News

5 Things We Learned from Day 1 at the 2017 Open Championship

Published

9 years ago

Jul 20, 2017

Royal Birkdale has been kind to golfers from the USA over the years, with 5-of-9 Open Championships going to American golfers over the years. Mo Martin won the Women’s Open in 2014 there, furthering the trend. This bodes well for Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, and all of whom occupy spots in the top-10 after the first round. However, the news from Day 1 wasn’t just about them; I recap the day’s biggest takeaways below.

1) So much is going Brooks’ way

He cut his professional teeth on the European challenge and main tours. He’s the reigning U.S. Open trophy-keeper. He even knows when the cameras are on and he plays to them! Brooks Koepka is tied at the top with Jordan Spieth, and is positioned well after 18 holes. His comfort level in Europe is higher than that of most Americans, and its pairing with his current level of confidence will be enough to place him in the hunt on Sunday.

Great work! @bkoepka holes a bunker shot to move in to a share of the lead. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/cv8UGVpRFD

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

2) Royal Birkdale offers predictable leaders

One of the characteristics of links golf is its unpredictable bounces, caroms and rolls. Royal Birkdale has a penchant for allowing traditionally sound golfers to shine, and Thursday was no exception. Of the top-11 finishers (all at 3-under par or better) only two would be considered unexpected or unknown. The remainder fit into one of three categories: major champions, Ryder Cup participants, or repeated major challengers. A total of 39 golfers finished under par, within four shots of the lead. Unless someone goes very low on Friday, those who make the cut will have a shot at the title with 36 holes to play.

Kuuuch! Matt Kuchar drains a putt for his third birdie in a row to move to -4. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/lzaVdspTOd

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

3) Is Jordan Spieth ready to add a 3rd major title to his resume?

Many people forget that Jordan Spieth came within one stroke of winning three majors to start the 2015 season. Spieth narrowly missed out on the Zach Johnson-Marc Leishman-Louis Oosthuizen playoff. On Thursday, Spieth played bogey-free golf to earn a share of the lead. He scrambled well and only an 18th-hole deceleration on a shortish birdie putt kept him from solo first at 6-under. Here’s our prediction: Spieth will be in the mix come Sunday. Here’s our uncertainty: He will win. With all major champions, until it’s done, it isn’t certain.

Oh so close…but a fantastic recovery from @jordanspieth. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/kbKVdz34GL

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

4) England’s hopes are high

Here’s a recipe: mix one plate resurgent Ian Poulter, another two macaroons of chip-on-his-shoulder Paul Casey, an unheralded Richard Bland scone, and you’ve got the makings of a lovely afternoon tea. In total, 14 Englishmen are within six strokes of the top, meaning that the St. George’s Cross might fly against a white background on Sunday. Justin Rose got off to something less than the start he wanted, but a 66 in round two will push round one into the background. In addition to Casey and Ian Poulter, at 4-under and 3-under, respectively, youngsters Andrew “Beef” Johnston and Matthew Fitzpatrick are under par and in the mix. It won’t hit anyone for six if one of these lads hoists the Claret Jug come Sunday afternoon.

First BEEEEEF of the day @beefgolf #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/U7yE4ApxD0

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

5) Open links teach patience and reward

How many golfers would over-swing from this lie and wind up in deeper trouble? Yep, my hand’s up, too. Hoffmann took the wise and intelligent path: offer a half swing, pitch it out, and watch it bound into the hole for eagle. Welcome to Open 2017, Charley! And welcome, to T6 at The Open after Thursday.

Great start! @hoffman_charley holes an eagle on the first. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/mXGgIvUwYb

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

53 mins ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Why do we use it?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

1 day 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

2 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.