News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Non-conforming wedge at U.S. Senior Women’s Open | Compassgate | ANGC lengthening the 5th?

Published

8 years ago

Jul 12, 2018

Good morning, GolfWRX members. As most of you are signed up for our newsletters, you likely already know that I’ve been sending this little Morning 9 roundup of nine items of note.

In case you’ve missed it, or you prefer to read on site rather than in your email, we’re including it here. Check out today’s Morning 9 below.

If you’re not signed up for our newsletters, you can subscribe here.

By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

July 12, 2018

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

1. A non-conforming wedge…at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open

One the hand hand, this makes sense: The competitors at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open are largely amateurs or pros who are no longer playing. Thus, it was always going to be likely that some of the women were, say, playing with wedges that no longer conform, etc.

Still, it’s a shocking headline along the lines of “senior citizen gets arrested”

Per Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…”JoAnne Carner got the shock of her life when she got to player registration at the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. At the end of the table was a gentleman from the USGA who manages equipment conformance who asked Carner a few questions. It wasn’t long before Carner realized that her trusty Wilson R-90 wedge wouldn’t make it to the first tee.”

Carner estimates she’s had the club in her bag for three decades, roughly the same amount of time she has waited for a Senior Women’s Open. “Oh, it was awful,” said Carner of parting with a club that’s been critical to her game around the greens and from 75 yards out for so many years. It felt like parting with an old friend.
Full story…and note the featured image is a Wilson R-90 not Carner’s actual R-90

2. Latest in Compassgate

DeChambeau spoke about the decision ahead of the John Deere Classic

“Look, I’ll say one thing on that,” he told reporters. “I will say it’s unfortunate. That was never my intention, to skirt the rules or anything like that. It was just a device I thought had been used for a long time in different fields. It shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not a distance-measuring device. It’s just a referencing tool.”

“I’m not trying to push the game in any direction; I’m trying to utilize every tool in my brain to be able to reference information and get information in a way that I can utilize to the best of my ability,” he said Wednesday. “We want to see what’s allowable, and what information we can gather, and how much resolution can we have under that type of information.”

3. ANGC lengthening the fifth?

While the venerable club is surely pleading the fifth, sources say the home of the Masters is in the process of adding 30 yards to the fifth hole.

Per Golf Chanel…“The hole currently plays upwards of 455 yards and was the fifth-most difficult par 4 at this year’s Masters Tournament.”

“The new hole will play upwards of 485 yards in an attempt to restore the shot value that has been taken away by the distances achieved by the modern game,” Rosaforte said. “Instead of 3-woods and 7-irons, the new fifth should require a driver and a 5-iron, at the very least, depending upon the conditions.”

“It was first reported in February that the fifth hole would likely be lengthened. The change is expected to alleviate congestion between the tee and the nearby fourth green and includes plans to curve the road – which has been closed to public traffic since 2015 – around the new fifth tee…This is the first club-enacted course change since six holes were altered in 2006.”

4. 2 big problems with club fitting

Writing for GolfWRX, the eminent Bobby Clampett says…

“The first culprit is clubs that are designed to correct a slice. I’ve had several first-time students take lessons with me this season who had been recently fit for clubs from a wide range of club fitters. Some of these students had significant out-to-in swing paths through impact and all were chronic faders/slicers of the golf ball. The clubs recommended to them were “anti-slice” clubs. All the grips were small (standard size), and the woods (especially the drivers) were upright with the sliding weights put in the heel. The irons were “jacked-upright” as much as 8 degrees.”

“The second problem that seems to be growing in the industry is the focus on increased distance with the irons. I don’t mean to be too blunt here, but who cares how far you hit an 8-iron! Today’s pitching wedge is yesterday’s 9-iron. My pitching wedge is set at 49 degrees, and my 9-iron is 44 degrees (about the standard loft for today’s pitching wedge). The only two clubs in the bag that should be designed for distance are your driver and your 3-wood. All the other clubs should be set for proper gapping and designed to improve consistency and proximity to the hole.”

Full piece.

5. Reed: Tiger & Phil should put up their own money in match

It’s a sentiment that has been voiced elsewhere, but to hear Patrick Reed say it is interesting: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson should each wager $5 million of their own money in their potential $10 million duel.

“I would pay a little bit more to watch it if it was for their own money, for sure,” Reed said. “It’s going to be entertaining. I think it would be more entertaining if it was for their own money because I think the guys would grind even harder.

“I’ll be curious to see it because I feel like one match, 18 holes, not your own money, it’s just kind of an exhibition.”

Captain America also offered this suggestion: “I think it would be pretty cool if it was at night, like a three-round knockout,” Reed said. “Have old school (equipment), persimmon woods and balata balls, and then put them in their normal stuff and play a round at night. Have fun with it.”

6. On that note: Tiger vs. Phil prop bets

While the match between the two golfing heavyweights is yet to be confirmed, and a date is yet to be set-heck, Tiger Woods hasn’t even said anything about the possibility since The Players-that hasn’t stopped the oddsmakers from SportsBettingDime.com from setting lines and configuring prop bets.

Odds to Win the $10 Million Tiger-Phil Match…Tiger Woods 2/3…Phil Mickelson 3/2

Odds of being selected to play in the “Undercard” of Tiger-Phil…PGA Tour Pros-Rory McIlroy: 4/1-Patrick Reed: 4/1-Dustin Johnson: 7/1-Rickie Fowler: 9/1-Jordan Spieth: 12/1-Sergio Garcia: 15/1-Brooks Koepka: 15/1

More

7. “It’s awesome”

Phil Mickelson took a spin around upcoming Ryder Cup venue, Le Golf National.

“”It’s awesome,” Mickelson told Golf Channel’s Tim Rosafortelate Tuesday. “Not many drivers if any at all…long irons and poa greens. I love it.”

Mickelson played the course Monday ahead of his traditional appearance at the Scottish Open.

8. Place your bets!

Odds to win the John Deere Classic (via Bovada)

Francesco Molinari 10-1
Bryson DeChambeau 11-1
Zach Johnson 12-1
Joaquin Niemann 18-1
Ryan Moore 18-1
Steve Stricker 22-1
Chesson Hadley 22-1
Kyle Stanley 25-1
Austin Cook 33-1
Wesley Bryan 33-1

9. Nearly $20K to charity, thanks to TW’s bag

The camouflage bag Tiger Woods used over the weekend in his previous start at the Quicken Loans National has raised a nice sum of money for his foundation.

Woods autographed and signed a personal message to the highest bidder on the bag. Auctioned off, it raised $19,000 for his TGR Foundation, according to Golf Channel

Why don’t we do more of this: one-off bags for tour pros…auctioned off for charity? Add some spice to the redundant staff bag/billboard space!

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

7 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.