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GolfWRX Morning 9: “Major” moments of 2018 | A death at Barry Burn? | Remembering John Harbottle

Published

7 years ago

Dec 18, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

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

December 18, 2018

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans. One week until Christmas, so if you haven’t posted your letters to the North Pole, you’d better get ’em in the mail.

1. Best major moments of 2018

Golf Channel staff assembled the best moments from the majors in 2018.

Here are a few…

Reed…”Patrick Reed broke through to win his first major championship at the Masters, and he outlasted some pretty big names in the final round to do it. Jordan Spieth (64), Rickie Fowler (67) and Jon Rahm (65) made Sunday runs, but Reed’s clutch birdie on No. 14 and four pars to close out his final-round 71 turned out to be enough to slip on the coveted green jacket. “

Ariya…”Ariya Jutanugarn started Sunday of the U.S. Women’s Open with a four-shot lead and looked like she might run away with the title after stretching the margin to seven on the opening nine holes. But a triple bogey on No. 10 rocked her confidence and back-to-back bogeys to close out her final-round 73 dropped her into a playoff with Hyo-Joo Kim. But Jutanugarn’s collapse came with a happy ending, as she hit a near-perfect bunker shot to clinch her second major title on the fourth playoff hole. Jutanugarn would go on to win the season-long Race to the CME Globe and $1,000,000 bonus, the LPGA Player of the Year award and the LPGA Vare Trophy.”

U.S. Open setup issues…”In what has become a familiar scene at the U.S. Open, one of the major storylines became the USGA’s course setup, particularly during Saturday’s third round. Several players voiced concerns about the sunbaked Shinnecock Hills greens, even mild-mannered Zach Johnson, who said “They’ve lost the golf course.” The USGA’s miscalculation made world-class players look like amateurs and they seemed to realize it … eventually. In an attempt to rectify the situation, grounds crews slowed the course down with unscheduled watering on Saturday night.”

Full piece.

2. A death at Barry Burn?

Jason Lusk at Golfweek with a wild, grim story…”A Scottish police officer was found dead in Barry Burn near Carnoustie Golf Links on Sunday, with tributes pouring in for the officer but no explanation as of yet as to how the man ended up in the water.”

“PC Dean Morrison, 40, of Police Scotland’s Tayside Division, was found around 12:40 p.m. local time near the famed golf course, according to multiple reports including from the BBC and the Daily Telegraph. Morrison had been an officer for 16 years.”

“Police are searching for a taxi driver who may have dropped off Morrison near the hotel the night before, but officials said there appear to be no suspicious circumstances. It took three hours for officials to recover Morrison’s body from the burn near the beach.”

“Dean was a highly respected officer, who was extremely well liked and popular with his colleagues. He was thoroughly professional in his work,” said Chief Superintendent Andrew Todd, Divisional Commander for Tayside Division, as reported by multiple news outlets. “His death is a great tragedy and he will be sadly missed by all who knew him and we will do all we can to support them during this distressing time.”

Full piece.

3. Double the Live

PGA Tour Live, now folded into NBC Sports Gold, will roll out 2x as much coverage in 2019.

Press release...”The PGA TOUR and NBC Sports Group announced that PGA TOUR LIVE, the PGA TOUR’s direct-to-consumer subscription video service that live streams extensive Featured Groups coverage of the best golfers in the world, has been enhanced and is now available for purchase in the United States on NBC Sports Gold, NBC Sports Group’s direct-to-consumer live streaming product. PGA TOUR LIVE season passes are on sale now for an early-bird price of $49.99, available through the Desert Classic (Jan 17-20), while a monthly pass can be purchased for $9.99. After January 20, a season pass will cost $64.99.”

“In 2019, PGA TOUR LIVE will present the most robust service in its history, now with four days of live coverage from 27 PGA TOUR events, new 10-minute “Speed Round” recaps for Featured Groups players, expansive VOD content, and integrated scoring and statistics. It is also available on double the number of supported platforms vs. 2018.”

Full piece.

4. Golf Digest sale update…or not

Keith J. Kelly at the NY Post...”A deadline is looming “right before the holidays” for bids on the three magazines that Condé Nast is selling, W, Brides and Golf Digest.”

“Greenhill & Co. is said to be handling the divestment, working with Janine McGrath Shelffo, a former top executive at UBS who had worked on past deals for Condé’s parent company, Advance Publications, before joining as Advance’s chief strategy and development director earlier this year.”

“Among her deals was the sale of the Newhouse family’s cable operations, Bright House, to Charter Communications for $10.5 billion. It’s now part of Spectrum.”

