News

Morning 9: Rory to return to No. 1 | What Faxon told McIlroy about putting | Feral hogs take over Texas course

Published

6 years ago

Feb 4, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

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

February 4, 2020

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans. Our Brian Knudson did a heckuva interview with Callaway’s Roger Cleveland. If you’re looking for something to watch check it out!

1. Rory to return to No. 1

Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…“Rory McIlroy will ascend to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking when it gets updated next Monday, despite not playing this week.”

“It will also happen regardless of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am…McIlroy is currently just .2 points back of Brooks Koepka, who is not playing this week either. Nor is World No. 3 Jon Rahm, leaving the door open for McIlroy to make the move to No. 1.”

Full piece.

2. …sounds off

On a number of subjects, including…”on playing with Tiger Woods in the final group on Sunday of the 2018 Tour Championship, where Woods beat McIlroy six shots (McIlroy shot 4 over in the final round)”

“It’s the Tour Championship and I’ve got myself into another final group and I’m playing with Tiger Woods. It’s something you dream about growing up, final round, big tournament, Tiger Woods. I didn’t know if I would ever get this opportunity. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Brilliant. … I was never in the lead. I was always playing catch-up, but that’s beside the point. It’s the final group, Tiger, and I just want to give a really good account of myself. To take the fight to him. To make him work for it. If he wins, well, it’s not great, but it’s good for the game. And I understand the bigger picture, but I’m going to make him earn it. And I never made him earn it. That’s what bothered me. And what bothered me even more was I came away [thinking], ‘I know I can play better than that. I know I can beat him.’ But I’d made it too much about him, and not enough about me. … It was an opportunity to beat Tiger Woods and go down the stretch with him. ‘This mythical creature in the red shirt’. And I just didn’t get into the right place mentally.

“It’s tough. Everyone was like “Wasn’t that a great moment?” And I’m like, ‘No, it was f—— s—!’ It was terrible. I birdied the last to shoot 4 over! And I got the bigger picture that it was wonderful for golf, and I’m sure I’ll look back and think ‘That was pretty cool,’ but it hurt. It really hurt. I was probably the only one at East Lake that day that was disappointed.”

Full piece.

3. McIlroy’s unorthodox putting lesson from Brad Faxon (and the fruits thereof)

Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”In the first part of McIlroy’s latest (fantastic) interview with the Independent’s Paul Kimmage, the 30-year-old describes a three-hour meeting of which the majority was spent talking over coffee. And when it was finally time to go out to the practice green, Faxon made an odd request.”

“He said, ‘You just have to know what to work on – bring your putter, a sand wedge and a five wood,’ McIlroy tells Kimmage. “So we went onto the putting green and he got me to putt from eight feet. I hit three putts with the putter and holed one of them; three with the sand wedge and holed two of them; and I holed three in a row with the five wood.”

“He says, ‘I wanted to prove something to you. A lot of putting nowadays is very technical and mechanical – you have to have the right length putter with the right lie and the right loft. That thing (the five wood) has 19 degrees (loft) and is about ten inches too long and you’ve just holed three in a row. That’s what you need to get back to. It needs to be instinctive.”

Full piece.

4. Webb’s power surge

Brian Wacker at Golf Digest with the story of Webb Simpson’s pursuit of more distance… “…it at least helped that Simpson could uncork a 318-yard drive down the middle on the first sudden-death playoff hole, leaving only a wedge into the 18th green at TPC Scottsdale to set up a 10-footer for birdie and the victory. Not bad for a guy who came into the week 160th on the PGA Tour in driving distance.”

“Three years ago, Simpson hired a trainer in an effort to try to keep up with the Joneses. Or at least guys named Brooks, Rory, Rahm, JT, DJ and Tiger. Those are the only players (mostly bombers) higher than Simpson in the Official World Golf Ranking after what was the sixth PGA Tour victory of his career and first since the 2018 Players.”

“We set out on a journey to get longer, but very carefully because precision, accuracy, distance control is something for me that’s always been a strength and has to be a strength for me to play well, because I don’t hit it that far,” Simpson said. “We have picked up a mile-and-a-half to two miles an hour [clubhead speed] for the last two years and so we have made jumps. But I just didn’t want to do it overnight.”

Full piece.

