News

Morning 9: Phil Draculason? | Shackelford: What the governing bodies can’t say | McIlroy #1

Published

6 years ago

Feb 11, 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 11, 2020

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans.

1. Phil Draculason?

An interesting analogy from John Feinstein amid an excellent piece…”But the fact that Phil was in contention until the closing holes should tell us something: Four months before turning 50, he’s not done. Mickelson is golf’s Dracula-every time you think he’s dead, he rises again. Two weeks ago, he hadn’t been in contention anywhere since winning at Pebble Beach a year earlier. He had played so poorly since Pebble 2019 that in December he failed to make a United States national team (Presidents Cup) for the first time since 1993 and had dropped far enough in the World Ranking that the question of whether he’d be offered or would accept an exemption to play in this year’s U.S. Open was on the table.”

“Except for this: Two weeks ago, after skipping the Waste Management Phoenix Open for only the second time in 31 years to take a huge-and controversial-appearance fee to play in Saudi Arabia, Mickelson finished T-3. Then, at Pebble Beach, a place where he has won five times, he lingered just off the lead all week before Taylor’s chip-in birdie at the 15th hole Sunday finally-more or less-put Phil away. Mickelson struggled most of the day in the high winds, shooting a two-over-par 74 to finish five strokes behind Taylor and one behind Streelman-after Phil had tied Taylor for the lead two holes into the final round.”

Full piece.

2. McIlroy back to No. 1 again

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…“Rory McIlroy has supplanted Brooks Koepka atop the Official World Golf Ranking, and he did so without hitting a shot.”

“Both McIlroy and Koepka were idle last week, but because of slight changes to their respective OWGR calculations it’s now McIlroy on top with a 9.19-point average against Koepka’s new average of 9.16. This marks the first time McIlroy has held the top spot since September 2015, and his 53-month gap sets a new record for longest time between a player losing and regaining the No. 1 ranking.”

Full piece.

3. Tour asks for dismissal of Haney case

Mark Schlabach at ESPN…”The PGA Tour’s lawyers have asked a federal judge to dismiss golf instructor Hank Haney’s lawsuit, in which he claims the tour pressured SiriusXM Radio to suspend him and then terminate him from hosting his radio show after his comments about women’s golf last year.”

“In a motion filed to U.S. District Court Judge Rodolfo Ruiz on Friday, the PGA Tour’s lawyers wrote that Haney and his attorneys failed to prove that the Tour “unjustifiably interfered with Plaintiffs’ business and/or contractual relationship with Sirius XM” and failed to prove that the decision to fire him was “based on anything other than [the radio network’s] own review of Haney’s racist, xenophobic, and sexist comments about the LPGA and its players.”

Full piece.

4. Next steps?

Digest’s Dave Shedloski polled the players regarding what next steps ought to be taken in light of the Distance Insights Report…

“Many echoed the sentiments of Jason Day, one of the game’s leading long-ball hitters. “I think everyone has to ask themselves is the game of golf in a good spot right now in regards to distance, or do we have to dial it back?” Day then answered his own question: “I don’t know why they would want us to hit it shorter.”

“How about because in response to players hitting the ball farther, golf courses are being renovated and lengthened, which means higher maintenance costs, more water usage and rounds of a longer duration?”

“But Day’s point has validity as it relates to his job, the PGA Tour, which is in the entertainment business (subset sports). Nothing in golf enthralls a gallery more than pugilism from the tee box…”

“If, however, the industry were to attempt to keep distance increases from continuing, among the remedies that tour pros discuss most is limiting the flight of the golf ball.”

Full piece

5. Shackelford: “What the governing bodies can’t say”

You may disagree with Shackelford’s sentiment about the significance of OEM’s opinions, but you can’t disagree with the raw numbers. Anyway, here’s his take…”Golf is an $84.1 billion industry in America when you factor in everything from courses, to travel to sales, according to We Are Golf.”

