News

Morning 9: Origin story of the famed Bethpage “warning” sign | Sea change in player prep for majors?

Published

7 years ago

May 15, 2019

GolfWRX Staff

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

May 15, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.

1. Tuesday tedium

Geoff Shackelford on the vibe at Bethpage and a possible sea change in player preparation

“…Sadly, this Tuesday tedium may be the new normal.”

“Players are increasingly focusing on saving energy by skipping or minimizing practice rounds. They’re choosing their press conference words carefully to avoid unwanted drama – though Woods and Koepka did their part. So we’re mostly left to wonder if a 53-year-old former winner will be able to navigate muddy puddles in his topless buggy.”

“It’s hard to say who started this accelerating trend of players doing all of their “prep” and “reps” before tournament week. With green books, smarter caddies, wiser instructors and more information than ever to scope out a course, practice rounds just aren’t as necessary. Even their equipment is so dialed in that we don’t get too many stories of players struggling to make a high-profile adjustment. That’s because plenty of rest is required to cope with five-and-a-half hour rounds in an era with the new condensed schedule making players pace themselves. Led by, you know who, the Masters champion.”

Full piece.

2. “Just perfect”

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Despite the cold, gloomy conditions, Kerry Haigh smiled brightly when the PGA of America’s chief championships officer was asked about this week’s conditions at Bethpage Black.”

“As you can see or I’m sure some of the players have seen, the greens are just perfect. The fairways are beautiful. The rough is growing,” Haigh beamed.”

“If you asked me 3 ½ weeks ago, you always think, is spring ever going to come and are the trees going to bud and is the grass going to grow?” Haigh admitted. “Thankfully for all of our lives, that’s happened, and hopefully will continue to do so.”

Full piece.

3. Fox commentator makes it to U.S. Open sectionals

ICYMI, the Forecaddie on Shane Bacon’s impressive feat…

“The Forecaddie knows there are fantastic stories behind every U.S. Open local qualifier. So with an apology to the many other fine tales out there that Golfweek will be tracking down as we build to full Sectional Qualifying coverage, The Man Out Front couldn’t help but notice Shane Bacon’s successful effort at Phoenix Country Club.”

“You know him as Fox’s second lead announcer after Joe Buck, but social media followers know Bacon’s got a sweet move even if he is a lefty, something The Forecaddie won’t hold against him after posting 68 on his home course to advance to the Sectionals.”

“I’ve probably done local 8 or 9 times, sniffed the line a couple of times, fired awful numbers more,” Bacon wrote after being one of seven to advance from Phoenix on May 13. “It’s a small accomplishment in the landscape of golf, sure, but teeing it at 9:40 this morning and finding out at 2 pm you’re through is why we play, it’s why we care and it’s why we love the competition of the sport.”

Full piece.

4. Rory doesn’t think people fully appreciate the magnitude of Tiger Woods’ Masters win

Interesting take from the Ulsterman…

AP report…”Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy was still in awe Tuesday, two days before the start of the year’s second major, the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.”

“I still don’t think people understand what he did in April and coming back, and with everything that he’s been through,” McIlroy said. “It’s unbelievable. Whether it’s the greatest comeback in sports, that’s probably up for debate, but from what I’ve experienced and the things that he said when I’ve been around him, to be 2½ years ago from looking like maybe not playing golf again to winning the first major of the year and being the favorite going into the second major of the year, I mean, that’s unbelievable.”

Full piece.

5. The new Woods narrative

TW himself on his changing tale…

Mark Cannizarro at the NY Post…“It’s great to be part of the narrative,” Woods said Tuesday in his first public remarks since his fifth career Masters victory in April, which also happened to be his 15th career major championship. “My narrative spans 20 years now, just over 20 years. If you look at most of the players or the players that have had the most success on Tour, you’re not measured by, like an NFL football player when you get in the Hall of Fame after nine years. If you played out here nine years, you haven’t really done that well. You’re measured in decades. Because the nature of the sport, we’re able to hang around a lot longer and still be relevant.”

…”Whether I’m dominant or not going forward, that remains to be seen,” Woods said. “What I know is I need to give myself the best chance to win the events that I play in, and sometimes that can be taking a little bit more breaks here and there and making sure that I am ready to go and being able to give it my best at those events.”

Full piece.

6. Brooks’ major math

A Jack Nicklaus-esque breakdown…

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…Koepka has won just twice outside the majors, in 2015 at the Waste Management in Phoenix and last fall at the CJ Cup in South Korea. While many contenders head into weeks like this with lofty aspirations, Koepka arrives at Bethpage State Park with a confidence level befitting a man who’s running out of room on his mantle.

“I think you keep doing what you’re supposed to do, you play good, you peak at the right times,” Koepka said. “I think sometimes the majors are the easiest ones to win.”

…”There’s 156 [players] in the field, so you figure at least 80 of them I’m just going to beat,” Koepka said. “You figure about half of them won’t play well from there, so you’re down to about maybe 35. And then from 35, some of them just – pressure is going to get to them. It only leaves you with a few more, and you’ve just got to beat those guys.”

Full piece.

7. The story of Bethpage Black’s famed “warning” sign

George Willis of the NY Post talked with Mike Asheroff, former deputy regional director for the Long Island State Parks…

He said the sign originated on Memorial Day, either in 1981 or ’82, maybe even 1980. Asheroff said he was sitting having coffee with Eric Siebert, who was the parks superintendent at the time, when Siebert’s two-way radio alerted them of an altercation on the golf course.

“We went out there and some guy had decided he was going to teach his wife to play golf on Memorial Day on the Black Course,” Asheroff told The Post in a telephone interview. “There were four or five empty holes in front of them and a foursome of very angry Asian golfers behind them. They were getting upset with the man and the woman and their English wasn’t good. To hurry them up, they hit several balls into him and his wife. He turned around and hit the balls back at them. They all became extremely angry.

“The park police showed up. We managed to get this guy off the golf course. His wife was mortified. We refunded his green fee and told him to go away.”

Here’s where the legend of the Black Warning Sign is born.

“I turned to Eric at that point and said, ‘Give me a piece of paper,’ and I scribbled out the wording of the sign and said, ‘Get the sign shop to make this up and put it by the park register and if anybody wants to play golf on the Black, point it out to them.’ That’s how the sign got out there,” Asheroff recalled.

Full piece.

8. Woods on Daly’s cart use

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…

“Speaking to the media at Bethpage Black, Woods was asked his thoughts on Daly using a cart at the PGA Championship. Last week the PGA of America granted the 53-year-old, who is in the field thanks to the lifetime exemption earned from his 1991 PGA Championship victory, access to wheels under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Daly suffers from osteoarthritis in his right knee.”

“Yet Woods, realizing the opportunity before him, was stoic in his response: “Well, I walked with a broken leg, so…” Woods replied, letting out a brief smile after a beat.”

Full piece.

9. What Brooks is cooking

Golf Channel’s Jason Crook…”It may not get the same hype as the Masters Champions Dinner, but the PGA Champions Dinner delivered the goods on Tuesday night at Bethpage.”

“Defending champion Brooks Koepka’s menu included a choice of Miyazaki beef imported from Japan, roasted Long Island duck or branzino filet for the main course, sandwiched between an appetizer of spinach and goat cheese salad topped with fried pork belly and carrot cake for dessert.”

Article/menu here.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour 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

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.