News

Morning 9: Spieth latest non-fan of drop rule | Scott skipping WGCs?

Published

7 years ago

Jan 10, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

January 10, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

1. Further incredulity toward the drop rule

You have to feel for the USGA. They thought there were doing a good thing with the knee-height drop — speeding up play, making the process easier — but it’s starting to look like another helping of out-of-touch silliness.

Yesterday, it was Jordan Spieth (echoing Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau) sounding off on the new rule.

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…”One that I don’t really understand necessarily is the drop,” Spieth said on Wednesday. “”You drop it knee height, but like, what’s the advantage of dropping it shoulder height? It’s actually probably a disadvantage, so why can’t you still do that? You should be able to drop it from shoulder to knee height in my opinion. It doesn’t do any good and honestly it’s like, a frustrating asterisk that I have to re-pick it up and re-drop from your knee.”

“According to the USGA, this alteration was made to increase the chance of a ball staying within the relief area.”

“Requiring the player to drop a ball (as opposed to placing it) retains a desired randomness about where the ball ends up,” reads the explainer in the Rules of Golf. “The player has no guarantee that the ball will come to rest on a desired spot or in a good lie. This is especially the case when a ball is dropped in more difficult conditions such as thick rough or longer grass.”

Full piece.

2. An interesting move

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”At 38-years-old Adam Scott is at the point in his career that he’s comfortable making tough choices.”

“His focus now is winning majors and qualifying for this year’s International Presidents Cup team, as evidenced by the fact that this week’s Sony Open is his first start since the WGC-HSBC Champions in October.”

“It turns out that might be the last World Golf Championship the Australian plays this season….With players forced to make tough decisions this season because of a new condensed schedule on the PGA Tour, Scott conceded on Wednesday he took the path of least resistance when it came to his schedule.”

“I just kind of took the simple approach and thought I’ll just play the ones I like and that make sense to play out of the way,” he said. “Any inconvenience, whether it’s a big tournament or not, but at the moment I have not scheduled a World Golf Championship because they don’t fall in the right weeks for me.”

Full piece.

3. “A powerful message”

Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”Aon is adding to the momentum LPGA commissioner Mike Whan is starting to build in his quest to narrow the gender pay gap that so severely separates women from men in sport.”

“Aon is promoting inclusion while investing in what Whan hopes will become a movement in the game.”

“The company could have instituted its new season-long risk-reward competition for the PGA Tour alone, could have established the $1 million winner’s prize for men only. The men, after all, sell more tickets, draw more TV viewers and get more media coverage.”

“Aon stepped up, though, and offered the exact same deal for LPGA pros….”It’s just a powerful message,” Whan told GolfChannel.com. “We’re starting to see a series of pillar moments, where we are starting to create the kind of equality you see happening every day within companies that are sponsors.”

“Aon’s Risk Reward Challenge comes on the heels of CME Group’s announcement it will offer a $1.5 million first-place check to the winner of its LPGA event next year, a payout greater than the winner’s check in 33 of the PGA Tour’s 47 events. It comes with the LPGA’s sanctioning of the Vic Open next month, a co-sanctioned European Tour event that will offer equal prize money to men and women playing the same venue at the same time.”

Full piece.

4. FYI: Xander didn’t top that shot

If you were watching Sunday’s final-round coverage of the Tournament of Champions, you saw a curious, seemingly topped drive from Xander Schauffele.

X says he didn’t top it though. Here’s his explanation, per Digest’s Mike Johnson.

“OK, have to ask about that squirrely tee shot on Sunday on the 13th hole. Is that something that you just laugh off or is it more like, “Whoa? Where did that come from?”

“You know, I read a few things about how I topped that shot and I didn’t. That shot I hit was a bumped driver. You can tell from my swing speed that I was hitting it about 40 percent. I had been doing it all week, I just hadn’t been on TV when doing it and I knew I was going to take some crap about the ball speed because I just kind of chipped it out there. It’s a shot I hit when it’s super windy. I didn’t have a 3-iron in the bag so it was either a 4-iron or a 5-wood and I didn’t want to hit a 3- or 5-wood up in the wind and the 4-iron wouldn’t get out there far enough, so I decided to try and chip my driver. On No. 4 at Kapalua I was hitting the same shot and driving it low and watching it run. It’s a new addition to my arsenal.”

