News

Morning 9: Langley, Gay lead Pebble | Phil’s phantastic phairway phinding | Jacklin: Sergio should take a break

Published

7 years ago

Feb 8, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

February 8, 2019

Good Friday morning, golf fans. May your weekends be filled with better-than-Crosby weather.

1. Pebble: Langley, Gay lead

Tom Wright at the Monterey Herald on the first-round action in his backyard…

“Scott Langley and Brian Gay opened the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am shooting 7-under to finish atop a crowded leaderboard Thursday, but now must gear up for an earlier start Friday as tee times were moved ahead an hour in anticipation of inclement weather.”

“Maybe we can get a lot of it in before the rain comes,” said Gay, who played the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club on Thursday, and is scheduled to play Spyglass Hill on Friday. “I haven’t seen the latest forecast. Spyglass is probably the hardest course so maybe (being) back in the trees will help us a bit over there.”

“Friday’s forecast calls for a slight chance of showers early with rain becoming likely by 11 a.m. to go with a chance of an isolated thunderstorm in the evening. Saturday’s forecast calls for scattered showers and showers are likely for Sunday.”

Full piece.

2. Phantastic start

Lefty is off to a roaring start, hitting every fairway at Monterey Peninsula en route to a 6-under 65.

USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio…”‘So history was made today,” Mickelson said. “To the best of my knowledge it’s taken me 27 years and a few months to hit all fairways in a single round in a competition. I may have done it before, but I don’t ever recall doing it.'”

“Well, Mickelson has done it before. Six times on the PGA Tour, in fact. But let’s cut his memory some slack. The most recent time he accomplished the feat came 20 years ago in the Farmers Insurance Open.”

“His total recall aside, Mickelson was impressive throughout his round. His seven birdies swamped his lone bogey on the fifth hole and he stood in a tie for third place”

Full piece.

13 of Mickelson’s 43 PGA Tour wins have come in California.

3. Vic Open update

Golfweek’s Alistair Tate…”Former U.S. Amateur champion Nick Flanagan remains on course to win his first European Tour event, but he’s got company at the top of the $1 million ISPS Handa Vic Open leaderboard.”

“Flanagan, who defeated Casey Wittenberg to win the 2003 U.S. Amateur, returned a 4-under 68 to go with his opening 62 to move to 14 under par after 36 holes. He shares the lead with fellow Australian Jason Scrivener, who shot a 66.”

Full piece.

On the women’s side, Kim Kaufman leads the concurrent tournament at 13 under. Karrie Webb sits tied for fifth at 7 under.

4. Cake of wild alternate-ness frosted with Rollins

What? With entrants at Pebble Beach withdrawing from the tournament in an 11th-hour mass exodus, it seemed for a while late Wednesday and early Thursday that anyone with a set of clubs could be called upon to tee it up.

John Rollins, who hasn’t had full status on the big tour since 2014, was slated to CADDIE at Pebble before an early morning call from HQ.

PGATour.com’s Jim McCabe writes…”The fact that it was all turned upside-down and Rollins was hitting golf balls for the first time in more than a week and competing in a PGA TOUR tournament for the first time since last August was as improbable an occurrence as he has ever been part of. “Crazy. What a roller-coaster day,” said Rollins, who at 43 has played in just 24 PGA TOUR tournaments since losing his full exempt status following the 2014 season.”
“But if you think that accepting the spot in the field at 5:30 a.m. – about three hours before his tee time, by the way – was an easy one, think again. Fact is, “I had to really think about it. I asked myself, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ Hunter (Mahan) is my friend and I was here to caddie for him, so I called him. Hunter (whose tee time was 10:01) and his wife, Kandi were more than gracious. Hunter said, ‘There’s a reason you’re here, so go and enjoy.'”
“Rollins laughed, because “I had done absolutely no prep work” back home in the Dallas area, but he took Mahan’s advice. He did enjoy himself and was overall pleased with his round of 1-over 73 at Pebble Beach – two bogeys and one lone birdie, at the par-4 11th. “I didn’t play terribly. Actually, I was OK, everything considered.”

