News

The Good The Bad The Ugly

A quick summary of some of the good, bad and unfortunately ugly from the past year in golf.

Published

18 years ago

Dec 23, 2007

Unlike so many other parts of life and the sporting world there are a lot of "Good" to reflect on from the golfing year past.

Along with a lot of time to reflect on them particularly at this festive season; have you been inside a mall lately? Lots of lines, above average displays of animosity (which always surprises me during what is supposed to be a festive time of year) and a whole lot of trying not to get run over by a stampede of lemming like creatures attempting to exchange money for items certain to bring as much pleasure into the recipients life as hemorrhoids on a 15 hour car trip. I digress.

Just some of the "Good":

Steve Stricker returns to the winners circle for the first time since 2001. Good stuff for a good guy. Don’t let the dubious Comeback Player of the Year award for the second year in a row get in the way of what he accomplished this year.

Lorena Ochoa: should be golfer of the year for the entire world. Absolutely amazing what she has done with her game, for the game, and as a representative of her country. Keep some distance from her, a star this bright is likely to cause damaged eyes. Every time I see her play, the warnings about not looking directly at an eclipse of the sun play in my head using that "announcer guy voice" from the old newsreels.

The LPGA: nothing but upside here. If the Commissioner can figure out how to market the product. There is so much talent here you could fill a room with players capable of being know by one name only, and I don’t mean "Hey Lady".

Woody Austin: Who knew this guy could play this well more than once in a row? The most remarkable feat was not the "aquaman" routine, but closing with three birdies after attempting to catch dinner with his face. From June on I kept hearing Adam Sandler’s voice saying "Woody learned how to putt. UH-OH".

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson: Head to head at the top of the leaderboard, AFTER the majors no less. It gets no better ever. Hopefully we get to see more in the coming year.

I could go on and on but you get the idea, lots of "Good" to remember.

The Bad:

The poster boy for bad, Mr. Daly. Of the 25 events he entered the results show 10 missed cuts and 6 WD. Poor poor pitiful John. He keeps getting opportunities to play based on his ability to draw paying customers. But he plays badly and then behaves worse than he played by withdrawing. Bad play can be forgiven, it’s a hard game after all. Bad behavior is inexcusible always. The combination of the two will result in those opportunities to play becoming less and less frequent until Mr. Daly finds his bus up on blocks as broken as his life.

MIchelle Wie: No good has come from 2007, except her admission to Stanford. Professionally this year has been a complete train wreck. How bad you ask? Let’s just say the joker who decided it would be a good idea to bundle subprime mortgages and sell them as investments had a better year, and he hasn’t been seen in months. What effect this kind of year will have on the teenagers psyche remains to be seen. Hopefully her parental units will have taken some lessons from the year as well. Time alone will tell.

The USGA: Walter Driver told the professional staff at golf house that things were going great and how much he appreciated them for all the hard work they did for the organization. Then he chopped their benefits and reshuffled more power into the executive committee. As an attorney Mr. Driver ran an international firm of more than 800 lawyers so you would believe he might have been more direct with the folks at Golf House.

Carolyn Bivens: As commissioner of the LPGA she’s made a series of awful decisions resulting in resignations, disputes with the media ( and herself an ex-media services provider executive), and non existant marketing. Oh my bad, she did have the LPGA logo redesigned. I hear it’s increased ticket sales by 4 patrons per event. Given a product with so many things going for it she accomplished nothing of note this year except to stay out of the headlines. Here’s hoping she provides some direction this year or seeks employment elsewhere.

The Ugly

Rory Sabbatini: Shades of 2005 and the boorish behavior exhibited by both Mr. and Ms. Sabbatini returned when Mr. Sabbatini vanished from the final round of the Target World Challenge amid a swirl of conflicting statements. Host Tiger Woods woke to find Mr. Sabbitini had pulled a Robert Irsay and vanished in the dead of night. (For those too young to remember, Mr. Irsay, owner of the then Baltimore Colts NFL franchise, packed up lock, stock and barrel in the dead of night and plopped his team down in Indianapolis where they reside to this day) Ugly behavior by any standards. Hey Mr. S, what kind of weenie just up and leaves without a word to the host? Perhaps the logo on your wife’s shirt refers not to speed of play but the status of your spine. Maybe I’ll send her a new one with the logo "GROW ONE".

News

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

Published

3 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

4 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

4 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.