Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa), Two-time Major Champion and 6th ranked pro golfer in the world joins Sports Business Radio. Morikawa has a role in the upcoming Netflix movie “Happy Gilmore 2” and he discusses his role in the movie and partnership with U.S. Bank, who is also featured prominently in the movie starring Adam Sandler.
Morikawa also discusses his golf career, what he looks for in a business partner, playing in the inaugural year of the TGL and his thoughts on the overall growth of golf.
Listen Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sports-business-radio-podcast/id73834678?i=1000718511913
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@sportsbusinessradiopodcast?sub_confirmation=1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbradio
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sportsbusinessradio
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sportsbusinessradio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-business-radio/
Email: brian@sportsbusinessradio.com
This week’s edition of Sports Business Radio is presented by Boingo Wireless. Teams like the LA Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bears and San Diego Padres trust Boingo to connect their stadiums and arenas with cutting-edge 5G and Wi-Fi.
From mobile ticketing to security cameras to kiosks, connect every piece of stadium technology with Boingo’s converged wireless networks. As you plan for the future of your stadium, make 5G part of your gameplan and choose Boingo Wireless as your trusted connectivity partner.
Learn more by downloading Boingo’s free 5G Playbook for Stadiums & Arenas. Head to boingo.com/5Gstadium to get your copy.
#SportsBusiness #collinmorikawa #PGATour #Golf #HappyGilmore2 #Netflix #Stick #AppleTV #TGL #Champion
My guest is Colin Morawa, progolfer of the PJ Tour, two-time major winner. Colin has an appearance in the upcoming movie Happy Gilmore 2, which debuts this Friday on Netflix. Colin is joining me on behalf of US Bank, which is featured prominently in the movie Happy Gilmore 2. Colin has been partnered with US Bank since 2021. Colin, thanks for joining me on Sports Business Radio. How are you? I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. This seems like such a fun project. Why don’t you tell us how you and US Bank, like I said, you’ve been partnered since 2021. How did this collaboration with Happy Gilmore 2 come to be? Yeah. Well, I honestly think I was already going to be in the film and uh Happy Gilmore 2 was looking for a essentially a title sponsor for the Tour Championship, right? And what a better way to connect it. I was already in it. I was an ambassador. Makes sense. I mean they’ve already been in you know intertwined in the golf world in the sports world as well. Um, so it just made sense I think for them and I think it gives them a broader reach, right? I think when we think of banks, you don’t really think of comedy, right? You you want a bank to be very stable and very structured in a way. And I would say that’s kind of the opposite of what Haggi Gilmore provides. But um, it’s going to bring just a bigger audience and I think that’s what anyone could really use, especially like a a brand like US Bank. Yeah, I would think it helps US Bank reach a younger demo too, right? and and you know in a fun way. It does. It does. And it really ties in. I mean, look, if you really look at the bones of what Happy Gilmore is about, you know, it was about a man who needed financial money to, you know, save his grandma’s house or save something else, right? So, it it kind of ties it into this whole financial institution idea of needing a bank and needing money and uh there you go. Now you have a title of a tour championship. Now, you were at the premiere of Happy Gilmore 2 last night with your wife. How was it? I was It was amazing. It was a little overwhelming if I’ll be honest. Uh just an atmosphere that you’re not used to, but a lot of fun. A lot of faces that you recognize and honestly being my first movie premiere, I’d say it was something that, you know, I I don’t know if I can get used to, but it was really really cool to be a part of um you know, for this time being. I saw you sat with the alligator, too. You’re pretty brave. I did. Yeah. I was a little scared. You never know. You and US Bank did a commercial around Happy Gilmore 2 and you’re doing the bull dance in the commercial. Colin, when I see from the golf course, you’re pretty straight laced. When you’re doing the bull dance, I’m like, “Oh, this is a different side of Colin that we don’t usually see.” This was and I honestly wasn’t expecting it, but once again, it’s you’re put you’re getting put in a setting that one, they made it very comfortable for us to be who we are and just have fun and be a kid. Um, but you have to embrace that, right? That’s what Happy Gilmore is about. That’s what the entire production team’s about is is having fun. And, uh, when they asked me, you know, was I ready for it? No. But am I am I happy that I did it? Absolutely. Because you have to kind of be able to express yourself and just have a little fun sometimes. With the movie itself, how long did it take for you to film to be in