News

5 things we learned Thursday at The Players Championship

Published

6 years ago

Mar 12, 2020

As school districts closed in Ohio, and New York shut down major events across the state, the band played on at Sawgrass. The season’s first nearly-a-major teed off early, under delightful skies and little wind. It’s a shame, really, that major-championship golf is an all-or-nothing proposal.

The Players deserves better, but it doesn’t deserve major status. It lies on the wrong side of history, as it was born three generations too late. Let it be said, however, that it will identify a champion of the highest quality, and its champion will value the title as career-defining. With that Janus-faced lead-in, let’s have a look at the five things we learned on Thursday at The Players Championship.

5. As Hideki putts, so Hideki goes

Your first-round leader, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, made 8 birdies and an eagle on day one. Never mind that he bogeyed the easiest hole (16) on the course; the number that mattered most was his strokes-gained: putting tally: 4.25 on the field. As Hideki putts, so Hideki scores. Matsuyama is easily the most talented golfer on the planet with putting woes. Week in and out, fans hold their breath as he takes the flat stick back. No putt, of any length, is ever safe. On this day, Matsuyama was stellar. Should he maintain that stature, the tournament is over.

4. Si Woo Kim asks, “Remember me?”

In 2017, the young Korean posted a marvelous 69 on Sunday to outdistance Louis Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter by 3 strokes. Since that magical day, his victory total has yet to advance. On Thursday, Kim overcame a bogey at the 6th with 6 birdies and an eagle. He sits in a 2nd-place tie with Harris English and Christian Bezuidenhout, two strokes back of Matsuyama. What Kim did best on Thursday, was scramble. He missed 7 greens, but got up and down for par or better on 6 of them. He certainly would take a few more GIR the next few days, and let his putter go head to head with Matsuyama’s flat stick.

3. He shot what?

No expected the following numbers from the following golfers:

78 from Tommy Fleetwood
76 from Rickie Fowler and Francesco Molinari
73 from Patrick Reed
72 from Rory McIlroy (to his credit, he birdied the final three.)

The reality of all those numbers is, they are at least 9 strokes behind the leader. We know that Matsuyama won’t back up his 63 with another low number. If he does, power to him. These golfers, and anyone else at par or higher, are effectively out of the running for the baubles and accolades that will accompany the title of 2020 Players champion. Now, if Matsuyama were to putt like Matsuyama, things would certainly change in a hurry.

2. Bezuidenhout the perfect

Only the South African navigated the swamp with zero bogeys. After 16 composed holes, Bezuidenhout nearly came undone at the final two. He missed both greens in regulation, but was able to scramble for par at both holes. No matter what happens this week, the European-Tour winner will learn a lot from the pressure at TPC. What he won’t learn, is how heavy the trophy is. Put him in the same spot on Sunday, and his tee balls at 17 and 18 will both find the wet stuff.

1. The band plays on, but the fans stay home

Beginning on Friday’s round two, the PGA Tour will play without fans for 15 rounds. The final three days at Sawgrass, followed by the Valspar, the WGC Match Play and Corales, and the Texas Open, will see golfers play with no sounds from outside the ropes—indeed, there will be no need for gallery ropes at all.

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Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

56 mins 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

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.