5. Banishing the broomstick and a new beginning

Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”But the most amazing part of the 34-year-old’s resurgence is how good of a putter he’s become since snapping his old putter over his knee and framing the pieces in his trophy room. Before the breakup, Simpson was solid on the greens, averaging being ranked 36th in strokes gained putting his first six seasons.”

“To be honest with you guys, I’ve never putted this well in my life,” Simpson said after that Players win. “And I think if I had stayed with the belly putter, I think I maybe average 35th to 60th every year in putting. So very average.”

“The numbers certainly bear that out. Upon making the switch ahead of 2015, he went a dismal 174th and 177th in the all-important stat the next two seasons. But after improving to 88th in 2016-2017, Simpson, following a move to a claw grip, finished fifth in 2017-2018 and 11th last season. He’s currently No. 7 this season.”

Full piece.

6. Harding blasts Euro Tour

Guess the slow play reforms still require refinement! Golf Digest’s Joel Beall with the story of Justin Harding’s discontent…”Following his final round at the Saudi International, Harding ripped into the Old World circuit for, in his eyes, a lack of regulation on slow play.”

“Turtles should be monitored AT ALL TIMES [at] European Tour,” Harding wrote on Twitter. “We as players who don’t take an age should not be responsible for them. Nor should our round be affected by their inconsiderate behavior. Pretty simple really.

“F1 doesn’t say to [driver] Lewis Hamilton… ‘Hey pal just slow down because the guys behind can’t keep up.’ If the other 120 players in the field act properly why are we as players forced to play with these guys if they couldn’t give a ****. Week in week out same story, same guys.”

Full piece.

7. Two holes-in-one, one round

Ken Willis, The Daytona Beach News-Journal with the wild tale of Gary Choyka…”The odds are so impossible to grip mentally, accomplishing such a thing led everyone to offer Gary Choyka an obvious piece of advice.”

“They all said I should go play the lottery,” he said…But Choyka had already enjoyed a small windfall, plenty enough to cover rounds of drinks at LPGA International after a recent hole-in-one.

…”Choyka’s ace on the par-3 third hole at LPGA’s Jones Course in Daytona Beach, Florida, was matched a couple hours later with yet another hole-in-one on the par-3 14th”

Full piece.

8. Daniel Berger notched a top-10 finish with 9-year-old TaylorMade irons

Excellent stuff from our Ryan Barath…”At the Waste Management Phoenix Open, former Callaway staff member and 2015 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Daniel Berger went back to a nine-year-old (in golf years that’s ancient) set of 2011 TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC irons-and recorded a top 10 at TPC Scottsdale.”

“…From pictures on the range at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the rest of Berger’s bag consisted of a Callaway Epic Flash driver and fairway woods, Callaway Apex 3-iron, Callaway MD4 wedges, and an Odyssey putter-no word on his ball of choice at this time.”

“It’s not uncommon to see a player go back to a comfortable set of clubs, especially irons, but to see a player go this far back is more unusual. The only other recent example would be Steve Stricker going back to a much older set of Titleist 755’s. The big difference, from what we can tell, is Berger’s set appears to be NOS (new old stock) and a recently built set, based on their condition.”

“When talking to those in “the know,” the 2011 TaylorMade Tour Preferred series of irons-including the MB, MC, and CB’s-were some of the best irons ever made by the Carlsbad-based OEM (I will personally admit to owning two sets of the MC’s and an MB set).”

“The distinct design feature of the 2011 Tour Preferred MC CB irons was the weight screw in the back of the head that kept mass centered right behind the sweet spot of each head. This feature, something we have seen before and that continues to this day from other OEMs, allows for precise controlling of head weight without altering the CG to maximize performance.”

Full piece.

9. Feral hogs overtake Texas course

Via Golfweek’s Adam Woodard…”No matter how much of a weekend hacker you may be on the golf course, you haven’t come close to damaging a property the way a “plague of pigs” (yes, you read that right) has in Texas.”

“According to a report from Houston’s KSAT, 35 to 50 feral hogs have wreaked havoc at Lockhart State Park, ruining the terrain and leaving nothing but muddy patches in their wake. This is nothing new for the golf course, which is still playable, but park official Austin Vieh said this year is “the worst they’ve seen so far.””

“Park rangers have been trapping and removing hogs with hopes of preventing the unwanted visitors from returning. Hogs may love rolling in mud, but it doesn’t make them stupid. Rangers have to move traps and come up with new tactics because the hogs have apparently become aware of the traps and are avoiding those areas.”

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.