News

Morning 9: Shh… | Hovland breaks through | PGL CEO speaks | Greatest putt ever?

Published

6 years ago

Feb 24, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

1. “Shhhhhh…”

Steve DiMeglio for Golfweek writes this regarding Patrick Reed’s WGC win…”A week that began with more biting criticism about his escapade in the sand in the Bahamas last December ended with an emphatic response from Patrick Reed.”

“Reed blocked out all the noise, deflected the condemnations and accusations of cheating and then stormed from behind during a tense back nine Sunday to win the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec.”

“En route to his second WGC title and eighth PGA Tour victory, the 2018 Masters champion shot rounds of 69-63-67-67 to finish at 18 under and one shot clear of Bryson DeChambeau. Reed scrambled for a finishing bogey after driving it into the trees and two-putted from 34 feet for the win.”

Full piece.

2. Hovland breaks through

AP report…”Viktor Hovland rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole to capture his maiden PGA Tour victory in dramatic fashion at the Puerto Rico Open.”

“Hovland started the day with a one-shot lead, and at one point he built a three-shot advantage midway through the round. But after overcoming an ill-timed triple bogey, he was facing the prospect of a playoff with journeyman Josh Teater as he played the par-5 closing hole.”

“After his wedge came up short as rain fell in Rio Grande, the 22-year-old buried the birdie putt to finish the week at 20 under after a final-round 70 and polish off a breakthrough win.”

Full piece.

3. PGL CEO speaks

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio reporting…”Andrew Gardiner, the league’s CEO, is the voice behind the league and he spoke for 90 minutes on the British-based golf show podcast hosted by Rick Shiels.”

“Gardiner, a London-based director at Barclays Capital, said the Premier Golf League would run from January through August and consist of 12 four-man teams, with Gardiner saying the owner or the leader of each team would pick two players to count for the team score prior the start of the first round.”

“Players would be required to play all 18 events, with each featuring 54 holes, shotgun starts, no cut and no dress code. Each of the first 17 events would have a $10 million purse, with the season-ending playoff tournament boasting a $40 million purse. An individual champion will also be crowned in the final event.”

“The goal is for the league to begin in 2022.”

Full piece.

4. PGL short on substance?

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…”For all the attention Premier Golf League has garnered, it’s still little more than spitballs against a whiteboard. There’s the promise of financing, but no hard assets. No players. No tournaments. No infrastructure. McIlroy’s stiff-arming isn’t quite a fatal blow – he admitted that if everyone else jumps then he’ll have to follow – but having the world No. 1 say he’ll join only at gunpoint doesn’t much recommend it to his peers. Guys like Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose have teased interest, but they are players who don’t have the longest competitive runway ahead of them.”

“To be viable, PGL needs commitments from multiple younger stars, and the biggest star in that constellation just said no. Six years after it was conceived, Premier Golf League is all promise, no delivery.”

“That PGL has lingered for so long speaks to the depthless focus on finances among some players and agents, but also to how urgently the PGA Tour needs a reckoning with its own reality. Because even Woods predicts this will not be the last renegade challenge the Tour faces.”

Full piece.

5. Ignoring the noise

ESPN’s Bob Harig…”The noise, at times, can be deafening, deflating. It is certainly distracting. Patrick Reed admits as much because it would be nearly impossible to say or do otherwise.”

“And so it was that Reed had not one, but two grenades tossed his way this week in the wake of Sandy-gate in the Bahamas, the “cheating” scandal that continues to dog him.

“For reasons of his own making, that controversy lingers, but Reed thrives amid chaos. We’ve seen it at the Ryder Cup and throughout the last few months as he’s endured his share of taunting and jeers, from spectators, fellow competitors and commentators.”

Full piece.

6. “I just suck at chipping”

Candor from the young man from Norway! Hovland found himself unwittingly playing the part of a 20-handicapper on the par-3 11th hole at the Puerto Rico Open…

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”Hovland chunked a chip shot from near the cart path, then failed to reach the green again with his third. It added up to a triple bogey which erased his advantage and put his tournament chances in peril.”

“Hovland ranks 230th on Tour this season in strokes gained: around the green, and he didn’t mince any words when asked about what went wrong on No. 11.”

“I just suck at chipping,” Hovland said. “I definitely need to work on my short game, and I was 100 percent exposed there on that hole.”

Full piece.

7. A show for the home crowd

Cameron Morfit for PGATour.com on the two Mexicans who teed it up at the WGC-Mexico…”Meanwhile, Abraham Ancer, who grew up in Mexico and Texas and was the breakout star of the Presidents Cup in December, also shot a final-round 68 to finish 9 under (T12).”

“The previous best finish by a Mexican player here was Ancer’s T39 last year.”

“It was a very fun week,” Ancer said. “I think I left a couple of birdies out there, but my game was quite solid. I hit it very well from the tee, and I’ve got a couple of notes on things to improve for next year, but I’m happy. Each year I’ve been able to get a little better.”

“The highlight Sunday for Ancer: stuffing his tee shot to within tap-in range at the par-3 17th, where fans chanted his nickname (Turco, or Turk) as he walked to the green.”

Full piece.

8. Headed for Augusta National

Golfweek’s Adam Woodard…”In 46 days, the eyes of the golf world will be on Augusta National for the Masters, where van Rooyen will compete for the first time. He qualified for the Masters by finishing inside the top 50 of the final OWGR last year.”

“As a freshman in college in 2009 at Minnesota, the Golden Gophers played in Augusta State’s tournament, held the weekend before the Masters. Van Rooyen and his Minnesota teammates got tickets to Monday’s practice round.”

“I remember Tiger was warming up with Fred Couples, Trevor Immelman was on the range, and I guess you go see some iconic holes, No. 1, walked a few holes, and then went to Amen Corner,” recalled van Rooyen after Friday’s round in Mexico City. “Thirteen is a much bigger dogleg than what it seems on TV, and then we just kind of spent some time there, bought a little bit of merchandise, as everybody does, and yeah, just kind of tried to soak it in.”

Full piece.

9. Move over, Bobby Locke!

Woodard again…”86-year-old Mary Ann Wakefield…[made] one of the most impressive putts you’ll ever see from the full length of a college basketball court.

“During the Ole Miss men’s basketball game against Alabama on Saturday night as part of the Cannon Motors of Mississippi Putt for a Car challenge, Wakefield had a 94-foot putt on hardwood to win a new 2020 Nissan Altima.”

“She absolutely buried it, dead center.”

Full piece/see the video here.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

9 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.