News

Morning 9: Do tour pros cheat? A caddie’s take | Monahan: I believe Patrick Reed | Brooks is back

Published

6 years ago

Jan 7, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

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

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January 7, 2020

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans. A hot launch week rolls on… Thanks to anyone who, despite their better judgment, elected to give me a follow on Twitter yesterday.

**Drop me a line (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com) if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership. Banner and native ad possibilities are, well, possible**

1. “I believe Patrick”

Perhaps, you’re unhappy being served another helping of Patrick Reed stew (it has a sandy consistency). And while it’s a lukewarm dish at this point in the minds of many, it’s significant to note the PGA Tour’s commissioner has offered his line-toeing take on the Reedian fiasco and fallout.

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine...”When asked whether Reed deserved further disciplinary action for what unfolded in the Bahamas, Monahan said he felt the punishment was fitting while siding with Reed.”

“Golf is a game of honor and integrity, and you’ve heard from Patrick,” Monahan said. “I’ve had an opportunity to talk to Patrick at length, and I believe Patrick when he says that [he] did not intentionally improve [his] lie. And so you go back to that moment, and the conversation that he had with [rules official] Slugger [White], and the fact that a violation was applied and he agreed to it, and they signed his card and he moved on.

“To me, that was the end of the matter.”

Full piece.

2. BK returneth

ESPN’s Bob Harig with the report…”No. 1-ranked Brooks Koepka is set to return to competitive golf next week for the first time in nearly three months after dealing with a knee injury that kept him out of the Presidents Cup.”

“Koepka’s agent, Blake Smith of Hambric Sports, said in an email Monday that Koepka will return at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a European Tour event that the golfer had committed to some time ago. The tournament had announced Monday that Koepka would be taking part in a pre-tournament exhibition on Jan. 14.”

“Brooks’ rehab for his knee has gone great the past three months and he has met all of his physical therapy goals,” Smith said. “He feels as good as he ever has and is excited to tee it up next week.”

Full piece.

3. All-time captain?

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak disagrees with Paul Azinger’s suggestion that Tiger Woods ought to be the U.S. Ryder/Presidents Cup captain until deposed.

One of his points…”There’s no doubt that Woods deserves to be U.S. Ryder Cup captain – likely in 2022, or as soon as he wants the job. And I would pencil him in to return to the Presidents Cup in 2021. After all, both Fred Couples and Jack Nicklaus did three consecutive tours of duty, so there’s plenty of precedent for an encore performance. But I want to see Tiger manage a victorious Ryder Cup team before I hand him the keys to the kingdom in perpetuity, and, in particular, a road triumph. The U.S. hasn’t won on foreign soil since 1993. Let’s see him end that streak and then we can talk.”

Full piece.

4. Rory in for Farmers

PGA Tour report…”Rory McIlroy, 2019 PGA TOUR FedExCup champion, 2019 PGA TOUR Player of the Year and defending PLAYERS champion, has committed to the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open, set for January 22-26 at Torrey Pines Golf Course.”

“McIlroy, who has won 18 times on TOUR, returns to Torrey Pines after finishing T5 in his Farmers Insurance Open debut in 2019. The 30-year-old from Northern Ireland became the second player to win multiple FedExCup titles last year and won three TOUR events in 2019 – THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open and TOUR Championship.”

Full piece.

5. Do tour pros cheat?

Cheating is “not really” a problem on the PGA Tour, according to Golf Digest’s Anonymous Caddie

He (or she) says: “Yes, we all have stories. Hard not to after nearly a decade out here. But it’s not as prevalent or excessive as some might believe. Even the players who carry less-than-stellar reputations, or have been dinged before, are not as bad as they’re portrayed. In my estimation, and talking with other caddies, these guys often make unintentional mistakes that rarely happen twice.”

“Well, save for one international guy. Just an absolute nightmare when it comes to law-breaking.”

“Whatever trick you can imagine-fudging coins, liberal drops, patting behind the ball for a better lie-he does it, and does so without remorse. His big tell is carrying a driver or fairway wood from the tee to his position in the rough. Takes out more grass than a weed whacker. But, honestly, he’s the exception.”

Full story.

(WHO IS THIS INTERNATIONAL GUY?)

6. Future Prez Cup sites

Via Golfweek’s Forecaddie…”…Having just returned from America’s 16-14 victory in the Land Down Under, TMOF couldn’t help wonder where will his dog-eared passport be stamped next?”

“We already know that the 2021 edition of the biennial competition is a USA home game at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. But The Forecaddie has gone ahead and made a down payment on an AirBnb North of the Border after hearing from multiple sources that the 2023 Presidents Cup is expected to return to Royal Montreal Golf Club, which hosted in 2007. Anyone think Mike Weir for International Team captain, eh?”

“International Team Captain Gary Player hugs Mike Weir during Opening Ceremonies for the 2007 Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club. (Photo by Chris Condon/PGA Tour)”

“The bigger question is 2027, where the likes of Argentina, China and Mexico will be seeking to host for the first time while Australia and South Africa will be under consideration for an encore performance. But let’s not forget another country with Presidents Cup aspirations. New Zealand is turning into quite the golf destination and Royal Auckland is prepping for its potential close up.”

Full piece.

7. “Gusted”

A new word enters the golfing lexicon: gusted.

Via Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…”We heard it a couple times on TV and later in the interview room from the tournament’s playoff runners-up, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed.”

“Reed talked about the wind on the 18th hole, which he birdied in regulation and on the first playoff hole.”

“Unfortunately I had two putts really to close it, and one of them I got gusted on, and then this last one with the wind and the break, just got me again,” he said.”

Full piece.

8. The meditations of Harry Higgs

Excellent reflections from the SMU alum for Golf Digest, and an impressive devotion to capital letters.

“MY DAD TAUGHT MY YOUNGER BROTHER AND ME HOW TO PLAY GOLF. We mimicked him hitting Wiffle balls in the back yard. We’d draw golf courses on the kids’ paper tablecloths at restaurants. Our parents realized we were obsessed, so they got us junior sets.”

“IT WAS COMPETITIVE BETWEEN MY BROTHER AND ME ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. We pushed each other and tried our best to beat each other. We lived on a golf course, so I could ride my bike to the golf shop. I remember playing in summers, sunup to sundown.”

Full piece.

9. Australia on their minds

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…“Several professional golfers are doing their part to raise money for those affected by the Australian bushfires.”

“Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Nelly Korda and Jessica Korda are among those who have pledged donations based on the number of birdies and eagles they make at upcoming tournaments.”

“Smith, who is from Brisbane, plans to donate $500 for every birdie and $1,000 for every eagle he cards at this week’s Sony Open.”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

4 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.