the movie? Can you give us a little bit of behind the scenes? I know there’s some other pro golfers in the movie as well. Yeah, I was there for a couple days. Um, and you know, I think there’s a few other guys that were there for a little bit longer than me. Uh, little slight bigger roles, but you know, it’s just like I said, it’s a different environment. I think all of us took it to heart. It was a great time for us to film when we were filming during the fall and um, just having a little bit more time off instead of versus the middle of the season. You know, for example, if we were in the middle of the major season, I don’t know how many of us would have actually shown up. What was it like working with Adam Sandler? It was incredible. Uh we, you know, we we have this idea of who people are, celebrities, athletes, just based on what we see them on TV, but when you actually get to meet these people in real life, uh they show them their true selves. And Adam’s one of the best people because not just does he remember who you are, he’s just so comfortable and he makes you feel comfortable. It makes you feel like you guys have been friends for a while. And he did that for a lot of us. a lot of the golfers was able to hang out and just joke around and it’s it’s amazing to watch him in action and and be who he is in his craft. Um, and you really get to appreciate when you see all his movies come together and and say, “Wow, this is a special talent.” I want to talk a little bit of golf with you and also some of your other partnerships. Uh, you work with Adidas, Tailor Made, and others. When someone comes to you and they say, “Colin, I want to partner with you.” What are you looking for in a partnership? Yeah, I think well, one, you know, what do they value? What type of company are they? Um, you know, the the culture, the atmosphere that they bring in, their audience, uh, one, you know, have they partnered with any other golf golfers or athletes or celebrities, what kind of audience that they bring in as well. Um, you want to be like when I look through partnerships, it’s not just a partnership to slap on the chest or slap on my sleeve or, you know, yardage book or towel, whatever it may be. I want to have a personal relationship with them. I want to get to know them. I want to get to kind of experience their, you know, what they do in the real world essentially, right? And, uh, for me to learn a bit a little bit more, uh, is a big factor into all that. It seems like you’ve gone with the less is more approach with partners. I don’t see you with 20 partners. I see you with a handful of partners, but deeper relationships. Is that a a correct observation? In a way. In a way. You know, I I have a fairly clean look, but I do have some partners behind the scenes that matter a lot to me. Um that, you know, represent who I am, and I hope I represent their their brand as well as best as I can. Anytime I have an elite athlete on this show, I’m really interested in process and preparation. In general, can you walk me through what your process and preparation is for a week of golf? I know you just got back from the open, but even if it’s just a a non- major, what are you doing leading up to the event? Yeah, I don’t think people realize what we go through as golfers. You know, other sports, they kind of show up maybe a day before, get some practice in, get time travel, right? For us as golfers, we show up Sunday night or Monday morning, and then we’re practicing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So Monday and Tuesday might be nine holes or 18 holes of practice uh with a lot of other practice and working out in between. Wednesday we have our proam. So that’s about nine holes with you know a bunch of donors sponsors of the tournament and then go to sleep and then you’re playing Thursday, Friday, hopefully you’re making the cut Saturday, Sunday and then you’re rinse and repeating again. So you’re flying right after you play on Sunday you’re finding the quickest flight Sunday night. How do you get to the next event? How do you get to the next city? uh and then do that over again. And that’s that’s one week, right? And when you do that for three or four weeks in a row, come back home for five or six days and have to go do that for maybe another two or another five or six, you know, it adds up. But that’s part of what we we signed up for essentially and that’s part of what we do. And uh you get used to it and you find that rhythm. How different? I know you have a team around you, but you play an individual sport, so it’s all on you. You can’t pass the ball to anyone or count on anyone other than yourself. I know you’ve grown up playing golf, but how different is it playing an individual sport? It’s very different. You know, the responsibility comes on yourself. You can’t blame anyone else even though you have people all trying to help. At the end of the day, you’re the one uh swinging the shot. You’re the one, you know, pulling the club back and and committing to the shot. And uh it’s hard. You know, our sport takes quite a long time. you know, we’re out there for four, five, six hours a day playing just in the round. And when that happens, you know, your mind can kind