News

Morning 9: Match Play bracket | Nelly now No. 1 American | Bubba: cancel the Match Play!

Published

7 years ago

Mar 26, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

March 25, 2019

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans.

1. Match play rules reminder

Well-intentioned gift that keeps on giving that they are, the 2019 Rules of Golf bring changes to match play (you’d be forgiven if you’ve forgotten)

Geoff Shackelford filed a reminder for Golfweek.

Among the changes…

“The word “halve” is out, “tying” a hole is in. This was driven by the rules attempting to employ more commonly used language.”

“Match “score” is now the correct terminology instead of “status” of the match. Score one for the blue collar linguists.”

“In the old rules what we know to be asking or requesting a ruling was called “making a claim.” But since this isn’t the insurance business, the rule-makers have adopted “request a ruling.”

Full piece.

2. Bracket, revealed!

The PGA Tour unveiled the Dell Match Play bracket

Here’s El Tigre’s group, with a breakdown from PGATour.com Staff,,,

13. TIGER WOODS (33-10) – Match Play champion in 2003, 2004 and 2008. Last start in this event was 2013, so he’s never played at Austin CC or in this Group Play format.
18. PATRICK CANTLAY (2-1-0) – Lost to Cameron Smith in his opener last year before winning his next two matches.
44. BRANDT SNEDEKER (7-8-1) – Returns after a year off from the event. Has only come out of Group stage once in last three tries.
61. AARON WISE (0-0) – Making first Match Play appearance.

Full bracket, breakdown.

3. Nelly No. 1 (American)

Nelly Korda is now the top-ranked American woman.

Golf Digest’s Keely Levins…”Nelly’s rise has been steady after having made her first big appearance in the U.S. Women’s Open in 2013 as an 14-year-old. She made the cut as an amateur and finished T-64. After turning pro at age 18 in 2016, she played a full season on the Symetra Tour, winning once and qualifying for the LPGA Tour for the 2017 season. She had five top-10 finishes in her rookie campaign, and then a year later claimed her first LPGA Tour win at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship last October.”

“Nelly has played five events so far in 2019, and has finished in the top 10 in each, including a win at last month’s ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open.”

Full piece.

4. Bubba wants to…cancel the Match Play?

Primarily, because he’s not a fan of the event…

Quotes via Joel Beall at Golf Digest…

“I vote every year not to have Match Play because I feel like I have a better chance in 72 holes than I do in individual (matches),” Watson said at Innisbrook. “Because we have seen every year a guy shoot in the 60s and lose, and then we see a guy shoot in the 70s and win. And it’s like, wait a second, how fair is this?”

“Don’t get me wrong, if I win Match Play again, it would be a miracle. But it would be awesome, I would accept it,” Watson said. “But we’re just looking forward, six months from now and see if we have improved. And if that means throwing in a win here or there, great. But we’re just trying to improve and get more consistent so we have chances on Sundays instead of last place.”

Full piece.

5. Leadbetter officially joins Team Reed

Brian Wacker at Golf Digest filed this…”Patrick Reed has officially hired swing coach David Leadbetter, who said Monday during an interview on Brad Faxon’s radio show on SiriusXM that Reed asked him to join the team and that he has accepted.”

“The reigning Masters champ and 66-year-old instructor first worked together following Reed’s opening round at last week’s Valspar Championship, where Reed’s wife Justine sent a text to Leadbetter on Thursday afternoon asking if he could do a lesson with her husband before the second round.”

Full piece.

6. Finau reflects on Masters ankle horror

Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…”Finau was among those playing in the fan-friendly Par 3 contest when he got to the 7th hole. Great shots and holes in one are not uncommon in this event.”

“But after getting his ace, Finau admitted on Golf Channel’s Feherty his reaction was over the top.”

“So when that thing hit the pin and disappeared, the excitement level for me was one like I don’t know if I ever experienced before,” Finau told Feherty. “At that moment, I’m kinda sprinting up the fairway and I’m thinking ‘I should check on my family. Maybe they’re celebrating with me.’ But then, what happened next was probably the most embarrassing and craziest moment of my life.”

Indeed. Full piece.

7. No changes to Match Play format

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Players were informed last week that a proposal had been presented to the player advisory council to dramatically change the format of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.”

“The new format, which was requested by Dell Technologies, would double the number of players who advance out of match play group play to 32 for 36 holes of stroke-play competition on the weekend at Austin Country Club. According to the memo sent to players, the PAC “was not supportive of the proposed format change.”

Full piece.

8. Feherty opens up about relapse following son’s death

Andy Nesbitt of For The Win…”Feherty talked to Gumble during an interview that will air on the new episode of HBO’s Real Sports”

“I was at a friend’s ranch and I’d gone up there to be by myself. I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve been sober 10 years. I’m tired of it,” he said. “You know, I’m tired of being sober. I wanna feel better.’ And I convinced myself that it would make me feel better.

“So, there was a bottle of Irish whiskey there, which is, like, an angel cryin’ on my tongue. But oddly enough, it didn’t – tasted awful. But I made myself drink more. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve got this under control. I don’t have to drink that much.’ You know, the next day I did the same thing, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got it under control.’ Before I knew it, you know, it had me under control.”

Full piece.

9. Mixed Open

BBC Sport Report on the Jordan Mixed Open and former Ryder Cupper Barry Lane’s contention that the format has legs.

“The inaugural Jordan Mixed Open could be “a blueprint for the future of the game”, says former Ryder Cup player Barry Lane.”

“Lane will be one of the seniors from the Staysure Tour who will compete against Challenge Tour and Ladies’ European Tour players from 4-6 April.”

“The 123-player field at Ayla Golf Club will compete for a £300,000 prize fund.”

“It’s something different, and for more people to engage in golf that’s what we need,” said the 1993 Ryder Cup player.”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

13 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

3 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.