News

Morning 9: Does this PGA Championship deserve an asterisk? | Harding Park history | Tiger update | PGA Champ odds

Published

6 years ago

Aug 4, 2020

1. Feinstein: No * for the PGA champ

This year’s winner won’t deserve this (*) next to his name, writes John Feinstein…“The player who wins this week’s PGA Championship at Harding Park will be a major champion just as surely as that tree [that falls in a forest with nobody around] made a sound.”

“There are some wondering if the absence of spectators caused by the COVID-19 virus will somehow make this PGA not as major as normal majors played in front of thousands of spectators. There are others, noting the absence of players like three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari and frequent major contender Lee Westwood-not to mention John Daly and Vijay Singh, past PGA champions who now compete as senior citizens-as somehow meaning that an asterisk should be placed next to the champion’s name come Sunday evening.”

“They are wrong-completely wrong and totally wrong. How’s that for redundancy?...It’s there to make a point. Almost no major golf tournament is played with a perfect field-or under perfectly fair conditions.”

Full piece.

2. Harding Park’s deep roots

Excellent writing by PGATour.com’s Sean Martin looking at the underappreciated golf history of a venue (and a city)…“San Francisco’s municipal gem is home to an important championship on an annual basis, and while the San Francisco City Championship isn’t considered one of golf’s Grand Slam events, it is one of the game’s most unique.”

“The tournament affectionally referred to by locals as simply “The City” has been held every year since 1916. Its endurance through the World Wars allows it to claim the title of golf’s oldest consecutively-played championship. Its former competitors range from World Golf Hall of Famers to taxi drivers, NFL quarterbacks to airport baggage handlers. The doctors and lawyers who are members at the Bay Area’s prestigious clubs play alongside bartenders. It’s not unusual to see a player turn to alcohol to steady his nerves or to witness a former U.S. Golf Association president carry his own clubs through a downpour.”

“San Francisco is a city that prides itself on its diversity. Its amateur golf championship is no different.”

“The tournament, conducted on San Francisco’s public tracks in the wet and cold of Northern California’s winter, attracts only the most passionate participants.”

…”San Francisco’s golf heritage is underappreciated, often overshadowed by its neighbors to the south, who are the beneficiaries of interminable sunshine. But the City by the Bay can boast of major champions and world-famous courses, as well.”

Full piece.

3. Bubba hires a coach…sort of

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…“Watson was seen working with Claude Harmon III, son of Butch and instructor to Brooks Koepka, on the practice putting green after his third round of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Saturday at TPC Southwind.”

“I’m really good friends with Claude and Brooks and them, so my manager and Claude are really good friends. So my manager (Jens Beck) said, ‘Hey, you should definitely talk to him.’ And all it is is it’s about, ‘Hey, man, do you see anything that me and Teddy are missing?’ ” Watson explained. “There’s no range stuff, if that makes sense. I know people don’t understand that. I’m trying to score better. I feel like my physical part is there and how do you score better. That’s why I asked him.

“I call him my life coach is what I call him.”

Full piece.

4. Observations from Tiger’s Monday practice

Via Geoff Shackelford, one of the few fortunate souls on the ground at Harding Park, and he sees a focused and free-swinging Woods…

“Not that I’m saying he’s come to some events unprepared, but there was definitely an urgency to the Monday proceedings at Harding Park. Getting comfortable on the green was the primary focus, particualrly given that his swing, ball-striking and body all appear ready to go. “

“Short game consultant Matt Killen went nine holes with him and they discussed his putting at times. “

“He played one of his approach shots as if a real putt, but with Joe LaCava giving his read first, then consulting the green reading charts, before putting.”

…”Flexibility appeared excellent despite the cool conditions. No 80% swings as we’ve seen in run-ups or early week of majors.”

Full piece.

5. Daly among COVID-19 WDs for PGA Championship

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”A total of 156 players will tee it up this week at TPC Harding Park in the first men’s major championship since Shane Lowry left Royal Portrush with the claret jug 13 months ago. But the alternate list has gotten an extensive workout to keep the field full, with more than a dozen players withdrawing for various reasons.”

