News

Morning 9: Chris Kirk stepping away | Woods on his legendary Cameron | Daly to use cart at PGA

Published

7 years ago

May 8, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

May 8, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.

1. Kirk steps away to deal with alcohol use, depression

This isn’t to make a spectacle of any man’s demons, but rather, to applaud Chris Kirk for acknowledging he needs help, getting it, and in doing so, turning an extremely negative personal situation into a public example.

ESPN’s Bob Harig writes…“Veteran PGA Tour player Chris Kirk announced Tuesday via Twitter that he would be taking time away from the game to deal with alcohol and depression issues.”

“Kirk, who turns 34 on Wednesday, said that he has been dealing with “alcohol abuse and depression for some time. I thought I could control it, but after multiple relapses I have come to realize that I can’t fix this on my own.”

Full piece.

See Kirk’s tweet here.

2. Daly to use cart at PGA Champ

The AP’s Doug Ferguson…

“John Daly has been approved to use a cart next week in the PGA Championship because of an injured left knee. He will be the first player to ride a cart at a major championship since Casey Martin in the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in 1998 and 2012.”

“The PGA of America says Daly applied for the cart through its American with Disabilities Act policy and provided information for the medical staff to review.”

“The former British Open and PGA champion says he has osteoarthritis in his right knee that keeps him from walking a full round. Daly plays the PGA Tour Champions circuit that allows for carts.”

Full piece.

3. A nervous Mickelson?

Lefty isn’t feeling comfortable as he heads to Bethpage…

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…

“Speaking on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio this week, Mickelson admitted, following a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, he’s a bit uneasy heading into the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.”

“I missed the cut by quite a few, but the reason I thought it was going to be such a good week was I started to play really well. Now, I’m nervous going into the PGA Championship with this being my most recent performance,” Mickelson said. “I’m not excited about a missed cut, a week off, and then going into a major. That’s not the best way to do it.”

“Mickelson came out of the gates firing in 2019, finishing in a tie for second at the Desert Classic and winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. However, in seven starts since his victory, the five-time major winner has missed three cuts and posted a lone top-25 finish (T-18 at the Masters).”

Full piece.

4. A chat with Annika

Our Brendon Elliott caught up the legendary LPGA star

A bit of their conversation…

When did you start playing the game and who had the biggest influence on you getting started?

Annika: I started to play golf at the age of 12. I split a set of clubs with my sister, Charlotta. I got the odd numbers and she got the evens. My parents were my biggest influence in starting to golf as they played a lot. We would go to the course with them and ride their pull carts like a horse and get ice cream at the turn. Fun memories.

At what point did you know that you had what it took to play at a high level?

Annika: My first love was tennis, but when I was 16, I decided to focus on golf. I played on the Swedish National Team and won the World Amateur Championship in 1988. That’s when I realized I could play at a high level.

Full piece.

5. Plenty of attention for Homa now

Tim Rosaforte for Golf Channel…

“…certainly some significant names were aware of Homa. For the first 24 hours following his win, there was no stopping the text messages and the calls, from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, from Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “I appreciate everybody reaching out. It’s been a blast,” Homa said from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, admitting, “I’m a little bit startled by it.”

“Known more for his tweets than his birdies, Homa hardly looked startled on the back nine Sunday at Quail Hollow. It was like he was playing for Cal-Berkeley again, the clock set back to 2013. Homa was vibing like a multi-winner and people were appreciating it.”

“I just called him to congratulate him, tell him how impressive it was to watch him seize the tournament, fight through the years,” Monahan said in a text, “How exciting the road ahead is and just wanted to make certain he had a chance to watch ‘Game of Thrones.'”

Full piece.

6. Homa talks equipment

Our Johnny Wunder was able to catch up with Homa to discuss his gear…

“Johnny Wunder: The first thing I want to talk about is the TS4 driver, which is obviously a new product from Titleist. Talk to me about transitioning to the TS4 and what that driver did that your old one didn’t.”

“Max Homa: Yeah, it was mainly the spin, and keeping it down a bit. I’ve always liked hitting my go-to low cut. Obviously, the less spin you have on that the better so you can get a little bit of chase out of it. I would say the TS3 performed great with a full out drive, but it (TS4) sure helped the kind of chippy one to still stay out there with some of the longer guys.”

“Johnny Wunder: So when you say a kind of a chippy shot, is that that fairway finder where you tee it up a little lower and squeeze one off?”

“Max Homa: Exactly. It’s a squeeze cut driver that stays flat and runs a little bit. And that’s the perfect combo when you have a tee shot where you don’t feel very comfortable.”

Full piece.

7. Romo ready

Brad Townsend at the Dallas Morning News on Tony Romo’s preparation for his Byron Nelson sponsor’s exemption start…

(Quoting Romo) “Obviously I understand where I’m at comparatively to the guys in this field. These are the best of the best. How you improve is being around them, watching them and thinking about it and practicing. For me, putting it on display is the enjoyable part.”

“Yes, it takes chutzpah to do what Romo is attempting, especially since he shot 15-over-par in each of his only two previous PGA Tour appearances, last year’s and this year’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.”

Full piece.

8. A retraction

Here’s a tidbit from Golf.com…make of it what you will, but it’s certainly interesting to see a retraction this far after publication…

“On June 17, 2018, GOLF.com published an article with the headline “It’s complicated: To understand Mickelson’s controversial actions, you must first understand Phil.” The article refers to Billy Walters as Phil Mickelson’s “bookie,” the accuracy of which Walters disputes. The court records referenced in the article do not specifically refer to Walters as Mickelson’s “bookie” and GOLF.com has not been able to substantiate the claim. GOLF.com has removed the article and retracts the reference to Walters.”

9. Tiger on his Scotty

Golfweek’s Steve Dimeglio talked with the 15-time major champion about his personal Excalibur for the April issue of the magazine

A morsel of his excellent article…”Just two years after destroying the field in his record-setting performance in the 1997 Masters with a Scotty Cameron Teryllium TeI3, Woods was struggling – by his standards. He was 102nd in putting average on the PGA Tour and had broken 70 once in 17 rounds.”

“He contacted Cameron, and the two arrived at a putter that Woods wanted to be squarer and more angular with the sweet spot moved to the exact center of the club.”

“Cameron built the putter, a heel-toe-weighted blade with a single dot on the topline. Woods thought the putter was a tiny bit too heavy – by a few grams – so Cameron mulled out material in the front and back of the putter head to reduce the overall weight and filled the dots with red paint – Woods’ signature color.”

Full piece.

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?

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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.