News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Rocco rages about U.S. Open backlash | Tiger switches putters | Spieth’s struggles mental?

Published

8 years ago

Jun 29, 2018

Good morning, GolfWRX members. As most of you are signed up for our newsletters, you likely already know that I’ve been sending this little Morning 9 roundup of nine items of note.

In case you’ve missed it, or you prefer to read on site rather than in your email, we’re including it here. Check out today’s Morning 9 below.

If you’re not signed up for our newsletters, you can subscribe here.

By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

June 29, 2018

Good Friday morning, golf fans.

1. After all that…

Tiger Woods made the switch to the TaylorMade Ardmore 3…and was 93rd in strokes gained: putting for his first round. For reference, he was 89th on Tour this season with the Cam. He opened the Quicken Loans National with an even par 70.

Golfweek’s Dan Kilbridge…”He’s doing everything he can to get out of a nasty putting slump and placed a new TaylorMade Ardmore 3 mallet-style in the bag for Round 1. The speed was good and it looked like he was rolling it alright out there, but makeable birdie putts continued to slide past the hole.”

“Woods shot Even-par 70 in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National, good for a T-48 slot before Friday’s 8:20 a.m. Eastern tee time with Bill Haas and Marc Leishman. He finally settled on the new putter Wednesday afternoon after a 90-minute practice session on the greens, and it sounds like he’s sticking with it for the foreseeable future.”

“‘I put my (Scotty Cameron) putter down and I hit a few putts with it. It just didn’t feel right, wasn’t looking right,” Woods said. “So, time for it to sit on the bench a little bit. I’m sure it will come back eventually, just one of those things.'”

2. Hello no!

J.J. Spaun tied the tournament record Andrew Landry set earlier in the day with a 7 under par opening round yesterday at the Quicken Loans National.

Playing in the group behind Tiger Woods, reporters asked if any fans peeled off to follow the guy with the hot hand.

“No, hell no. They don’t even know who I am. They played so fast, actually like they were a solid hole ahead of us.”

3. Korda, young guns positioned at Women’s PGA

Beth Ann Nichols writes...”Jessica Korda admitted earlier this season to putting too much pressure on herself at the majors. It’s easy to believe considering the shocking run of missed cuts she’d had at big events in recent years.”

“But here she is at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on top of the board early at Kemper Lakes Golf Club after a 5-under 67, and there’s reason to believe that she has turned a corner. Everyone remembers the ANA’s Sunday playoff under the lights (followed by marathon Monday), but Korda’s rip-roaring 66 had fans spellbound before that. It was a gutsy closing performance, and the share of fourth marked her career-best major finish.”

“Korda, a five-time winner on the LPGA, is one of a handful of major-less heavyweights off to a hot start in suburban Chicago. Charley Hull, the entertaining Brit who tied for seventh at the ANA as an 18-year-old, carded a 68 while Minjee Lee, a top-10 player with four LPGA titles, bogeyed her final hole to open with a 69.”

4. Rocco goes off!

The 2008 U.S. Open runner up isn’t holding back. Representing the old-school, hardline set: Rocco Mediate. Here’s what he had to say about player reactions to the U.S. Open setup at Shinnecock Hills.

“Truthfully, it’s all been a bunch of bull(expletive), what I’ve heard, complete horse(expletive). I’ll say it again if you want me to.”

“Here’s the deal – here’s the deal, two weeks ago: If you don’t like how it was set up, A, hit better shots; B, don’t come. Don’t come. Someone will take your place. It’s real, real simple. Now you’re getting me mad.”

“They’re talking about, well, you just shot 10 feet right of the pin, rolled into the bunker. Hit it left of the pin, then, OK? Because everybody’s got to play the golf course.”

“Let me ask you this question, too. Remember the one about the golf course changed from the morning – have you ever played one that didn’t? Of course it’s going to change. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“Sometimes it can get softer in the afternoon. Sometimes it gets firmer…What I heard that week made me want to throw up, basically. Just shut up, play. Because I guarantee you that trophy, that beautiful trophy they give away, this week and two weeks ago, is way worth the crap you have to go through to win it. It is. I haven’t done that yet, but it is. I had this much on it. It was worth the try.”

5. Is the root of Spieth’s poor play mental?

Gianni Magliocco makes the case.

A taste…”His demeanor on the golf course has given truth to these admissions all year. An already very animated and talkative player on the golf course, Spieth has been more fractious than ever with both caddy, Michael Greller, and spectators alike. Nothing portrayed how the game had gotten well and truly under Spieth’s skin than when the camera panned to him by the side of the 18th green on Friday evening at Shinnecock Hills. Spieth stood with his shoulders slumped against the backdrop of the amber evening sun, shaking his head with a look of both bewilderment and anger knowing full well that he had just thrown away the opportunity of playing the weekend of the U.S. Open.”

Read the full piece.

6. More terrible news for Jarrod Lyle

Awful stuff for Jarrod Lyle as he continues his recovery from cancer for the third time.

PGATour.com’s Ben Everill writes

“Lyle underwent a haploidentical transplant and stem cell therapy back in his native Australia in December to deal with a third acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis and was recovering well until recently.

“In the last week the two-time Web.com Tour winner’s vision has deteriorated into a complete blur and doctors are baffled as to why….It is a condition that may be irreversible.

“Lyle said: “I’m having every test known to mankind to try to figure out what’s going on with it…One of the head neurologists said it’s a very, very rare thing he’s only seen once or twice so they are not sure whether it is going to reversible or not, it depends on how much damage has been done up until now.”

7. French interest in Ryder Cup is…

French people don’t really care about golf, says French pro golfer Michael Lorenzo-Vera. The 33-year-old is one of 19 entrants in the Open de France this week.

Reportedly, only 10 percent of French people follow golf, and according to the European Golf Course Owners Association, only 400,000 of the country’s 66 million citizens play golf.

Lorenzo-Vera spoke with the New York Times, and he doesn’t think hosting the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National is going to do much to boost the game’s popularity in the country.

“People don’t care about the Ryder Cup. Honestly, nobody knows there’s going to be a Ryder Cup in France. Only the golfers know. That’s it. There won’t be many French there. There will be so many more from England or Spain.”

Asked about the perception of golf in France, he had this to say…”Golf is a very private thing for people in France. Private courses for only rich families or rich people – that’s it….Golf is not a good thing here. It’s for rich people and spoiled kids. That’s the image we have.”

8. Smoltz struggles

Former MLB pitcher and current analyst, John Smoltz qualified for the U.S. Senior Open. How’d his first round go? Not great.

The former Cy Young Award winner opened with four bogeys en route to a 15-over-par 85.

“I can sum it up. I made a lot of easy bogeys. A lot of par putts turned into easy bogeys. I did not hit the ball in the fairway enough. I thought I hit a lot of, a lot of good shots that just didn’t get good results.”

9. For your viewing pleasure

A departure from your regularly scheduled reading: GolfWRX visited upstart shirt maker Criquet in Austin to get a look at the company’s wares and very unique headquarters.

Give it a watch.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

4 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 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

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.