“That list includes 1991 winner John Daly, whose withdrawal was announced Sunday. Daly will miss the PGA for the first time since 2013, and he subsequently tweeted that the decision was based on safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic…”

Full piece/full WD list

6. Lynch: (75% of) everything to play

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…“That fact should be borne in mind by those journeying to San Francisco this week to commence a major championship season that ought to have already concluded last month in England. Our compromised calendar kicks off with the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park and wraps with the Masters three months hence, with the USGA’s delayed showcase in between. (The R&A opted to sit out the year after realizing it had missed the two-week window that represents a British summer.)”

“In short, as bastardized as 2020 has been, there is still 75% of everything to play for.”

“The three majors that will (hopefully) be played this year will count on someone’s résumé just as much as the 451 contested previously. But some players may need to hit a reset button on that reality before action gets underway Thursday. Consider what Rory McIlroy said last week about the PGA Tour events staged since the resumption of play two months ago.”

Full piece.

7. It’s time for…

…the best player without a major debate…or so say multiple outlets as we have finally arrived at a major championship at the latest point in a calendar year in golf history (?)…

Here a the top 2 from Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio…

“Xander Schauffele…”While he hasn’t won in 19 months, he’s a big-time player on golf’s biggest stages. Three of his four PGA Tour titles came in the 2017 Tour Championship, the 2018 WGC-HSBC Champions and the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions. Was a stud in the 2019 Presidents Cup. He also lost in playoffs in the 2019 HSBC Champions and the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions. In the majors? He has five top-6 finishes in 11 starts, including four of the last seven played. He tied for second in the 2018 Open Championship, tied for second in the 2019 Masters and tied for third in the 2019 U.S. Open. He finds fairways, finds greens and quickly finds a way to get the ball in the hole. Great temperament, too.”

“Jon Rahm…In brutal U.S. Open-like conditions and facing one of the strongest fields in memory at this year’s Memorial, Rahm became the fifth youngest player to become No. 1 in the world with his win at Jack Nicklaus’s Dublin, Ohio, gem. It was his fourth PGA Tour title to go with six victories on the European Tour – all before turning 26. The Spaniard is a bull who doesn’t have a weakness in his game, or as Phil Mickelson said, is a great driver of the ball, has plenty of firepower, is a great iron player, strong putter, superb around the greens. Anger management issues have plagued him but he has gotten a better hold of his inner rage of late, though mini outbursts remain. Mickelson said it wouldn’t take long for Rahm to become a top-10 player after he turned pro in 2016 – and Rahm became just that in 2017. Now it seems it’s just a matter of time before he adds a major championship triumph to his already impressive resume.”

Full piece.

8. PGA x BetMGM

How things have changed. Remember when PGA Tour players were barred from wearing betting or DFS company logos on course…it’s a different world now…PGATour.com staff reporting…

“The PGA TOUR announced today that BetMGM has signed a multi-year content and marketing relationship to become an Official Betting Operator of the PGA TOUR.”

“By joining the TOUR’s Official Betting Operator program, BetMGM will have rights in the United States to use PGA TOUR marks, rights to advertise within TOUR media and TOUR partner platforms, plus content and video rights allowing BetMGM Sportsbook platforms to create pre-game and post-game betting programming, as well as distribution of highlights to users who have placed bets.”

“BetMGM is part of a premium brand that is deeply connected to golf through sponsorship of various PGA TOUR players and tournaments,” said Norb Gambuzza, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President, Media and Gaming. “Through the power of the BetMGM brand and resources, this new relationship will help accelerate our sports betting strategy, and enable the TOUR to reach new fans and further engage current fans who enjoy betting on golf.”

Full piece.

9. PGA Championship odds

Our Gianni Magliocco…It’s PGA Championship week, and following his win at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Justin Thomas has been installed as the joint favorite alongside defending champion Brooks Koepka to claim the year’s opening major.

“European duo Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy are next in the betting, while Tiger Woods, who resumes his quest for major number 16, has been chalked up as a 28/1 chance to get his hands on the Wanamaker Trophy.”

“Check out the full list of 2020 PGA Championship odds (As of August 3rd) courtesy of BetOnline.ag”

Brooks Koepka 10/1

Justin Thomas 10/1

Jon Rahm 12/1

Rory McIlroy 12/1

Bryson DeChambeau 14/1

Dustin Johnson 20/1

Xander Schauffele 20/1

Patrick Cantlay 25/1

Collin Morikawa 28/1

Tiger Woods 28/1

Webb Simpson 28/1

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

3 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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.