Rippee Writes: Morikawa shines, SEC Media Days begins
Morikawa's incredible week, SEC Media Day storylines and some MS golf notes
A happy Monday to you all. We will have a podcast out later this evening on the Open Championship, some SEC Media Days storylines and more, so be on the lookout for that here in the next few hours. We’ve got some golf and football to cover today.
Morikawa shines at Open Championship
Collin Morikawa took advantage of an early Sunday stumble from Louis Oosthuizen, and used it as a springboard to blitz the rest of the field en route to his second career major win at the ripe age of 24 years old. He played his final 31 holes in eight-under par without a bogey. He held off a charge from a rejuvenated Jordan Spieth, who looks a lock to win a major in 2022. Spieth had an eight-hole stretch that he played in 6-under par and never sniffed the lead. Morikawa was unflappable. The calmness and ability to rise under pressure at his age is remarkable. He made big putt after big putt and never showed an inkling of weakness, aside from pulling an iron at 15, only to complete a ridiculous up-and-down from some thick cabbage. That up-and-in essentially sealed the tournament.
It’s sort of amazing to me Morikawa hasn’t been discussed in the same light as Spieth and Rory McIlory were when they had rapid success to start there careers. Maybe he is discussed this way and I just haven’t paid attention to the right people, but his unassuming nature almost makes it seem like he flies under the radar and prefers it that way. I am not sure how much longer he will be able to keep that up. This feels like a good time to remind you that he’s been a professional golfer for a total of 25 months. He’s played in eight total majors and has won two of them. He’d never played in an Open Championship before and had essentially no experience playing links golf until the Scottish Open last week. He’s made 50 career PGA Tour starts and has five wins. That is an absolutely remarkable stat, sort of like making 22 consecutive cuts to start his career, a streak only Tiger Woods has surpassed.
Morikawa is a ball-striking savant. He rarely misses the center of the club face and becomes almost unstoppable when he gets hot with the putter. Perhaps the best evidence of this is him ranking outside the top 100 in driving distance (114th) on Tour. We’ve sort of surpassed the whole ‘let’s dub every young player that has rapid success the game’s next Tiger Woods equivalent,’ but if there were ever someone to award this absurd and abstract title to, wouldn’t it be the guy that’s won 25 percent of the major championships he’s competed in?
Oh, and he is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with at the Ryder Cup. There’s also some enemy potential there too after Morikawa called the tournament ‘The British Open’ in his speech on the 18th green. He also butchered the “champion golfer of the year,” tagline that the Europeans love so much. If there was ever a reminder that we stopped caring about what they thought on July 4, 1776, Morikawa was there to hammer the point home again nearly 300 years later.
I doubt any of this was intentional, and I am mostly joking, but it was sort of funny to watch. He’s a good dude who’s head was likely spinning from trying to process what he’d just accomplished. Hell, he even led his speech by recognizing the low amateur, which was also cool to see. But the Brits often get their britches in wad over the tournament’s name and the history that comes with it, and I am all for Morikawa ruffling some feathers before dominating them in the fall.
Morikawa is a superstar and it’ll be tremendously entertaining to watch him continue to ascend.
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SEC Media Days begins Monday
By the time most of you are reading this, Greg Sankey will have already taken the podium to kick the week off. This event has become the unofficial start of the college football season. Many people have varying thoughts on SEC Media Days and its purpose. I always found the event to be relatively boring, but I also covered the Matt Luke era. It’s a large gathering of media members, many of whom love to brag about how many they’ve attended in a row, as they ask the same remarkably uncreative questions that produce clichés and platitudes from coaches and players whose entire goal is to say as little as possible. There is absolutely some ego stroking at this event, as Big J Journalists strut around their kingdom. The oath and badge they give you when becoming a Big J is not to be taken lightly. It’s large burden to shoulder being a Gannett columnist and with great power comes great responsibility. It has become more of a social gathering amongst media than a productive access opportunity, but I also looked at it in a positive light too. It was always fun getting to see some friends in the industry that you don’t often see otherwise. I don’t really miss being there, but it was far from the worst thing I had to cover. It’s an event made for TV, not print and online media, but it celebrates the sport, the beginning of another season and gives the players and coaches further exposure. I suppose it is a good event, all things considered.
Anyway, with that rant aside, Ole Miss’ turn at the podium is on Tuesday. Lane Kiffin along with Matt Corral and senior Jaylon Jones. You want some good news? Ole Miss is interesting again, and for the right reasons this time. There will be no 20-minute filibuster to distract from questions about an NCAA investigation or off the field shortcomings (I am feeling nice today, so we will leave it at that), and the Rebels are also not an afterthought like they were for a couple of years following the Freeze era. Ole Miss shares the day with Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. There’s an argument to be made the Rebels will be the most exciting part of the day. It’s been a while since you could argue that. Enjoy the build up and intrigue surrounding the program. Competency is refreshing, isn’t it? The trio of representatives will be asked a slew of predictable questions. Kiffin will likely cover NIL, Arch Manning, the defense, John Rhys Plumlee, vaccination rates and much more. Corral will be asked about his relationship with Kiffin, the newfound continuity that eluded him early on in his career and whether he believes the Rebels are poised to compete for the SEC West. Nothing noteworthy will be said, in all likelihood, but if you want to take away something from the circus that is SEC Media Days, it’s that the Rebels are an interesting storyline for the first time in over half a decade — this time for all the right reasons.
As far as storylines outside of Ole Miss, I’ll present to you some virtual guarantees this week. Some of these might be laced with sarcasm, but I will let you decide:
When LSU takes the podium, not a single tough question will be asked by anyone, despite being able to count the scandals in Baton Rouge on two hands.
Kirby Smart will be asked about beating Nick Saban.
Someone will get on TV wearing the logo and colors of the school they cover.
An alarming number of questions will begin with the phrase “talk about.”
Dan Mullen will wear cool shoes and they will get tweeted by many for clout. He’ll also say something off-putting and snarky.
Someone is going to ask an embarrassingly terrible question that will make for a viral internet clip. The last time this event happened, it was someone asking Will Muschamp how he feels about being Clemson’s little brother.
Jimbo Fisher will talk incredibly fast and will be asked “is this the year the Aggies finally get over the hump?” Because that is a very creatively crafted question.
Someone will think they’re the star of the week for goading Mike Leach into a rant, and I love Mike Leach rants, but bank on the person that does it taking full credit for it online.
Absolutely nothing profound will be said and little will be learned.
Someone will have an absurd vote as it pertains to All-SEC teams or predicted order of finish, and it definitely won’t be to get attention.
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Mississippi golf notes:
Some quick-hitting notes on Mississippi golfer over the weekend.
Chad Ramey made his 20th consecutive cut and finished T-11 at the Korn Ferry event in Springfield, Illinois. A Saturday 62 got him to within three of the lead heading into the final round.
Ole Miss golfer Jackson Suber notched at T-9 finish at the 115th Southern Amateur, a huge event with a decorated list of past winners. Mississippi State’s Ford Clegg finished a shot behind Suber and was T-16.
Davis Riley made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship in Kentucky. He struggled on Sunday and shot a 74 for a T-58 finish.
Content for your perusal
Here’s Neal McCready’s 10 weekend thoughts column
Ross Dellenger wrote an interesting piece on NIL and the future of college athletics
On the horizon
Golf pod, followed by some football preview stuff. We have some exciting things in the works for the podcast for football season.
Week of newsletters on SEC Media Days, the NBA Finals and golf
Chad Ramey story is finally getting finished up.
That is all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join the fun. Back with more soon.