Nobody else in the modern era — as far back as Justin Ray could research, which gets sketchy pre-Arnold Palmer — has won three tournaments in a single PGA Tour season with a final round of 64 or lower. He has the ability to go nuclear hot on a Sunday and that is exactly what separates elite closers from everyone else. Since May 2024 — the only players with more PGA Tour wins than Chris Gotterup's five are Scotty Scheffler with 10 and Rory McIlroy with five. He is in that company now. Not close to that company. In it. Justin makes the career arc point that deserves to be heard — a year ago heading into the Scottish Open, Gotterup had one PGA Tour win from an alternate field event. Now he has five wins, is nearly certain to make the Presidents Cup team, and is being talked about in the same breath as the best American players of his generation. When Colin Morikawa turns 30 Gotterup becomes the best American player in his twenties. That conversation is happening now. Also worth noting from the John Deere — Lucas Glover led the field in strokes gained tee to green in his mid-forties against a field of players half his age. Nearly won. Trey still believes Lucas Glover could be PGA Tour commissioner someday. The way he thinks, the way he communicates, the way he approaches everything — the seeds are there. Max Homa also showed signs of life — that look on his face when he knows he is going to make a putt came back for the first time in a while. The Scottish Open — Everyone Is Playing This year's Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club is co-sanctioned by both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. And that means something that has not been true for most of the last four years — the best players in the world are all in the same field at the same time. Jon Rahm is in. Tyrrell Hatton is in. Patrick Reed is in. DP World Tour stalwarts who have been playing separately from their PGA Tour peers for over two years are back in the same tournament. Justin calls it the most excited he has ever been for the word co-sanctioned. This is what everyone who loves golf has been waiting for — the best competing against the best, even if it is not a major. Justin traces the history of Scottish Open winners in the 2020s — Aaron Rai, Minwoo Lee, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Robert McIntyre winning his own national open, Chris Gotterup last year. Banger after banger. The correlation between playing well at the Scottish Open and playing well the following week at the Open Championship is real — Phil Mickelson won both in 2013, Gotterup was top five last year before going on to compete at the Open. The weather dependency makes it imperfect, but it is a genuine tell for who is in form heading into Royal Birkdale. Justin's early Open Championship picks lean toward the chalk — after surprising winners in recent years he thinks the big names are due. Scotty Scheffler statistically is almost exactly where he was a year ago when he won two majors. Rory has been exceptional at the Scottish Open three years running — first, fourth, second, 42 under par across those three years, 12 shots better than anyone else. Royal Birkdale is one of the harder Open Championship venues to predict given the weather and draw dependency but both Trey and Justin are high on the world number one finding a way. Phil Mickelson — The Sad Reality This is the conversation nobody wanted to have but both Trey and Justin felt they had to have honestly. Phil Mickelson is not at the Open Championship this year. He is not at most events. And the reasons — the gambling issues, the conduct allegations, the banishment from multiple exclusive clubs in Southern California — have created a situation that is simply heartbreaking when you step back and look at the full picture of who Phil Mickelson was supposed to be. 45 wins on the PGA Tour. Six major championships. Three quarters of the career grand slam. The oldest major champion in golf history when he won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island — a win that came on one of the toughest courses in major rotation against what was arguably the deepest field any major had ever seen. He was supposed to be the next great ambassador of the game. The Ryder Cup captain. The guy who would sit next to Jim Nantz for decades. The honorary starter at Augusta for as long as he could swing a club. All of that feels gone now. The gambling issues that led to his banishment from multiple Southern California clubs. The conduct allegations that have dominated the headlines in recent weeks. The withdrawal from the Open Championship — not because of injury or scheduling, but because of a situation he does not want to have to address publicly. Trey is not excusing any of the alleged behavior. Neither is Justin. But both of them acknowledge the genuine sadness of watching a player of this magnitude — a player who gave the game so much, who connected with fans in ways Tiger never could, who at 50 was still out there competing at the highest level — reduced to this. The same year he won the 2021 PGA Championship, Justin notes, his son was born. Five years later the contrast could not be more stark. The question of whether there is another chapter to be written — neither Trey nor Justin can see it from where they are sitting right now. For there to be another chapter something fundamental has to be addressed and neither of them is sure Phil is willing or ready to do that. Whatever life he envisioned for himself feels like it is not the one he is living. Nelly Korda at the Evian — The Most Unpredictable Major Nelly Korda arrives at the Evian Championship in France as the overwhelming favorite for the third consecutive major. And the Evian is the worst possible place to be an overwhelming favorite. The history of this tournament over the last several years has produced some of the most random and chaotic outcomes in women's major championship golf. Last year Gino Titicaka stood on the 18th tee with a 98.6 percent win probability. Grace Kim, playing in her group, made eagle. Titicaka missed an eight-footer for birdie that would have won it outright. They went to a playoff where Kim then holed out from 20 yards off the green after hitting into a water hazard. Then Kim made another eagle on the 18th hole to win. Eagle, birdie from the water, eagle on 18. Impossible. And yet. That is the Evian Championship. That is what Nelly Korda is walking into. Justin's numbers on Nelly through three majors this season are staggering — over 46 strokes gained total, 16 more than anyone else in the field. Gabby Lopez is second with 30. Nelly is in a different stratosphere. And yet Justin leans toward the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham as the more likely venue for her third major win simply because the Evian generates so much randomness that the best player does not always win. The broader discussion — if Nelly wins four of the five LPGA majors this season does that constitute a grand slam? Trey and Justin dig into the history of what counts as a major, noting that the definition has always been malleable. The De Maurier Championship was a major. The Titleholders Championship was a major. Jack Nicklaus was chasing his 20th major in the 1986 Masters broadcast because they were counting US Amateurs. None of this is set in stone. Four majors in a single season without the fifth would be an outlier achievement that deserves its own framing — not quite a grand slam, but something historically significant in a way that stands on its own terms. Your Questions Duncan returns from paternity leave to read the questions — baby is healthy, all colors and shapes have been experienced. Duncan is back. Four questions this week — what the new PGA Tour structure means for Jordan Spieth and sponsor exemptions, where Justin Rose's game is and why he keeps peaking for the majors, early Open Championship predictions and horses for the course, and favorite courses played this year including Justin's admission that he has not played a single round of golf in 2026 despite being the Tiger Woods of golf researchers. Trey meanwhile is headed to the American Century Celebrity Pro-Am at Lake Tahoe. He has been told the show does not air bad shots to protect the celebrities. He wrote back — that is fine, go ahead. He has no issues with any of that whatsoever. Very small goals. Try not to hurt anyone. Put the bar low enough to clear it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning

Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Colin Morikawa is 29 years old. He has two major championships. He was the first player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. And when Trey Wingo asked him what comes next — what is enough — his answer was immediate and unambiguous. More. The answer is always more. This is the full conversation. What the Travelers Does Right Morikawa opens by explaining what he genuinely loves about the Travelers Championship — and it has nothing to do with the course rating or the purse size. Pizza and ice cream on the range. Umbrellas and chairs for caddies. The dining room stays open late. The family atmosphere. Coming off the grind of the US Open at Shinnecock, this is the week players actually look forward to. He uses the same line Trey has heard from every player he spoke to at TPC River Highlands — the Travelers knows who it is and embraces it. Like Harbour Town the week after the Masters. A breather. A welcome one. Shinnecock and the USGA His take on how the USGA set up Shinnecock is clean and direct. Show a fan the final score without showing them a single shot — five under par wins by two strokes, three players finish under par — and they would call it a great US Open. That is the test. The USGA passed it. He remembers the era when setups were getting out of hand — watering greens between groups at the 2004 US Open, courses pushed past difficult into genuinely unfair. That era is over. They have found their identity and they are executing it well. The Wyndham Clark Situation Morikawa's reaction to the crowd behavior at Shinnecock toward Wyndham Clark is measured but pointed. It did not add up. He is an American playing on American soil. He has won the US Open before. Morikawa spent significant time with Wyndham on the Olympic team and calls him a fantastic guy. He understands that sports fans need someone to root against — but the level of hostility at Shinnecock surprised him. He gives Wyndham full credit for playing through it and calls his performance amazing under the circumstances. He also adds something worth noting about Wyndham's putter — he cannot think of another player who has putted this well over this long a stretch and had it make this dramatic a difference in their results. Eleven under at the Byron Nelson when everyone was watching Scotty and Si Woo Kim. Two US Opens. An extended hot streak that has made him nearly unbeatable when the putter is on. The New PGA Tour Structure Morikawa read the Rolapp announcement and his single favorite element is simple — when you have a PGA Tour card you know exactly where you are playing. The uncertainty ends. The waiting game ends. Whether Championship Series or Challenger Series every player knows what they are competing for and against whom. That is a fundamental improvement over what exists now. He loves the regular season champion concept for the same reason. A player can dominate for five months and lose the FedEx Cup in one bad week. That disconnect has always bothered him. Acknowledging the regular season champion separately from the playoff format is the right call. And when the conversation turns to Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point as potential tour championship venues — his eyes light up. That is the juice. That is the buzz. People get excited about courses they have never seen. The Walker Cup at Cypress Point a few years ago was appointment viewing. Bandon Dunes for the US Amateur generated the same energy. Those courses create moments that traditional tour venues cannot. He loves everything about it. Playing Augusta on a Bad Back This is the most revealing part of the conversation. Morikawa played Augusta National this year with a back injury that made him uncertain about every step he took. Not the swinging — the walking. Every time he moved he did not know if something was going to give out. He never considered withdrawing. He wanted to compete. He wanted to find a way. Augusta suited him oddly well given the circumstances — the slopes let him work around the golf course in a way that minimized the physical demands. He managed it hole by hole. And then on the 12th hole in the final round, after grinding and surviving and saying nothing about what he was dealing with, he turned to his caddy and said four words. Let's do something special. Every putt started dropping. Birdies started coming. The mental battle he had been fighting all week turned in his favor in a single stretch of holes. He calls it more mental than physical — and says sometimes you just find a way. That is the competitor he is and has always been. The Tiger Comparison First player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. When Trey puts that in front of him — what does it mean to hear your name in that sentence? It means you are doing something right. He is careful not to overweight it. Early in his career he admits he cared too much about living in that comparison, about staying in that realm. When he had a few bad tournaments it felt like something was wrong because the bar he had set for himself was impossibly high. Mark O'Meara's advice recalibrated him — mellow out the bottoms, enjoy the highs, stay present in the moments. Now when he hears the Tiger comparison it motivates him rather than pressuring him. He wants a long career. He believes he can keep competing at the highest level. And he feels like he is just getting started. What Comes Next More majors. Starred and highlighted in his calendar. He knows it takes a great week, the right bounces, the right conditions, the shots falling at the right moments. He gives himself a chance on Sunday and trusts that the results will follow. He cannot be picky about which majors yet. That changes when he has won all of them. Until then — every one is on the list. Pebble Beach 2027 for the US Open is circled. He won there in 2019. He knows what that golf course demands when the USGA sets it up for a major versus how it plays for the Pro Am. Completely different. Firmer. Faster. Rougher. He is not concerned about the scoring numbers at the Pro Am — that is a different test. The 2027 US Open test is one he has solved before. He wants to solve it again. Two majors. A bad back at Augusta. A Tiger comparison. A long career ahead. And an answer to the question of what is enough that never changes. More. Always more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.