Golf can be an isolating experience. It is, after all, an individual sport.
Obviously at the professional level PGA Tour players have an entire team. Heck, most are walking corporations with entire fleets who help them operate their entire day to day functions because they extend so far beyond the beautiful game.
The reality though is that golf is hard and that you are going to lose (as in not win a tournament) more often than you win (as in actually win the whole thing). This can be a struggle for players to deal with, especially given that so many have dominated their way through each and every level of golf en route to the top of the mountain.
It may as well have been on the side of a mountain where Collin Morikawa took us by way of his Instagram post following last week’s Open Championship. A former Champion Golfer of the Year himself, Morikawa has lofty standards. He is one of the very best players in the world. When this is the case you know that you can achieve excellence so when you don’t, emotions naturally pop up. He took to Instagram to reflect on all of this and noted that his team (as in his support system) helps in those moments.
This type of vulnerability is enlightening. Even the most casual golfer is aware of how lonely the game can make you feel and so we can empathize with frustration as a result of it all, even if it is from players who have talents beyond our wildest dreams.
Thanks to the fine folks at U.S. Bank I was able to poke Collin’s brain this week regarding this whole thing (and Collin’s role in Happy Gilmore 2… more on that in a moment). I’m fortunate in that I have had the chance to talk to a number of athletes over the course of my career, but I can genuinely say that none had the perspective that Collin seems to carry with him. You can view our entire conversation below.
Collin noted that he is grateful for the life he gets to live and that he is obviously competitive so falling short is frustrating; however, his family and friends support him and do so genuinely which helps in circumstances where the golf of it all gets in the way. We have all been there.
It certainly didn’t hurt (Collin joked about this) that following the action at Royal Portrush duty called for Collin and others to make their way to New York for the premier of Happy Gilmore 2. Golf fans have been anxious for this film ever since word of it began to circulate across the internet and on Friday we will all have the chance to watch it when it premieres on Netflix.
To celebrate the film’s upcoming release U.S. Bank, Collin is a U.S. Bank ambassador, put together a great campaign that featured Morikawa alongside all sorts of things that golf fans will love. You can view it right here.
If you have seen the first movie in this universe then you understand all of the inside jokes that are a part of this campaign. It is the perfect way to get excited for the release on Friday.
But putting together a campaign like this is no small task, especially when you are coordinating things with some of the most famous people in the world. This is where Michael Lacorazza, U.S. Bank’s CMO, played a huge role as he got this entire project off of the ground. He was also kind enough to join me for a chat where I picked his brain on how something like this even starts, how you go about lining up the details of it all and ultimately what it was like to see fully executed.
As a hardcore golf fan I was already ridiculously excited for this movie and to see the inclusion of someone like Collin Morikawa. Having a deeper understanding of what went into it all only amplified that experience.
Here’s to the movie delivering on that excitement for us all!
