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Morning 9: Mental health crisis among golf superintendents? | TW’s “workout secret?” | Worst golf advice

Published

7 years ago

Sep 26, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

morning9@golfwrx.com is unmonitored! Email me at ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com with high praise and tips (monetary or informational). Find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram.

September 26, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

1. A mental health crisis among golf supers?

Leading the M9 today is a story that is an order of magnitude greater than our usual fare-and one more than worthy of top billing.

Digest’s Ron Whitten opens an examination of the trend of mental health issues among golf course superintendents with vaunted superintendent Dave Wilber’s story…

It reads in part…”So in 2015, Wilber picked up a 90-day prescription, a beta-blocker for his heart rate, opened the bottle and swallowed its contents.”

“I was thinking it would shut off my heart,” Wilber says. “All it did was make me super sick. I dozed off, then woke up vomiting it all up. I’m thinking, God, I’m such a f—up I can’t even off myself. I can’t even get that job done.”

And he writes this about the profession and Wilber’s decision to publicize his darkest moment…”Wilber is not the only one in the turfgrass business dealing with such an issue. Maintaining a golf course is a high-risk occupation and can put one’s physical well-being, personal relationships and mental health at risk. But revealing struggles with anxiety, depression or something worse is still considered taboo in this occupation, just as it is in many other lines of work.”

“Wilber admits his candor about his suicide attempt, which he revealed two years ago on the website Turfnet, might cost him his career. But he no longer cares. He believes it’s essential to bring these issues to the forefront, because it might save someone.”

“When I started writing about my struggles on Turfnet,” he says, “I got an inbox full of responses from golf-course superintendents-like 60 emails-mostly supportive. One said, ‘Don’t tell anybody, but I’ve dealt with depression, too.’ Another told me, ‘I wanted to kill myself, too.’ It was mind-numbing.

“We need to get this out in the open. Real people have real struggles, and they shouldn’t have to beat themselves to death for what they are or aren’t at work.”

Full piece.

2. Romo’s major

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”But this is the first time that tournament golf has conflicted with Romo’s full-time gig as an NFL analyst for CBS, which has him traveling from one stadium to the next for much of the fall. While the football work means he has had less time to practice than he otherwise might in the spring or summer, his game has still received plenty of attention in recent weeks.”

“This has been on my radar for a while, so trying to get the game ready for this. For me, it’s like a major,” Romo said. “I feel comfortable. The more times you’re out here, the more comfortable you feel.”

Full piece.

3. JT keeping goals under wraps

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…“Count Justin Thomas as one of the PGA Tour pros who likes to set goals at the start of the season. Just don’t ask him to share them publicly.”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he said with a smirk.

“Thomas is making his season debut this week at the Safeway Open, the third tournament on the PGA Tour’s 2019-20 wrap-around schedule. Over the past few seasons, he has been tight-lipped about his goals before revealing on social media how he did in achieving them at season’s end. As Thomas explained, he once spouted off a few lofty goals he’d set for himself to members of the press only to be constantly reminded of his shortcomings for the remainder of the year.”

“Rookie mistake,” he said. “After that I keep them to myself. They are in my phone so if anyone ever steals my phone and guesses my password they can find them.”

Full piece.

4. “Significant renovation” ahead for Muirfield Village

Golf.com’s Sean Zak with the report…”Muirfield Village Golf Club, home of Jack Nicklaus and the Memorial Tournament, will look a bit different in the future, thanks to a 2020 renovation that was just put in place this week.”

“The course that hosts the PGA Tour every summer will shut down the first week of July 2020, which was first reported by No Laying Up. According to GM Nicholas LaRocca, it was Nicklaus’ decision, and plans are, “to redo all the greens. Probably make a few minor changes on a few holes, and get the place ready to go for [the following] May.”

Full piece.

5. Worst pieces of golf advice

Matthew Rudy with a superb survey of the bottom of a few top teachers’ advice barrels…

“What’s the worst tip you’ve ever heard somebody give?...Shaun Webb, Golf Digest top teacher in Louisiana: “How much time do you have? ‘Keep your head down.’ ‘Don’t use your arms.’ ‘You’re swinging too fast.’ One of the worst I’ve ever heard came from another teacher. He told someone that if you fire the hips, the club will square automatically. There’s so much wrong with that-I’ll bet the student doesn’t even play golf anymore.”

“Clearwater: ” ‘Hold the club like a baby bird’ is one of the classics. The long drive guys are the biggest, strongest people on earth, and through impact, they’re trying to rip the grip in half. There’s a lot of force going on down there….”Of all the ways you move in a swing, ‘keep your head down’ is the worst advice you could give. Just go look at the tour players. Nobody is trying to stay bent forward. Nobody. You’re not hitting poor shots because of where your eyes are pointed.”

Full piece.

6. The key to TW’s fitness?

Golf Digest’s Peter Morrice…”In all sports, it’s about the legs,” Tiger Woods says in his new 12-part video series “My Game: Tiger Woods,” produced by GOLFTV and Golf Digest. “Have you ever seen a home-run hitter with small legs? That just doesn’t happen. It starts with the base.”

“Tiger talks about running and how he used daily runs as a release but also to boost his endurance for long stretches of competitive play. “I was never very big, but my legs were strong, and they could go forever. I just never got tired,” Tiger says. “And because legs feed the wolves, the more I ran, the better I played.”

Full piece.

7. Stephanie Meadow

Johnny Watterson at the Irish Times with this regarding the rise, fall, and resurgence of Stephanie Meadow…

“Stephanie Meadow, 22-years-old. Third in the 2014 US Open.”

“It could have been a career epitaph. Qualifying as first alternate and in the mix on the last day of a Major. It was her first professional tournament. No one knew her. The world expected her to fade. She didn’t. That would come later.”

“After the first round she was tied 8th, second round tied 10th. On the Saturday a 69 took her to third with three other players.”

“When Meadow looked around Pinehurst on the final day she saw the world’s most famous golfer Michelle Wie leading the field. Her partner was Hall of Fame Australian Karrie Webb. The seven times Major winner Webb faded, the Irish rookie did not. Where did Stephanie Meadow go?”

Full piece.

8. Mickelson impressed with up-close view of Steph’s golf game

Golfweek’s Schupak again, this time with what Lefty said after his pro-am round with Chef Curry…”Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry doesn’t just drop bombs on the basketball court. Playing alongside Phil Mickelson in the pro-am ahead of this week’s Safeway Open, Curry launched drives that had Lefty waxing rhapsodic about “hellacious bombs” after the round.”

“I think the thing about Steph Curry’s golf game is his touch, his hands, his chipping, putting. He’s got incredible touch but he also has a ton of speed,” Mickelson said. “You saw him dropping all kinds of bombs off the tee, just hellacious bombs, deep and very accurate, certainly straighter than what I have.”

Full piece.

9. In praise of Phireside with Phil

From Phil’s commending of the on-course efforts of Curry to Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger gushing over Mickelson’s work alongside an open flame.

Bamberger wrote this regarding the latest episode of “Phireside”…”If possible, Phil has reached a new high with this week’s show, in which he interviews Larry David. The camera work is shaky, at one point a finger crosses the lens, Larry rambles, Phil stares and it all works. On one level you could say it’s about Larry’s extraordinary history as a world-class junior golfer, cut short by a heinous hand injury, but on another level it’s about nothing. Phil is wearing golf shoes, shorts and his Hall-of-Fame blazer. Of course, Larry should have a blazer, too, and likely would, except for the hand thing. Phil has a deep Rolodex and it makes you wonder: who should Phil have next?”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

7 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.