of drift away for certain things. You might not be as focused as you were on the first hole or or the 10th hole or the 15th hole. And you have to find ways to um kind of mellow that out and when you’re stepping over every shot, really put all your effort into it and then be able to kind of step away and and do that uh hopefully less than 70 times a uh around. I’m interested in your happy place. Is there your favorite place on tour or your favorite tournament that you love playing in? Uh you know, the majors I’m going to set them aside. Uh the majors are obviously very special, but uh I’m very biased. I love Riviera. I love Tigers tournament in LA. I get a little more friends and family out there. You get some great dinner spots to eat at, you know, after the round. Um it’s just it encompasses everything that I enjoy. I also love Jack’s event, you know, so there’s two Hall of Famers essentially. Uh but I just love the golf golf course, Mirford Village. So those those are the my top two. I love starting my year out when you’re able to start out at Century at Capalua looking out on the ocean. It really separate separates yourself from being able to play golf to just really enjoying where you are in the world. I actually followed you around a couple years ago at Capalua because the galleries aren’t huge there so it’s pretty easy to to fault golfers and uh it was fun to watch you play that course and uh just a beautiful scenic history there. the TGL. You played for the LA franchise for TGL. That was new. How was that for you? LAGC. No, it was it was a lot of fun. It was just how I talked about being in Happy GM War 2, a different environment. TGL was a completely different environment, but all of us bought into it. I think we all I think it exceeded all of our expectations, honestly, and we just loved every aspect of it. It’s very different than golf and we know that you know you cannot compare it to the traditional PGA tour schedule and that type of golf 4 days out there but it’s in a different niche 2 hours we get a lot of coverage on us. you get you get to hear us kind of banter back and forth between other players and and that kind of brings out what we normally do when we’re practicing is a lot of our practice revolves around playing against other competitors and and other guys on tours uh whether it’s the PJ tour uh many tours and then so be it and a lot of there’s a lot of banter and I think that’s what you’re going to see through TGL as it continues to evolve. Yeah. I mean do you plan on playing in the future? Absolutely. Absolutely. I I will be there next year uh on the LA GC team. Uh and hopefully, you know, we we had a great regular season. We topped off the regular season uh first and unfortunately the playoffs didn’t go our way and that’s that’s how sports work. So, uh hopefully we can kind of rekindle the spark that we had in the regular season, you know, get off to a nice start and then uh be ready for playoffs hopefully uh come next year. Yeah, I liked it too, like you said. It brings in a younger demo, I think, to TGL. And it also, because you’re miked up, it showcases your personality a little bit more than a typical PGA tour event. For sure. For sure. And it’s it’s a light watch, you know, it’s something that you can have on in the background. It’s something you can tune in with friends, have a watch party, whatever it may be. Uh, you know, sit at the bar, whatever it is, right? you kind of fills in that gap of of what it might be because it is only two hours and you get to hear us talk and uh kind of you know shoot back and forth between between the teams. Obviously you golf all the time. From where you sit, do you see the game growing both with fans attending golf tournaments and also watching on TV? Is it going in the right direction? Absolutely. You know, you can simply just look at viewership numbers on the PJ tour. Those are growing. uh as you look over the past five, six years, uh the numbers keep growing. But just aside from that, I think it’s just becoming a younger sport. And that’s what we love as professional athletes and professional golfers is seeing kids want to take up the game because that’s the next generation. Those are the kids that will take over when we get older and as time goes. And I think the accessibility to golf is what we want to keep seeing. That’s what TGL is bringing. That’s what the PGA Tour is trying to bring um into every week and every tournament that we play. And I hope that’s what Happy Gilmore 2 bridges another gap is a lot more kids want to watch the movie. Maybe they want to pick up golf because they saw one of us or maybe because you know Happy Gilmore looks fun to play, right? And then you never know what that’s going to be uh bring. So hopefully that continues to go up. We are absolutely seeing a lot more kids out there at tournaments, a lot more teenagers, college kids wanting to play golf and everyone saying, “Man, I wish I took up this game early.” That’s what we love to hear and hopefully they, you know, people do start taking it up. When I was growing up, there was just the PGA Tour. Now there’s live golf as well. What do you think of this? Would you rather have everything combined like it was at the