Full piece.

5. Jacklin: Sergio should step away for a while

The legendary Tony Jacklin didn’t like what he saw (or didn’t see, as the case may be) from Sergio Garcia in Saudi Arabia.

He told the Daily Express…”It was worthy of more than disqualification. I’d have banned him. Damaging greens on a golf course is an offence that deserves a suspension.

“The European Tour have said the incident is over and it’s time to move on. Well, if he’s not going to be banned, then I’d like to see him take a self-imposed break from the game.

“I think he needs time to realise how fortunate he is, at 39, to have everything money can buy, a young family and everything to be grateful for.”

Full piece.

6. Spieth, Finau on Rickie’s Phoenix rules rule-in

Not to fixate on rules fiascos of the past, but Joel Beall’s assembling of Jrdan Spieth and Tony Finau’s takes on what befell Rickie Fowler as his ball, well, befell into the water at the 11th hole at TPC Scottsdale last Sunday are interesting.

Finau: “I watched that transpire (the Fowler incident) and couldn’t help but think, ‘This is not what the integrity of the game is about. If the rules aren’t going to protect the integrity of the game, then they’re wrong.

“And that’s, I’ll always stand on that side just because I know, yeah, I’ve had things like that happen to me in junior golf, not at the professional level, but I’ve had things like that happen to me where you know you didn’t cause or didn’t, your intentions weren’t bad in any way, but the ball moves and you have to call that on yourself. And I love that about the game. But if the rules don’t protect the player and the integrity of the game then I don’t think they’re the right rules.”

Spieth: “I was watching it on the couch...I was, I’m like, wow, that’s another penalty stroke, just knowing the rule. And that’s frustrating because he drops it twice and then places it and he places it without, you can’t like create a lie. You can’t, so he’s doing everything he should be doing, and then all of a sudden it rolls in the water. And if it happens off of a shot, then that’s where the ball was supposed to go. Well, when it happens off of a drop, the idea is to get the ball in play in a location there, and I don’t think anybody wants that to be a penalty. And it certainly shouldn’t be after you’re taking a drop or a penalty stroke”

Beall’s full piece.

7. Meanwhile, in Ho Sung news…

Golf Channel’s Randall Mell penned a piece on the South Korean’s opening round.

“Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, his playing partner Jerry Kelly and Choi’s playing partner Chris O’Donnell seemed to enjoy the show as much as the fans…”

“…The galleries chuckled and cheered with Choi’s every funky follow-through.”

“They were fantastic,” Kelly said. “They were yelling, ‘We love you, Hosung.’ They were sending out a lot to him. He was great. He would always turn around and give them a wave.”

“Choi, a late-blooming, 45-year-old South Korean with four victories on the Korean and Japanese tours, overcame a sluggish start to shoot a 1-over-par 72.”

Full piece.

8. Signs that golf season approaches

Golf Digest’s Sam Weinman is a veritable Punxsutawney Phil of golf, looking for signs that the season of fairways and greens approaches.

Among them…

“You shovel snow with exceeding caution knowing your back can’t give out on you now.”

“Your pulse quickens upon hearing the first notes of a Masters TV commercial.”

“You decide the annoying guy in accounting who happens to belong to a top 100 course is actually just misunderstood.”

Full piece.

9. New Players trophy

Goodbye Waterford Crystal trophy, mainstay of The Players award ceremony since 1982, hello sterling silver/24k gold trophy.

Then there’s this from the Tour’s release announcing the new hardware…”Using a process called ‘electroforming,’ Tiffany & Co. and the PGA Tour began with the inspiration of the swinging golfer from the iconic PGA Tour logo. Then, through sophisticated computer modelling, designers incorporated aspects of each of the 38 different winners of The Players – from Jack Nicklaus to Webb Simpson with elements of Phil Mickelson, Calvin Peete, Rickie Fowler, Fred Couples and Tiger Woods mixed in between.”

I’m not at all sure what that means…but here’s the trophy!

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

2 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.