“In the United States, the National Golf Foundation puts the manufacturers contribution to that number at $2.6 billion. Frankly, that seems woefully low to me, but even if you quadruple the number it’s still not a significant portion of the golf industry.”

“…in the grand scheme, fussing and fighting over the manufacturing world’s needs over the greater good seems short-sighted given the course industry and its 2 million or so domestic jobs. A healthy golf industry is good for all, but giving disproportionate attention and weight to the view of one constituting such a small portion of the overall financial picture, seems unwise.”

Full piece.

6. Pros on first time playing with Tiger

Excellent roundup of accounts from Tiger’s contemporaries regarding the first time they teed it up with the 15-time major champion.

“ADAM SCOTT: “I had just decided to turn pro in 2000 and got Butch Harmon’s blessing to do that because he was coaching me, and of course Tiger, at the time. We talked about it and he felt strongly that I should go and play in Europe first and gain some experience. A week or so before the U.S. Open, I was in Las Vegas and Tiger was stopping in on the Sunday before heading to Pebble Beach. Butch said to me on Saturday, ‘Tiger is coming in and if he goes and plays, you can play with him.’ So I was nervous, of course.”

“We went out and played and we had a match, and I was maybe 1-down through the turn at Rio Secco, and then Tiger stepped it up and went birdie, birdie, birdie and had an eagle. He closed me out on the 14th and shot 63 – with a double bogey at the ninth. I was a bit blown away by what I saw. It was quite windy and I thought I played quite well. I probably shot even par and I was nine off the pace. I made a throwaway comment to Butch, something like, ‘Maybe I should reconsider turning pro.’ The only thing that made me feel good was he won the U.S. Open by 15 the next week, so I was quite happy to see that no one else really played like that.”

Full piece.

7. Genesis as an invitational

Golf Digest’s Daniel Rapaport…”The tournament formerly known as the Genesis Open is making its debut this week as the Genesis Invitational, a switch that’s more than simply cosmetic. First, the tangible changes: a reduced field size from 144 to 120; a three-year tour exemption for the winner, rather than the usual two-year pass; and a $1.9 million increase in the purse to $9.3 million, including a $1.674 million winner’s check.”

“On a more symbolic note, the Genesis joins the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational as PGA Tour events with “elevated status.” Now Tiger’s tournament, Jack’s tournament and Arnie’s tournament stand above the rest. Sounds about right.”

Full piece.

8. Who could buy in?

Geoff Shackelford speculates as to the players the PGL is targeting (and if you want to know more about the potential team structure you have read Geoff’s piece)…

“And now for the $350 million question, who might be the twelve players targeted as a player-owner offered the chance to purchase a team maximum of 75% (documents use the word purchase, but I was not privy to what this would actually entail for players. Presumably there will not be a high price since they hope to lure players away from major Tours. Or perhaps players will be able to join forces with a rich friend?).”

“…Based on the initial list I saw and the description of players to be selected as based on “global profile, personality, marketability and playing potential and/or record,” here would be the most likely candidates. Oh, and don’t rule out an elder statesman, great talker or overall personality like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington or Ian Poulter to enter the equation. (Els said last week he “loved” the idea.)”

Rickie Fowler

Dustin Johnson

Brooks Koepka

Hideki Matsuyama

Rory McIlroy

Phil Mickelson

Jon Rahm

Justin Rose

Adam Scott

Henrik Stenson

Justin Thomas

Tiger Woods

Full piece.

9. Topgolf Augusta?

Via Damon Cline of the Augusta Chronicle…”Topgolf has released details on its new Augusta entertainment venue, a first-of-its-kind prototype that is expected to be open by the Masters Tournament.”

“Craig Kessler, chief operating officer for the Dallas-based company, said the venue under construction at the Village at Riverwatch shopping center will have a mini-golf course, outdoor yard games and fire pits in addition to the company’s signature climate-controlled driving range.”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

3 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.