News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Pete B to NBC | Open ratings soar | Molinari’s magic wand

Published

8 years ago

Jul 25, 2018

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

July 25, 2018

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans. .

1. Pete B to NBC

The PGA of America chief is the incoming president of NBC Sports Group.

AP Report…”Pete Bevacqua, who was behind the move of the PGA Championship to May and who oversaw a restructure of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, is leaving after six years to become president of NBC Sports Group.”

“NBC announced Tuesday that Bevacqua has been hired for a new role. He will oversee areas such as programming, marketing, digital properties, regional networks and all the golf business under the NBC umbrella, which includes Golf Channel.”

“Bevacqua plans to leave the PGA of America on Aug. 13, a day after the PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis. In a letter to the PGA’s 29,000 members, President Paul Levy said John Easterbrook would serve as interim CEO. Easterbrook is the chief membership officer for the PGA of America.”

Certainly the most interesting question…What will this mean for Golf Channel and NBC’s golf coverage?

2. Molinari’s magic wand

E. Michael Johnson has the details on Molinari’s Bettinardi

“How Molinari came to use the blade putter, however, is an interesting story. Molinari first tried a production-model BB39 mid mallet then, wanting a higher moment of inertia, switched to a production-model BB56 mallet. He liked that putter so much he even posted on his Instagram account about it.”

“Then, with feedback from his putting coach, Phil Kenyon, Bettinardi’s tour department as well as company owner Bob Bettinardi, he switched into his current putter, which had a heavier swingweight as well as a single sight dot alignment aid. To get to the proper swingweight, Bob had to mill the head to precisely 372 grams, which he did.”

3. Open ratings are in

NBC Sports and Golf Channel announced that the 2018 British Open earned a 5.0 overnight rating.

Who knew the Italian had so many fans? Of course, Tiger Woods being in contention could have had something to do with that figure, too. The last time The Open earned a 5.0 rating was 2006: the last time Tiger won the tournament.

The Open hasn’t surpassed a 5.0 rating since 2000, the year Woods won at St Andrews.

1-1:30 p.m. ET was the highest-rated stretch (6.74). Not surprisingly, that was the time period during which Woods seized the lead.

4. Shack’s 5 things

Geoff Shackelford rounds up 5 key takeaways from Carnoustie.

Tiger Woods is rounding into his old self

Europe is/was thrilled with the Molinari W

11 years is too long to wait to return to Carnoustie

Major season is changing

The PGA Championship has a tough act to follow

Shackelford expands on each point.

5. Ranting about the Tiger

Randall Mell in his “Randall’s Rant” states, essentially,Tiger needs to remember he’s Tiger.

“Here’s hoping Woods relearns….Yes, as a journalist, you aren’t supposed to root for players, but you know how we root for stories. And I’m not alone rooting for Woods to deliver one of the best stories in the history of all sport, to play his way through McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and others to make a run at catching Jack Nicklaus and the Golden Bear’s 18 majors.”

“Hey, whether Woods actually catches and passes Nicklaus to complete the story, that’s up to Woods and the golf gods in charge of lucky bounces, but I’m craving the chance to see Woods make a run at Nicklaus.”

“It seems as if it’s all about how much Woods remembers now, or how much he has forgotten.”

Check out the full rant.

6. Toe hang 101

A critical and oft-overlooked element of putter fitting. Peter Schmitt does a deep dive.

“We have to assume the putter’s length, lie angle, loft, offset, static weight, swing weight, grip size, grip shape, etc. are already suited to the golfer. We also have to assume the putter fits the golfer’s eye, feels right, and inspires confidence. Assuming those have all been configured correctly, let’s address what toe hang can do for a golfer.”

“Let’s go back to our previous discussion about more toe hang encouraging more torqueing of the putter face. Ultimately, you need to ask yourself what you want to feel when swinging the putter, as toe hang will contribute a lot to how the golfer feels where the face of the putter is. A golfer who prefers a lot of toe hang will complain that he or she has no idea where the face is when swinging a face balanced putter. On the contrary, a golfer who prefers a face balanced putter will feel like he or she has to fight with the putter in order to square the face of a heel-shafted blade.”

“As a general rule, more toe hang will either encourage or better suit a stronger arc in the putting stroke. One of the more classic examples of this arrangement would be Ben Crenshaw’s fluid, swinging-a-door putting stroke matched to the iconic heel-shafted blade putter he so famously wielded over the years.”

Full piece.

7. Team Trump resort upgrades

The Trump Organization plans to spend nearly $200 million on of one its golf resorts in Scotland.

Bill Speros writes…”The money will be used to build homes, hotel suits and various sporting and commercial facilities at the Trump resort in Balmedie, near Aberdeen.”

‘”Initial interest to our plans have been incredible and, subject to detailed planning approval, we are aiming to break ground next year,” said Eric Trump, who is running the Trump Organization during Donald Trump’s presidency. The “timing was right,” he added.”

“Local officials Tuesday received a formal application to build 500 homes, 50 hotel cottages, sports, leisure and equestrian facilities, along with retail and commercial space. An initial application for a new development was previously approved.”

8. DeLaet back on the shelf

Unfortunate stuff for the oft-bearded Canadian.

Golfweek’s Kevin Casey writes…”Graham DeLaet hasn’t competed in a PGA Tour event since October. And the wait for his return will now be quite a bit longer.”

“The Canadian used the beginning of Canadian Open week to announce he’ll continue to be out of commission for quite some time.”

“DeLaet revealed Tuesday on Twitter that stem cell injection treatment from late last year has not aided his recovery from back issues and he will thus undergo back surgery, which will put him out 6-12 months.”

9. Place your bets

RBC Canadian Open odds, c/o Bovada

Dustin Johnson +650
Brooks Koepka +1100
Tommy Fleetwood +1600
Tony Finau +1600
Bubba Watson +2000
Charley Hoffman +2500
Matt Kuchar +2500
Sergio Garcia +2500
Joaquin Niemann +2800
Billy Horschel +3300
Brandt Snedeker +3300
Kevin Kisner +3300

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

7 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

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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

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.