News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Spieth Spiething again? | Should golfers wear helmets? | Bryson & the flagstick

Published

8 years ago

Nov 2, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

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

November 2, 2018

Good Friday morning, golf fans. On this day in 1947, the United States won the first post-WWII Ryder Cup at Portland Golf Club, 11-1. Ben Hogan captained the American squad, Henry Cotton the British. Interestingly, Hogan, 35, played in one match; Cotton, 40, in four.

1. Spieth Shining at Shriners

Maybe the other Spieths helped him sort things out?

PGATour.com’s Ben Everill…”While Peter Uihlein (-8) leads the Shriners after round 1, Jordan Spieth’s 5-under start and strong putting performance garnered plenty of attention.”

“Jordan Spieth was much maligned for his efforts on the green last season where he ranked 136th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting.

“It was a critical component in the 25-year-old’s fall to 31st in the FedExCup – the first time in his career he failed to make the TOUR Championship.”

“Through the morning wave he gained almost three strokes on the field to rank second in Strokes Gained: Putting.”

Another good sign…”On Thursday he was 14 of 14 inside 10 feet…”Really solid inside of ten feet today, even with somewhat trickier ones as the wind picked up coming in,” he said.”

Full piece.

2. Nerd out? No thanks

Credit to Geoff Shackelford for spotting this line in Jordan Spieth’s post-round press conference and offerring-what I think to be-a strong and accurate take. That said, I’m not sure Ben Hogan or Tiger Woods would have gone in depth about the nuances of what they were working on.

“Q. Will you nerd out a bit on us on those things you were trying to do?……JORDAN SPIETH: I can’t, you know, because that’s a competitive advantage for myself.”

Shackelford writes…”Last I heard, golf is an individual sport where the competition is not reading your offensive schemes and making adjustments to your chip shots. Furthermore, if you hit a ball in the rough, your playing partners cannot capitalize on knowing what you worked on this off-season to hit a better recovery shot, can they? Really?”

“I can’t think of a single thing he could have said that would have aided the competition. Such insights are probably only interesting to family, friends and fans. If PGA Tour players no longer feel free to talk about how they are moving their ball back an inch in the stance, or “revealing” that their play from 100-120 yards was an off-season focus, press conferences will be getting very short! And very awkward.”

Full piece.

3. Bryson and the pin

Speaking of nerding out...

Our Gianni Magliocco…”Bryson DeChambeau is well known for being a nonconformist in the golfing world, and the 25-year-old lived up to that status once more when he announced that he plans on leaving the pin in when he putts in 2019 as doing so will be permitted under the Rules of Golf. Speaking at a photo shootwith Golf.com, DeChambeau stated that his strategy would depend on the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick (naturally).”

“‘It depends on the COR, the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick. In U.S. Opens, I’ll take it out, and every other Tour event, when it’s fiberglass, I’ll leave it in and bounce that ball against the flagstick if I need to.”

Full piece

Also on the DeChambeauian front: Check out the video of our Q&A with L’Artiste about his…paintbrushes.

4. Rory junior clubs

TaylorMade and company staffer Rory McIlroy have joined forces to develop two sets of junior golf clubs. The 4-Plus set, not surprisingly, is for players 4 and up, and the 8-Plus set, is for, well, you get the idea.

Marketed as “Rory Junior Golf Sets,” a driver, fairway woods, rescue, irons, wedges and a putter are all included. The 4-Plus set has five clubs, while the 8-Plus has two additional irons.

According to TaylorMade, the sets utilize technologies from other company products with lengths, lofts, and shaft flexes optimized for juniors (example: easy-to-launch 16-degree driver).

Full piece, including set specs, photos.

5. Recommendation: Golfers should wear helmets

Well, here we are. An expert opinion that golfers ought to wear helmets. You can’t argue with the statistics and the relative danger, but…really?

From the folks at GolfPunk…”How do you fancy the idea of being asked to wear a crash helmet to play golf?…That’s what is being proposed in a bid to reduce golfing-related injuries, a health & safety expert has revealed. Chris Hall, of Protecting.co.uk, a health and safety and employment agency, said that thousands of pounds are paid out each year in claims for head injuries from misjudged golf balls.”

