Henley Goes All In While Morikawa Folds, NBC's Embarrassing Golf Coverage, And A Confident Phil Mickelson

Russell Henley earned the biggest win of his career at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but no one got to see his entire round on Sunday, thanks to NBC showing the world yet again that it doesn't fully grasp how to broadcast a golf tournament.

The API was Collin Morikawa's to lose to begin Sunday's final round, and it remained that way with only a few holes left to play, but his streak of not getting the job done continued. We've long reached the point of concern when it comes to Morikawa forgetting how to win a golf tournament, but that doesn't mean it's as grim as it seems.

Then, on the other side of the world, Phil Mickelson golfed his ball in Hong Kong to pick up the best finish of his LIV Golf career. The lefty finding some form a month out from the Masters is about as on-brand as on-brand gets, and we're here for it.

As always, feel free to reach out to me at mark.harris@outkick.com with thoughts, concerns, questions, and, of course, disagreements. If you'd rather yell at me on Twitter, you can find me @itismarkharris.

Russell Henley Finally Gets His, While Collin Morikawa Does The Expected

Russell Henley is towards the top of the list of the least-suspecting flushers of the golf ball in the game's history given his incredibly low-key demeanor and the fact that he had just four wins to his name heading into the week.

He entered the week as the No. 14 player in the world, a fact that even some very serious golf fans wouldn't believe, who has happened to earn more than $30 million in his career. He's been Mr. Consistent with 52 Top 10 finishes in fewer than 300 starts on Tour, but picked up a reputation of falling one or two shots short time and time again.

He's lacked that killer instinct over the years, and showed it again at the week prior's Cognizant Classic with a forgettable Sunday en route to a T-6 finish, but he silenced those demons and critics on Sunday and finally managed to win the big one.

Beginning the final round trailing Morikawa, seeing the deficit grow on the front nine with two bogeys on Par 5s, and then flipping a switch on the back nine was a version of Henley we had not seen, which made it that much more impressive.

Henley could have easily played things a bit too conservatively and let Morikawa find a spot in the winner's circle, but instead, was the aggressor.

Russell Henley finally earned himself a big one by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

As for Morikawa, he was in complete control of his golf ball, and he actually turned into the more shy player when the tournament was up for grabs. It's hard to win PGA Tour events when you shoot 1-over par on the back nine on Sunday, and Morikawa found that out the hard way as he watched Henley snatch the trophy from his hands down the stretch.

Morikawa has won just one time since hoisting the Claret Jug in July 2021. It would be ridiculous to claim his game has fallen off as he's been close to ending his cold spell a number of times, but the expectation has shifted, at least for the time being.

Saying he was among the ‘most-feared’ players on Tour a few years ago when he was still only in his early 20s may be a stretch, but there was a certain element to his game that he was going to go out there and try and take it from you, but we haven't seen that Collin Morikawa in quite some time.

NBC Hits A New Low With Its Golf Coverage

Golf fans and media members alike love nothing more than finding something to complain about, and for the more niche corner of the golf social media world, the broadcast has been the top target when it comes to the most bitching and moaning.

It wasn't just the week-in, week-out golf fans who noticed NBC's struggles during Sunday's final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, however. Things were so bad that anyone tuned into Sunday's coverage recognized that things weren't exactly running smoothly.

The commercial overload and the exhausting rate of ‘Playing Through’ segments was nothing new; fans have been programmed to just accept watching golf in a tiny box each weekend that NBC has the broadcast, but the straight-up missing the golf shot that won Russell Henley the golf tournament was next-level embarrassing.

To paint the full picture here, Collin Morikawa held a one-shot lead over Henley as the two played the gettable Par 5 16th hole. Morikawa was forced to lay up after a poor teeshot while Henley managed to hit his second shot close to pin-high, leaving himself with a chip shot for eagle while Morikawa was facing an 18-footer for birdie himself.

After Morikawa found the green with his third shot, and with Henley already standing near the green, the broadcast elected to go to a 1:45 Rolex ad despite this clearly shaping up to be the moment of the golf tournament. One would imagine that NBC could have gone to the Rolex ad after the players finished the hole, but it went with the riskier approach, and it came back to bite 'em.

As the broadcast returned to the action, viewers were met with a rolling golf ball headed toward the flagstick. It was Henley's chip from the rough, which found the bottom of the cup for eagle, ultimately giving him one-shot lead. Nobody watching the action from home actually saw Henley hit the golf shot in real time.

Here's what viewers saw, or didn't see, during Henley's hole out:

Barstool's Dave Portnoy happened to be watching, and proceeded to call out NBC to his 3.6 million followers for just how bad the moment was on the broadcast.

This should not happen in the year 2025. Fill our brains with the same commercials over and over, bring us pointless interviews during the tournament, but completely missing the full shot that ultimately led to Henley winning a signature event on the PGA Tour is legitimately outrageous.

CBS has absolutely bullied NBC so far in the 2025 PGA Tour season, and this moment will be one that golf fans will legitimately remember the rest of the year and point to the next time NBC messes up.

Just show more live golf, especially when we're talking about the final three holes of a golf tournament, but NBC can't quite figure out how to do that.

There just seems to be too much going on with the NBC team. Too many voices, too many commercials, too much unneeded stuff making the viewing experience more complicated and busy than it needs to be.

The Players is this week, which is always NBC's best broadcast of the year, and the execs certainly hope that's the case again after one of the worst weeks in recent memory.

Yep, Phil Mickelson Does Still Have It

LIV Golf Hong Kong took place this weekend, and with the time change making it rather difficult for folks States-side to catch the action live, a quick look at the leaderboard delivers two very bold headlines.

First and foremost, Sergio Garcia may not just want his spot back on the European Ryder Cup team, he may be deserving of it. The 45-year-old Spaniard picked up his second LIV Golf title in China on Sunday and made it look relatively easy with a three-shot cushion. If he makes some noise at Augusta in April and keeps putting together solid performances on LIV Golf, he could sneak onto the European squad for Bethpage.

Phil Mickelson finally earned himself a spot on the podium in a LIV Golf event in Hong Kong. Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

The second headline of the week, and probably the top story for American golf fans, is Phil Mickelson finishing third in Hong Kong. His solo third happens to be the best of his LIV career and came in just his second start of 2025 after dealing with an injury.

While this could have been a one-off for the lefty, it's hard to ignore, and if he is able to piece some rounds together in the upcoming events in Singapore and Miami, you better believe there will be hype around his name at the Masters. 

"The fact is I’m hitting a lot of good shots. I’m playing some good golf, and this is a building week as I continue to build into LIV and my goal of accomplishing a win in LIV as well as winning another major, getting ready for Augusta," Mickelson said after his third place finish.

We can't forget that Mickelson finished T-2 in the 2023 Masters and last missed the cut at Augusta National back in 2016. Feed us the storyline of an in-form Mickelson at Augusta every single time.