News

Morning 9: Captain Els makes his picks | What makes a great captain’s pick? | Brutal DQ

Published

7 years ago

Nov 7, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

Email me at ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com and find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram and golfwrxEIC on Twitter.

November 7, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

**Just a reminder we’re looking for advertisers for 2020. Drop me a line if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership.**

1. Els’ picks

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard on the International Team captain choosing age over experience…”Els named Joaquin Niemann and Sungjae Im – 20 and 21 years old, respectively – along with Jason Day and Adam Hadwin, 32, his four captain’s picks for this year’s International Presidents Cup team.”

“The four picks, which were announced Wednesday evening, round out what is the youngest International team with six rookies, but Els didn’t see that as a drawback following more than two decades of futility in the biennial matches for the International side.”

“I didn’t go looking for Joaquin who is 20, or Sungjae who is 21, but they made themselves a lock on this team,” Els said. “I definitely wasn’t that good at 20, 21, but these guys are world-class players and they’ve proven themselves. I’m excited by the new blood that’s coming in.”

Full piece.

2. The essential qualities of good captain’s picks

Shane Ryan, international team competition aficionado that he is, catalogs the crucial attributes of great captain’s picks.

Here are two…”Form…As strange as it might sound, a player’s form entering a match-play exhibition doesn’t matter as much as logic says it should. Yes, you can find examples of bad form persisting, as we famously saw with Webb Simpson in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, but more often the cauldron of a Cup renders recent results less critical than many believe. The heightened pressure, along with the format change to match play and the addition of a team, tends to stop individual momentum.”

“Ferocity…Fear is a killer. We see it over and over again, and of the Ryder Cups I’ve covered, one of the most memorable one-offs came in 2014 at Gleneagles. Paul McGinley, in an otherwise perfect captaincy, made his lone “mistake” when he selected native Scotsman Stephen Gallacher as a captain’s pick and never played him after the first session when it became clear that the stage was too big for him. (I put “mistake” in quotes because from a diplomacy angle, McGinley had to pick a Scotsman to play on a team competing in Scotland.) But it was most prominent in 2016, when Darren Clarke’s English rookies-Chris Wood, Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan, and Matthew Fitzpatrick-looked like they wanted to dig a hole in the Minnesota earth and bury themselves. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Thomas Pieters dealt with the hostile environment by decimating almost every American who stood in his way, including another fairly tough rookie named Brooks Koepka. Why? Because Pieters is a badass, and his English teammates were not. It doesn’t mean he’ll have a better career than the English four, or even that he’s a better player-it means that when faced with high pressure and a mano-a-mano duel, he’s up for it. He even enjoys it.”

Full piece.

3. Brutal DQ

Alex Myers with the horror story…“At the second stage of Q school, Luis Gagne put himself in decent shape after an opening round 70 in Plantation, Fla. Or so he thought. Turns out, Gagne left the course without signing his scorecard and was disqualified. Thanks to Ryan French (Monday Q Info) for first noticing this unfortunate occurrence.”

“Monday Q Info…The rules of golf can be harsh at times…Luis Gagne who is at 2nd in Plantation forgot to sign his scorecard before leaving the scoring area, the penalty for doing so…Disqualification. He had shot a -1 70 before being DQ’d. Gagne was ranked 24th in WAGR before turning pro”

Full piece.

4. European Tour ROY race

Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”The Race to Dubai isn’t the only sprint to the finish over the remaining three tournaments of the 2019 European Tour season. There’s a pretty good contest to see who’ll become the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, too.”

“Kurt Kitayama, Robert MacIntyre, Adri Arnaus and Guido Migliozzi wouldn’t have featured on my list of possible contenders to follow in the footsteps of future stars like Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo.”

Full piece.

5. Lucy Li turns pro

Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”The San Francisco Chronicle’s Ron Kroichick first reported the news on Wednesday after getting confirmation from Li’s mom. But it’s a move that surprised no one following Li’s T-72 at Stage 2 of LPGA Q School last month. Following that performance, which didn’t advance her to the final stage, but did earn her Symetra Tour status for next season, Li said the following”

“I’m excited to be playing here and really looking forward to the Symetra Tour next year, then hopefully take that jump to the next level.”

Full piece.

6. AJGA POY

Meet Max Moldovan, match play maestro and AJGA POY

Golfweek’s Julie Williams…“Maxwell Moldovan isn’t someone you’d want to meet on the other side of a match-play bracket. On his way to winning the Polo Golf Junior Classic at Liberty National this summer then helping the East Team win the Wyndham Cup, the 17-year-old Uniontown, Ohio, native compiled a 9-0-1 match-play record. For such strong play, Moldovan earned the American Junior Golf Association’s highest honor: Rolex Player of the Year.”

“I had a really good year … definitely the best of my career so far,” Moldovan said. “My goal was to finish in the top 15 in Invitationals and try to win an AJGA tournament. I won in 2016 and 2017, but not last year. I can’t thank God, my family and friends enough for all they’ve done in my life. My faith has led to great things and winning this award is a true honor that reflects God’s glory.”

Full piece for the rundown of first and second-teamers.

7. Colin Montgomerie: course designer

Simon Cambers of the New York Times talked with Monty, designer of this week’s European Tour venue in Turkey…”What does it mean to you, and to the club itself, for the Montgomerie Maxx Royal to be holding the Turkish Open again this year? It is a fantastic honor, having designed a course that I am very proud of and one that is hosting its fourth Rolex event, one of a number of premier European Tour events.”

“Marc Stein has covered Jordan. He’s covered Kobe. And LeBron vs. the Warriors. Go behind the N.B.A.’s curtain with basketball’s foremost expert.”

“How would you describe the challenges presented by the Montgomerie Maxx Royal?”…”It can be played by all types of golfers. I particularly like the par 3s, which are very challenging. All the par 5s are risk-reward, which tests even the best European Tour pros. The green designs are such that the pin positions can be in some quite difficult and challenging positions. Therefore, hitting the fairways is a must, to allow the player to attack the pins. I particularly like the 12th hole. It is a very strong par 4, one where you have to hit the fairway, and then your second shot is very demanding, played into an undulating green. But really, I am very proud of all 18 holes.”

Full piece.

8. Ever wondered what’s in Tiger Woods’ pockets on the golf course?

…no, this isn’t the start to a lewd joke, but rather…

Peter Morrice at Golf Digest...”In the final episode of “My Game: Tiger Woods,” you’ll go behind the scenes at the shoots and hear some of the small things that go into Tiger’s game. Here’s a fun one: What does Tiger carry on him when he plays?”

“In my right-front pocket, there’s always a quarter, a divot tool and at least three tees. In my left-front pocket, there’s my Chapstick,” Tiger says. “If it’s cool and damp, my glove is always in my front-left pocket. If it’s hot out, I’ll air it out in my back-left pocket. Other than that, I really don’t have any quirks [smiles].”

Full piece.

9. A most interesting morsel

From the Twitterverse…Interesting excavation of a mention of “advice seeking” in the form of peeking into another player’s bag in a 1953 newspaper article on Ben Hogan’s U.S. Open victory, pointed out by Jeff Martin on Twitter.

See it in the image below.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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.