Why Collin Morikawa missed the Ryder Cup afterparty

The immediate aftermath of the 2021 Ryder Cup was an incredible scene. Caught up in the delirium of victory, Team USA swigged beers stored in their pockets and sprayed each other with champagne.

It was an especially significant moment for Ryder Cup rookie Collin Morikawa, whose singles halve with Viktor Hovland was enough to clinch a record-setting victory for Team USA, who steamrolled Europe with a final score of 19-9.

Morikawa was a huge star at Whistling Straits that week, going 3-0-1 in his debut. On this week’s episode of Subpar, Morikawa relived the experience with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, but unfortunately there was one part of the festivities that he has no memory of: the afterparty. Why? Turns out, he never made it there.

“I’ll be honest — those Moet champagne bottles that are, like, however large? I don’t think you’re supposed to drink those,” Morikawa began. “I was so, like, determined to drink the half-bottle after I had let it out, and then I had this — I don’t know what I drank. I had a cocktail made for me for the press conference after, and I just, like, drank it. Like, it was just going down like water.”

Morikawa certainly couldn’t be blamed for hitting it hard after such an impressive performance, but he says a contributing factor was his lack of sustenance on Sunday.

“I didn’t eat anything that day,” he said. “The only thing I ate that day was breakfast. I had like, an avocado toast and some potatoes. And I didn’t eat anything through the day, through the round, I didn’t snack at all after I finished. People were handing out drinks already right when I finished my match. So yeah, let’s just say I did not make it to the afterparty, which I’m a little disappointed about.”

Some reassuring news for Morikawa? He’s not the first rookie to overdo it a little too soon.

“A couple other people told me that they never made it to their first Ryder Cup afterparty,” he said. “I was up at 6 am [the next day] wondering where the hell everyone was. I was saying goodbye to everyone as they left the hotel room. I was hungry, I was ready, I was ready to go again.”

For more from Morikawa, including why his goal is to get to World No. 1, and how dialed in he was on the back nine at TPC Harding Park, check out the full interview here.

Golf.com

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.