start of your career or do you think it’s good to have a little bit of competition and maybe some outside the box thinking that that pushes the envelope a little bit to maybe do things a little different? Yeah, look, uh, competition’s always good and I don’t think we you should ever stray away from competition and I still believe and I truly believe that the PJ tour is the best place for that, right? But that doesn’t mean that other people can’t push the boundaries and and push your buttons to how do we make how do we make things better? And I think when sometimes, you know, you look at the PJ tour, maybe it was five, six, seven years ago where things were getting a little stagnant and everyone was getting complacent, this kind of riled some feathers and I think that’s everyone has made great greater changes and adapted to that. Um, but do we miss playing against everyone all together at the same time? Of course. And I think we all took that for granted. Whether we ever see that come together or not anymore in the future, who knows? And I don’t know, I don’t have that answer, right? But, um, everyone’s had to adapt and I think everyone’s adapted for the for the better. And that’s what’s great. And I think that’s what the PGA Tour is going to keep pushing is how do we adapt and and make it better, not for the players, but how do we make it better for the fans and the fan engagement and the fan interactions. Um, because that’s what drives interest in golf is are the fans and the people wanting to watch. Brian Rolap came from the NFL to the PJ tour. Very accomplished at the NFL. Lots of great reviews about him coming to the PGA tour. Have you had a chance to meet him and speak with him? Yeah, I actually had a nice talk with him for about 20 to 30 minutes. Um, aside from when he had our our meetings with the players and he just it’s going to bring a fresh new perspective. You know, I think all of us have been so much in this golf world and and drama, let’s call it, over the past 5 years that it’s going to bring a new uh focus and energy into what into our golf world. And we need that. We absolutely need that. He’s going to bring new ideas um into the idea and I think his background is going to be great for what we what we need on the PJ tour. And it sounds like they listen to input from the players like yourself, right? They do. They do and they’ve been great about that in the past. Um, but it’s going to continue to to progress and I think that just shows the the growth and development of of the tour. All right, just a couple questions left. I know you need to get going. Social media, you know, I saw pictures on your social media last night from the premiere. Like, you seem like you enjoy using social media. What’s your recipe? Are you a pull the phone out of my pocket poster, or are you thinking more, hey, I’m going to do four posts this month and here’s what they’re going to be? Yeah, I I’m in the middle. I don’t know if I I love it like some guys. I know some guys absolutely love doing it. Um I find myself in the middle. I I’ll go through waves where I I truly do enjoy it. I do engage I do like to engage and then there’s some times where you you have to step away, right? And it’s it’s just kind of free flowing kind of goes as as the rhythm goes and uh you know that’s why some months might look a little better than other months and that but I I don’t live and die by it, right? I think people want to know our lives and I think that’s what’s great about for example full swing and and you know just having little tidbits that the tour does about our lives. It’s it’s a lot more insight and I think that’s what people want to see. So I think that’s what Happy Gilmore 2 hopefully provides is like it pulls us out of our comfort zone um to see us as you know not these uh stiff golfers in a way. Well and even I know this is different. It’s on Apple TV Stick. I’ve enjoyed watching that. Owen Wilson. I think that makes golf fun, too. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got a lot of uh debuts this week uh between Stick and Happy Gilmore, too. But Exactly. It just it pulls a little more persona out of us. And golf is such a tough sport because all these other sports that are aggressive in in nature, right? A little more offense, you can kind of see the energy pulled out of them. There’s a lot of energy in golf. We just don’t show it because we have to restrain ourselves be because we know that we don’t live and die by one shot. We have to we have to execute that shot and then move on and too much energy into one allow and that pulls it away from the next one and that might pull you away and distract you from the next one. So you have to find that balance. But I think that’s what’s great about, you know, these these two premieres uh or my debuts essentially between Stick and and Happy Gilmore 2 is uh hopefully there’s this fun side that you people can kind of see. I appreciate your time. Colin Morawa, two-time major winner. You can catch him in Happy Gilmore 2 debuting on Netflix this Friday. Colin, best of luck in the future. Keep up the great work and thanks for joining me on Sports Business Radio. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it, Tom.
