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Morning 9: Validation for DJ & Austin, legacy adjustment? | Tiger | Dizziness, mistakes doom Bryson | All hail Cam Smith

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By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com; and find me on Twitter and Instagram.
November 15, 2020
Good Monday morning, golf fans.

1. A second major victory, at last

GWAA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Bill Fields for Masters.com…(Referring to Johnson on the tee box at Golden Bell… ”Johnson did not dawdle before hitting an 8-iron. His ball and three-stroke lead carried safely to the green, 21 feet left of the flagstick. There was a deep breath followed by a half-smile and a pivotal par, with three consecutive birdies after that, assuring this big one wasn’t going to get away from Johnson as a handful of others had.
  • “…He shot a final-round 68 to accompany previous scores of 65, 70 and 65 to finish at 20-under 268, breaking the Tournament record of 270 shared by Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2015). Johnson, 36, also tied the all-time major scoring mark in relation to par held by Jason Day at (2015 PGA Championship) and Henrik Stenson (2016 The Open).
  • “Johnson defeated Cameron Smith of Australia and Sungjae Im of South Korea by five strokes. Smith lost despite becoming the first player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s. Justin Thomas was fourth at 276, with Rory McIlroy and Dylan Frittelli tying for fifth.”
  • “Welcome to the club,” Bubba Watson, wearing his Green Jacket, told Johnson by the 18th green.

2. “Dumb and Dumber” to Masters champs

ESPN’s Bob Harig…”You ever hear of that movie, ‘Dumb and Dumber?”’ one prominent player asked during a practice round with Johnson several years ago. He then pointed to Dustin and Austin and smiled.”
  • “No malice was meant, and certainly all of the players in the game are aware of Johnson’s immense talent…”
  • “The first hug afterward went to Austin, who has come of age just as his brother has in recent years, forming a partnership that is now quite formidable, as Johnson has a remarkable 24 PGA Tour wins at age 36.”
  • “When I started, I was more of a buddy, someone for him to hang out with,” Austin said beside the Augusta National putting green before the green-jacket ceremony. “I’m a decent player. I know the game. But being a top caddie? Not even close.”
  • “But I was a sponge. If I got close to [Jim] Bones Mackay [Phil Mickelson’s former longtime caddie], I wouldn’t leave his side. I’d ask him everything I could. John Wood [another longtime caddie]. At these team events. I just learned. And earned [Dustin’s] trust. And it’s gotten to where now he’s leaned on me pretty heavily out there. I’m just glad it has worked out the way it has.”

3. More on Dustin/Austin

Michael Rosenberg for Sports Illustrated…”Austin is not one of those revered caddie savants; he recently marveled at Dustin’s ability to hit a great shot even when Austin gives him the wrong yardage, which is not the kind of thing most caddies would say. But Austin is the right caddie for Dustin. He helps his brother get to the right mental place.”
  • “And so when Dustin says he didn’t know where he stood, what he means is: “Not exactly. I mean, I assumed I had the lead, but I didn’t know by how many.” He knew if he shot two under or better he would almost certainly win. He knew he was four under through 17. When Austin said he had a five-shot lead, D.J. responded, “I think I can handle this one.” He knew what he had to do next: See ball, hit ball, see putt, leave putt short, hole the tap-in. He finished at 20-under, five strokes ahead of Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith.”

4. First COVID-19 major winner a fitting finale to major golf in 2020

It’s a footnote, and maybe more relevant because it meant he’s only a month removed from nearly 2 weeks without touching his golf clubs…
  • Christine Brennan for USA Today…”It was just a month ago that Johnson spent 11 days by himself in a Las Vegas hotel room, quarantining after a positive COVID test. He had “very minor” COVID symptoms, he said.”
  • “I felt like I had a cold. A little bit of a fever for maybe 36 hours. But after that, I felt fine. The worst part about it was the quarantining in the room for so long.”
  • “Johnson said Sunday that he knew he wasn’t going to miss the Masters, but being away from the game for a couple of weeks wasn’t helping matters. “
  • “Granted, you sit in a hotel room for two weeks, it doesn’t do a lot for the golf game,” he said. “But I put a lot of work in last week, and this week, and I was fortunate that I was able to keep the game in good form.”

