News

Buick Invitational Belongs to Watney

Published

17 years ago

Feb 9, 2009

Nick Watney started the day 5 shots behind leader John Rollins, he ended the day with a three foot birdie putt and the trophy. Mr. Rollins began the day with a 3 shot lead over Camilo Villegas. He proceeded to bogey the first two holes and saw his lead reduced to a single shot by the 6th hole. Mr. Villegas had a 10 foot birdie putt to tie for the lead which he just missed. While he lined up the short par putt the television cameras showed viewers a ground level picture and commentator David Faherty remarked about his improved putting promptly drawing the attention of the golf gremlins who leapt onto the toe of his putter causing it to lag behind and push the putt right of the hole. Mr. Rollin’s lead was back to two shots. A hole later it was four shots. Five more holes and the lead was a single shot again.

Between Mr. Feherty, Gary McCord, and Peter Oosterhaus they also tried to jinx Mr. Watney by drawing attention to his not three putting all week as he stood over a 10 footer for a par. I was thinking, these guys should know better than to do that the superstitious dolts.

Then came the 13th and Mr. Rollins calmly rolled in a 20 foot eagle putt to restore his three shot lead. By the 16th hole the lead was gone. Holy Roller Coaster Batman. What a ride.

At the 17th hole Mr. Villegas missed the fairway left, not recommended when trailing by one with two holes to play. His 8 iron shot flew the green and led to a bogey leaving him 2 shots behind heading into the par 5 18th. His second into 18 cleared the water in front of the green by the smallest of margins and came to rest short and right of the pin. With the putt for eagle he still had a chance to tie for the lead. As happened a surprising number of times all day, his putt looked into the hole and stayed out, leaving a tap in for birdie and a round of 72 tied for third with Lucas Glover.

I can’t remember a round where a player missed so many putts by such small margins. The remarkable thing to me was Mr. Villegas’s attitude stayed upbeat and assured. It reminded me of what happens when you realize how good you are and accept that golf is not a fair game. As long as you keep hitting quality putts you’ ll end up making your share. I see many high finishes in the future for this talented young man.

Mr. Glover started the day seven shots back of the lead and was one behind after the 16th hole. A bogey on the 17th finished him off.

In the 18th fairway Mr Watney and Mr. Rollins were only several yards apart. Mr. Watney’s hybrid from 235 yards found the back of the green 60 some feet from the hole. Mr. Rollins also hit a hybrid, but pulled it left and into the sand from which his could only get to 12 feet for his birdie try.

“It’s unfortunate that I came in with a three-shot lead and couldn’t get the victory,” Rollins said. “But as I said yesterday, if somebody came out and played a great round of golf and came out on top, then my hat’s off to him. And that’s exactly what Nick did.” Classy stuff on a tough tough day.

Entertaining golf. I found one of the commercials run by Buick featuring one of their VP’s to be interesting. She stated that Buick was one of GM’s core products and that they intended to be around for another 100 years. Brave talk on that front from a company which has been hemorrhaging cash for a while now. She stated they were committed to sponsoring tour events which, given the political climate may be hard to justify. After all, when every big public expenditure is scrutinized by the media this may be an advertising platform that the automobile industry will find hard to stand up and defend with any gusto. Which leaves some tough questions for the Tour itself in terms of possible sponsor replacement. Time will tell.

A note on the broadcast, I loved the exchange between Mr. McCord and Mr. Feherty about the latter’s bicycle riding. Mr. McCord asked if Mr. Feherty had gotten up and gone riding at 4:30am in the rain. Mr. Feherty pled guilty and offered he rode 30 miles. When asked which direction his answer was "forward".

News

WITB Time Machine: Phil Mickelson’s winning WITB, 2021 PGA Championship

Published

5 days ago

May 13, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Phil Mickelson made history at the 2021 PGA Championship on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. At 50, he became the oldest player to win a major, breaking Julius Boros’s record. Starting the final round with a slim lead, Lefty faced tough competition from Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen. He pulled ahead with key birdies and a standout 366-yard drive on the 16th hole. Finishing 6 under par and two shots ahead, Mickelson claimed his sixth major and second PGA Championship. Many saw his win as an inspiring comeback, showing that experience and determination can still lead to victory in professional golf — and, sometimes, age is just a number.

Driver: Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond (6 degrees @5.5 , green dot cog)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X (47.9 inches)

2-wood: TaylorMade “Original One” Mini Driver (11.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X

4-wood (Sunday only): Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Irons: Callaway X Forged UT (16) (Thursday-Saturday), Callaway X21 UT Proto (19 degrees @20.5, 25), Callaway Apex MB ‘21 (small groove) (6-PW)
Shafts: (16) MCA MMT 105 TX, KBS Tour V 125 S+

Wedges: Callaway PM Grind ’19 “Raw” (52-12@50, 55-12, 60-10)
Shafts: KBS Tour V 125 S+

Putter: Odyssey Milled Blade “Phil Mickelson”
Grip: SuperStroke Pistol GT Tour

Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X (Triple Track)

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

More photos of Phil Mickelson’s WITB here.

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

6 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

6 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.