News

Morning 9: “Healthy” Tiger at Sawgrass…working with a putting coach too | What PXG means | Vokey on Woods’ 2001 wedges

Published

7 years ago

Mar 12, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

March 12, 2019

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans. PSA to all anti-Tigerites who will email me about the abundance of TW items. There are several Woods-related stories included today. Read items 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 only.

1. Woods arrives at Sawgrass “healthy”

Per USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio…”I feel good, man.”…Those were the words of Tiger Woods as he arrived Monday at TPC Sawgrass to begin preparing for The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s aflagship event that begins Thursday.”

Channeling James Brown? Better than channeling Nine Inch Nails (“Hurt”).

DiMeglio also writes…”He said he’ll play a 9-hole practice round Tuesday before meeting with the media.”

“I didn’t want to push it. No need to,” Woods said of his decision to bypass one of his favorite tournaments. “Not at my age. Can’t do that anymore.”

Full piece.

2. …and works with putting coach Matt Killen

Our Gianni Magliocco writes…”Tiger Woods says he is fit and healthy ahead of this week’s Players Championship, and the 14-time major champion has putting coach Matt Killen alongside him at TPC Sawgrass as he seeks his third title at the event.”

“Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte broke the news on social media, and the move represents the first time Woods has had an instructor of any type since his split with Chris Como in 2017.”

Here’s the tweet: “@TimRosaforteGC…. Back of the range @TigerWoods was working with @killengolf. I’ll have more tonight on Live From Players @GolfChannel”

“Woods struggled with the flat-stick at his last outing at the WGC-Mexico, where he three-putted six times. That event represented the first time that Woods has lost strokes to the field on the greens at a tournament since the Northern Trust back in August, and over his previous 24 rounds, the 43-year-old ranks 42nd in this week’s field for strokes gained putting.”

Full piece.

3. In or out?

Golf Digest’s Mike Stachura pointed out Francesco Molinari holed the most significant “flagstick in” putt of the new era.

“The great debate over whether to leave the flagstick in while putting got another endorsement Sunday when Francesco Molinari holed a swerving 44-footer for birdie with the pin in on the 18th at Bay Hill to cap his closing 64 and the Arnold Palmer Invitational victory. However, one of the world’s leading putting instructors and the resident expert on putting at the TPC Sawgrass thinks the flagstick’s value just might end up being more mental than physical.”

He also writes, “….Molinari was of at least two minds when it came to his putt on 18. He said his brother, Edoardo, has produced research questioning the value of leaving the flagstick in, and those findings mirror the research conducted for Golf Digest by Tom Mase, a professor of mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University. The research project from Cal Poly showed that breaking putts were holed 80 percent of the time with the flagstick out, but only 56 percent of the time with the flagstick in…”

Full piece.

4. What PXG, Honma mean

Geoff Shackelford quotes and comments on a few portions of Brian Costa’s WSJ item on the expansion of the luxury golf club market.

“I was thinking that PXG’s driver price drop signaled a weakening of the high end club market, but as WSJ’s Brian Costa writes, Honma’s entry into the U.S. and other signs suggest an expansion…”

“There was this from Mark King, ex-Taylor Made CEO:

“‘How do you justify these prices? How do you justify the price of a Lamborghini?'” said Mark King, the former chief executive of TaylorMade who is now a consultant to Honma. “‘People don’t understand what’s under the hood, nor do they care. There is a certain status it represents.'”

“And yet…’U.S. retail sales of golf equipment grew 8% from November 2017 to November 2018, at $2.6 billion, according to market data compiled by NPD Group. Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst for the company, said that growth was largely driven by low-cost, entry-level gear.'”

Full piece, including a link to Costa’s story.

5. Voke on Woods’ 2001 Players-winning wedges

Andrew Tursky talked to the maestro of wedgecraft, Bob Vokey, about Tiger Woods’ wedges, gamed during his 2001 Players Championship win.

“As Vokey explained, Woods used two Titleist Vokey 200-series wedges — a 258-08 sand wedge and a 260-06 lob wedge — during his tenure as a Titleist staffer. Vokey says he “lightly touched the heel” of each wedge for a slight bit of heel relief, and that Woods “liked a certain radius” of the leading edges.”

“Woods’ 58-degree wedge, which originally had 8 degrees of bounce on it, was no ordinary 58-degree wedge. According to Vokey, Woods liked the look of a 58-degree wedge, but he had it bent to 56 degrees, since playing a 58- and 60-degree wedge left too small of a yardage gap. Bending the wedge 2-degrees strong gave the wedge 6 degrees of bounce rather than 8, though. Comparatively speaking, 6 degrees is not a lot of bounce for a sand wedge. Knowing this, Vokey cautioned Woods that the low-bounce sand wedge might “grab” the turf too much, and Woods ultimately made the proper adjustments.”

Full piece.

6. Remembering TW’s U.S. Am win at Sawgrass

PGATour.com’s Sean Martin with an excellent reflection on Tiger Woods’ U.S. Amateur victory at TPC Sawgrass in 1994.

“…The wiry Woods, wearing a striped shirt and large straw hat, let out a violent fist pump after holing his birdie putt on the Stadium Course’s iconic par-3. It’s an image that has a permanent place in his career’s highlight reel. For many, it was the first time they witnessed one of Woods’ electric celebrations.”

“He was once 6 down to Trip Kuehne in the Amateur’s final match. That putt gave Woods a 1-up lead. He won the 18th hole, as well, to become the youngest player to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy.”

“He was 18 years old and still weeks from starting his college career at Stanford. It was the first of three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles that preceded his 80 victories on the PGA TOUR.”

Full piece.

7. Get well, Double P!

Pat Perez posted on Instagram that he “blew out” his Achilles, saying “See y’all down the road somewhere.”

According to the scuttlebutt, Perez sustained a freak injury in the gym.

Instagram post.

8. Masters odds update

Per Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”Here’s a look at the other notable odds via the Westgate, with the Masters now just four weeks away”

10/1: Dustin Johnson

12/1: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose

14/1: Justin Thomas

16/1: Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka

18/1: Jon Rahm

20/1: Bryson DeChambeau

25/1: Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood

30/1: Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Hideki Matsuyama

Full piece.

9. Tell us how you really feel, Zac Blair!

Zac Blair on Twitter...

“Here’s my take … the players is a HUGE golf tourney … 1 that I’m positive any pga tour member would absolutely LOVE to win … but it’s not a major & I don’t think it’ll ever be a 1 when everyone is trying to shove it down your throat as a 1 … Just let it be the Players”

“So again to recap … it’s a HUGE event … it’s the best field in golf by a long shot … biggest payday in golf … but it’s not a major …. BUT I don’t think that should take away from how great the event it … it’s amazing … just stop trying to spoon feed it as a major”

The tweets.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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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.