“That deal is one reason that the Newhouse family, which controls Advance, is not under the same pressure as the profitable but eroding Time Inc. was in recent years before ultimately selling to Meredith.”

“But the family is clearly getting impatient with losses after domestic Condé Nast lost $120 million last year and is still bleeding red ink this year.”

Full piece.

5. Remembering Harbottle

Excellent piece from Teresa Harbottle (with Golf Digest’s Keely Levins) remembering her husband, course architect John Harbottle, who died unexpectedly at 53.

She begins…”If you’ve played much golf in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah or California, there’s a good chance you’ve played a golf course my husband designed or renovated. In all, John Harbottle is credited with 15 original layouts and more than 45 remodels.”

“John and I met in college, at the University of Washington, and I remember when he told me he wanted to be a golf-course architect, my response was, “A golf course what?” It wasn’t something you heard people say they wanted to do. John chose architecture because he loved golf so much. He was raised in the game. His mother won the 1955 U.S. Women’s Amateur and competed against Alice Dye, the wife of famed golf-course architect Pete Dye. While in college, John wrote a letter to Pete, asking how to become a course architect, and Alice wrote back telling him to get a landscape-architecture degree and to call them when he was done.”

Full piece.

6. Little John!

Kevin Casey of Golfweek with a bit on Little John Daly following his strong play with pops at the Father/Son Challenge.

“Little John Daly dresses garishly like his dad and can summon power easily like the old man. But the teenager isn’t as vocal as the two-time major winner….That’s OK, because his clubs are doing the talking.”

“The 15-year-old had an impressive showing with his dad, John Daly, at this year’s PNC Father/Son Challenge at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. The duo led after the first round and finished T-2. The Dalys had finished T-9 at the event in 2016 and 2017.”

JD had this to say about his son’s abilities…”He’s so gifted with his hands around the greens, the way he putts,” the elder Daly said. “If you’re a great putter, you can score. Little John is a great ballstriker and great putter, so time will tell (about his potential).”

Full piece.

7. European Tour things we learned

EuropeanTour.com staff rounded up eight things we learned from the 2018 Euro Tour season. Here are two.

“Wallace’s star is on the rise…The remarkable rise of Matt Wallace shows no sign of losing pace. After raising eyebrows with five consecutive wins on the satellite Alps Tour in 2016, the Englishman won on the European Tour at the Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort in May 2017. The challenge was to kick on the following season and he did that in some style.”

“Wallace recorded three wins in 2018 – at the Hero Indian Open, the BMW International Open and the Made in Denmark – and capped off the season with a runner-up finish at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai to move into the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He gave Thomas Bjørn food for thought when the Dane made his Captain’s Picks for The Ryder Cup in Paris, something unimaginable when the last edition took place across the Atlantic. The sky appears to be the limit for a player whose performances continue to impress.”

Molinari’s the real deal…”Francesco Molinari’s status as one of the world’s top players was already common knowledge. If any doubts lingered, they were extinguished in devastating fashion with his performances in 2018. He joined the decorated list of Rolex Series winners by winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, before becoming the Champion Golfer of the Year at Carnoustie. His Open Championship triumph made him the first Italian to win a Major Championship and he rounded the year off with the Race to Dubai crown.”

Full piece.

8. $500 Challenge: Mid-handicapper edition

Trey Buchanan is back with another effort to assemble a full set of clubs for under half a grand…”Last week, I posted about what clubs you can get with $500. I built a set that I would use myself to show that even golfers with particular specs can find what they want for a decent price. Overall the feedback on the post was good, but I did want to follow up since one of the commenters put me up to a challenge.”

Buchanan mentions a comment that suggested he wouldn’t be able to get a set of clubs with stiff, rather than extra stiff, shafts for less than $800.

His driver choice...”Since I was going to be building a set of a mid-handicapper, my goal was to find a driver that got solid distance, but was also forgiving. I found this R9 460 in 10.5 degrees for $65. While the paint has seen better days, this should perform exactly how we want it to. Plus it is adjustable.”

Full piece.

9. From fairway to bunker

Via Michael McEwan at Bunkered (appropriately)...”Storm Dierdre wreaked havoc across the country last weekend – and delivered another stark reminder of the threat that coastal erosion poses to some of the country’s top seaside courses.”

“Montrose Golf Links had the second fairway of its 1562 Course – the fifth oldest course in the world – blanketed by sand blown up from the beach as high winds buffeted the Angus coast.”

Full piece.

Photo below.

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Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

3 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.