5. Cam Smith’s incredible week

Ben Everill for PGATour.com…”Still contemplating what might have been, the 27-year-old two-time PGA TOUR winner walked off Augusta National as the first player ever to record four rounds in the 60s at the Masters. In 84 versions of this tournament it had never been done before.”
  • “Not by Tiger Woods, nor Jack Nicklaus. Not by Arnold Palmer or Phil Mickelson. Or Gary Player. Not Bobby Jones or Gene Sarazen. No one.”
  • “But despite the feat, Smith was not heading to Butler Cabin to get a new Green Jacket. Not even close. He had run into a buzzsaw. FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson was five shots clear at the top.”
  • “…Smith not only entered the record books for his sub-70 rounds, but his 15-under 273 total was the best ever by a runner up. He shared that mark with his International Presidents Cup teammate Sungjae Im. In all but seven previous Masters 15 under would have won.”
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6. Rory’s career grand slam bid undone by treacherous Thursday

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…”For a brief moment on the first nine, after he birdied the eighth hole to improve to 11 under and climb within four strokes of Dustin Johnson, McIlroy thought there was a glimmer of hope that he could achieve a comeback for the ages.”
  • “But then the wind sort of got up as we hit the turn, and it just was hard to make birdies,” McIlroy said. “Dustin is just playing such solid golf. It was probably wishful thinking on my part.”
  • “McIlroy, 31, rebounded from a poor first round at Augusta National to shoot 3-under 69 on Sunday and finish with a 72-hole aggregate of 11-under 277. That was good for a share of fifth place with Dylan Frittelli, and McIlroy’s third career top 5 at the Masters.”
  • “When McIlroy assesses what went wrong this time in his sixth attempt to complete the career Grand Slam, he’s going to remember the tee shot he snap-hooked into the woods at No. 13 that led to bogey and pulling his tee shot into the water at the par-3 16th on Friday morning. His swing looked out of sorts and it appeared that McIlroy might be headed for a short stay at Augusta.”

7. Rahm rues missed opportunities

Will Cheney for the Augusta Chronicle…”He sat at 9-under-par after a Friday 66, putting him in a great spot heading into the weekend. Then, little went right for the 26-year-old Spaniard. After struggling on the second nine in the third round, he played even-par through the first nine Sunday.”
  • “With a bogey on No. 10 and a double-bogey on No. 12, he rallied to go 4-under over the next six holes to finish with 71. It was another case of not being able to take advantage of the conditions, while others did.”
  • “I don’t even know what to say. Just the whole thing of the week, I couldn’t get anything going. I started poorly, made the good birdie on 2, but after that, every option I had, I just didn’t make it,” he said. “I had good putts on 3 and 8. I thought I made them. None of them went in. Then all the other shots just weren’t quite as precise as they need to be at Augusta. It is what it is.”

8. Brotherhood of the traveling green jacket

Tiger Woods surrendered the garment some 19 months after his surreal 2019 Masters triumph. Surreal as well: His final round at the 2020 Masters included a 10 at the par-3 12th and birdies on five of the final six holes to tie for 38th.
  • Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…“I hit a few too many shots than I wanted to today, and I will not have the chairman be putting the green jacket on me,” sighed Woods, who had more than an hour to wait before he slipped a green jacket over a new champion’s shoulders. “I’ll be passing it on.”
  • “Like that, Tiger’s 19 odd months as reigning Masters champion were over, his final nine holes at Augusta National a flawless dichotomy of that chapter, complete with devastating lows and emotionally charged highs.”
  • “The physical toll was unmistakable. The slow walk, the delicate move to pluck his golf ball from the hole, the deliberate swing motions, this was not Tiger at his best – but then, that’s a moving target these days. And then there was the emotional cost of his return.

9. Dizziness, mistakes doom Bryson

Look, unless you think he’s lying or experiencing something psychosomatic, I think it’s best to save the jokes about Bryson’s plan as he seems to be experiencing legitimate health issues…
Mark Schlabach for ESPN…”DeChambeau, the pre-Masters betting favorite, was tied for 34th when he came off the course. It was his fourth straight finish outside the top 20 at Augusta National.”
  • “At the beginning of the week, I felt like I could have a great chance to win the tournament if I just played my game,” DeChambeau said. “Shoot, I made enough birdies this week and eagles to have a chance to win. There’s no doubt about that. I made way too many mistakes that I’ve got to talk about with my caddie and go, ‘Hey, how do we not make these mistakes anymore, how can we work better as a team to have that not happen?'”
  • “DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in September, had two birdies, along with an eagle on the par-5 13th hole on Sunday, but also had a double bogey on the par-4 fifth and three more bogeys.”
  • …DeChambeau said he was still experiencing dizziness on the course on Sunday. He didn’t feel well and had a COVID-19 test on Friday night. It came back negative.
  • “I’ve got to fix whatever is going on up here,” he said. “I have no idea. Just dizziness. It’s only when I go from down to up, so I can’t even like think and talk right now.”

Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

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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).

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2026 PGA Championship betting odds

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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

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Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

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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.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

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