“Statistics suggest between 16 – 41% of amateur golfers are injured each year with the potential for working days lost to golfing injuries high enough to prompt businesses into lobbying for improved safety measures.”

“A number of insurance companies and private businesses are wanting to reduce the financial burden of golfing injuries and are pushing for greater protection for players. Golf had an injury rate of 1.8 per 1,000 while rugby’s injury rate was 1.5 per 1,000. Mr Hall, spokesman for Protecting.co.uk, said golf needed to follow the safety measures introduced by other sports.”

Ergo: Wear a helmet.

Full piece.

6. Deep dive into what was eating Jordan Spieth in 2018

Kyle Porter at CBS Sports puts on his investigative garb. A bit of his breakdown…”Spieth also noted this week that it’s actually the rest of his game that he’s been pouring time into. He felt that even though the stats showed a marked decline in putting, it was his iron play and driving that got worse as the year went on, whereas his short game got better.”

“I think if you look at the trend, say second half of the season on, my short game started to get better but the long game progressively fell,” Spieth said.

“‘I knew I had more work to continue on the short game, but needed to address a bit of the long game as well. To be honest, my rookie season I think was my best statistical driving season. I think I ranked in the top 15 in strokes gained off the tee. I hit it five yards further now, yet have not sniffed a top 15 in that category. That’s a goal.'”

“It’s a worthy goal. The best drivers (and best ball-strikers) on the PGA Tour are traditionally among the highest earners and win the most tournaments. Spieth won’t be doing any of that, though, if the putting doesn’t get at least a little bit better.”

Full piece.

7. Trump Doonberg to get a big upgrade

Peter Flanagan at Bloomberg with the news that the Trump Organization is plowing some serious cash into Trump International Golf Links & Hotel, Doonbeg.

“The Trump family is making a move at its golf resort in the west coast village of Doonbeg. TIGL Ireland Enterprises Ltd, the company that controls the operation, is seeking permission to build a ballroom and “leisure facility building” including a restaurant, as well as 53 homes for short-term tourist accommodation, according to a planning notice published on the local authority’s website.”

“The plans would cost about 40 million euros ($45.6 million) over three to four years, Joe Russell, General Manager at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel, Doonbeg, said in a phone interview.”

“The application comes almost two years after the resort published plans to build sea defenses around the property. That plan is currently before the national planning board. The defenses remain a “key issue” to protect the hotel and golf course, Russell said.”

Full piece.

8. Ogio brand refresh

Our Gianni Magliocco writes…”Just over a year ago, Callaway Golf acquired Ogio International, Inc., for $75.5 million. Plenty in the golf space wondered what the folks in Carlsbad would do with the company. Well, we no longer have to wonder. Today, the golf bag (and luggage, backpacks, and apparel) manufacturer unveiled a global brand refresh. New products, website, and logo are all components of the change.”

“Speaking on the news of the brand refresh, Harry Arnett (Ogio President and Callaway SVP of global marketing) said.”

“Innovation is the driving force of everything we do. Change is obviously critical for any brand, especially one that has been around for 30 years like we have. The products we are launching represent the very best in design, quality, and performance. It’s an exciting step forward for our company and we know current fans and potential new fans of OGIO will love the new direction.”

Along with the refresh, Ogio also announced the release of two new golf bags, which you can see in the full piece.

Full piece.

9. Hmm…

Golf.com’s steward of the game’s blackletter, Rules Guy fielded the following query.

“I’m a player who can’t wait to see the ball go in (or miss) the hole when putting, so I tend to look up too early. To cure this habit, I wrote “Don’t look” up on top of the putterhead as a reminder. A buddy hinted that I may be violating a rule. Am I?”-ROMY DIONISIUS, TEMPE, ARIZ.

“In a word, no … assuming that you’re using, say, a Sharpie. Engraving is also legal. You could run into issues that might render the club nonconforming by taping or otherwise fastening instructions to old Billy Baroo. So, please, no Post-It notes or dry-erase boards.”

Sorry, Romy. I guess this means the passages from Dave Pelz’ Putting Bible I have written on the sole of my Craz-E Mallet…

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour 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.