Full piece.

5. The story of the “W”

Great stuff from PGATour.com’s Helen Ross on the now-iconic “W” palm trees at this week’s tournament venue, spearheaded by Waialea member Ethan Abbott.

“A little more than a decade ago, Abbott began lobbying to alter the landscape. Club manager Allan Lum was on board. So was course superintendent Dave Nakama.”

“So Abbott made a video that included scenes from the iconic movie – particularly the spot where the money was unearthed – and made presentations to the club’s greens committee, the executive committee and the board of directors.”

“Quite a few people were supportive, but there were some, especially the old-timers, who felt this is not appropriate for their golf course,” Abbott recalled. “Now 99.9 percent of them have come around and said what a great, great thing it is and how much they enjoy it.

“But there are one or two, they’ll still kind of look sideways at me, but that’s the way it goes.”

As it turned out, the entire project only cost about $3,500 – and the money came from a gift already earmarked for a project on the course. And with several hundred coconut trees lining the fairways at Waialae, no one had to look far to find four that could be added to the ‘W’ project.

Full piece.

6. Monday qualifying…with a triple bogey

Crazy stuff from Jared Sawada in his bid to Monday qualify for the Sony, writes Golf Digest’s Christopher Powers.

“Through 16 holes the 27-year-old was eight under, with a field-leading nine birdies and just one bogey. As long as disaster didn’t strike, he would easily get another crack at the Sony Open.”

“Unfortunately for Sawada, disaster did strike, as he made a triple-bogey seven at the par-4 17th hole, dropping him to five under on the day. Another bogey would have ended his chances, but he salvaged par at the 18th hole to get in the clubhouse at five under, one off the lead of Talor Gooch and Brent Grant. Sawada’s 67 wound up being good enough for a 3-for-2 playoff with Andy Pope, a Web.com Tour veteran who has made just five career starts on the PGA Tour, and Corey Conners, who just finished his rookie season on tour. Conners notably took the lead into the final round at the Valspar Championship, but carded a final-round 77 to finish in a tie for 16th.”

“Conners and Sawada earned the final two spots, meaning Sawada pulled off an incredibly rare feat in still qualifying with a triple bogey. According to @acaseofthegolf1, a Twitter account dedicated to following Monday qualifiers throughout the PGA Tour season, no one has done what Sawada did in the last four years:”

Full piece.

7. AP Experience!

At Bay Hill this year…

Golf Channel Report…”Tournament organizers announced Wednesday that an interactive exhibit known as the Arnold Palmer Experience will be on display all week long when the PGA Tour heads to Bay Hill from March 4-10. The domed, 360-degree theater, built adjacent to the 10th hole, will be free for all fans to visit and will share highlights from the life and career of Palmer, who won seven majors and passed away in 2016 at age 87.”

“The exhibit will also include areas where fans can compare their swing side-by-side with Palmer’s iconic move as well as a chance to test their shot-making on some of the toughest holes of Palmer’s course design career.”

“After the tournament concludes, plans are in place to leave the theater open to Bay Hill guests for several weeks before traveling to Palmer’s birthplace of Latrobe, Pa., in advance of what would have been his 90th birthday in September.”

Full piece.

8. Suitors for Golf Digest?

…in which the mainstay publication is playing the part of the Bachelor.

Geoff Shackelford writes…”In an item unusually light on details by Keith Kelly standards and feeling more like a reminder to interested suitors that Golf Digest is still for sale, the New York Post media writer says new PGA Tour International TV distributor Discovery is interested.

The billionaire Newhouse family has a minority stake in publicly traded Discovery, but the family connection is not necessarily giving the programmer any advantage. It will come down to price and Discovery’s long-term strategy on golf.”

“Discovery actually has some live-streaming golf in Europe connected to the PGA tour but does not have any golfing channels in the US and currently has no print within its empire.”

Shackelford’s remarks.

NY Post piece.

9. A little golf history you may not have known…

Courtesy of Forward Golf Grips (@forwardgolf) on Twitter.

Always thought GW was a 2-iron guy….

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

8 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.