News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Jordan Spieth’s putting ails cured? | Encouraging rounds played data | Johnny Miller retiring?

Published

8 years ago

Aug 30, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

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

August 30, 2018

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

1. More support from the Tour for legalized betting

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard with the details…”Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlined his proposal for a federal framework that would govern sports betting on Wednesday.”

“Schumer’s proposal would require sports books to only use official league data to determine outcomes and that the sports leagues themselves should be involved in determining what bets would be accepted, which are both safeguards the PGA Tour has pushed for since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban on sports betting in most states earlier this year.”

“The Tour, along with Major League Baseball and the NBA, released a joint statement late Wednesday, “As legalized sports betting spreads across the states, there is a need for consistent, nationwide integrity standards to safeguard the sports millions of fans love. We strongly support the legislative framework outlined by Senator Schumer and we encourage Congress to adopt it.”

2. Jordan Spieth’s putting woes…are gone?

Golfweek’s David Dusek points out that the difficulties that bedevilled one of the game’s great flatstick wielders seem to have vanished.

Spieth, via Dusek.… “If you look at the last month, which is all I need to look at this year, my putting has been fantastic,” Spieth said as beads of sweat dripped down his face. “I’ve been one of the top putters on tour.”

“He’s right. Spieth missed the cut at The Memorial in June, not because he putted poorly, but because his iron game let him down. Starting with that event, statistically, Spieth’s putting has been outstanding, with a daily strokes gained putting average in five events of 0.944. To give that number reference, if that was Spieth’s average for the season, he would rank second on the PGA Tour behind Jason Day’s 0.965.”

“Everything that I’m working on, I know what to do,” Spieth said. “It’s about actually doing it. The good news is that they are all trends that will serve me better, in the long run, going forward.”

“It was because of setup,” he said. “It’s not anything that anyone would have diagnosed in my stroke. It was because of how I viewed my putter in the setup. It’s not frustrating. I don’t really care what other people are saying. Why would I trust what anybody else says when I know exactly what’s going on? I didn’t know exactly for a little while, but I knew that it was in the setup. I’d set over the ball and it didn’t look right to me, then I had to figure out why.”

3. What makes a golf course…not terrible?

We’re not talking about top 100 tracks, but rather, enjoyable 18s. Digest’s Sam Weinman has a good take on what makes a course, well, not terrible.

Here are a few of his metrics.

“Good bones”: Like a once grand colonial fallen into disrepair, here you could squint from the first tee and detect the vague outline of greatness. A gently-winding dogleg cutting through the trees. A face bunker strategically guarding the right side of the green. It’s all there if someone could just put actual sand in the bunkers, and clean up the beer cans in the creek.

“Puttable greens: A golfer can tolerate all sorts of indignities across 18 holes, provided those holes conclude with a ball rolling end-over-end in the direction of a cup. Like a great dessert after a bad meal, true greens help you forgive everything that came before.”

“Variety: One way to combat a course’s shortcomings is by disrupting the monotony. A driver toward that pile of cinder blocks here. A hybrid short of the weird-smelling pond there. They say a good golf course should ask a lot of questions. Occasionally they’re just awkwardly phrased.”

“Errs on the side of forgiving: Let’s be honest, a golfer is far more capable of suppressing his inner architecture snob if he can string together a decent score. In other words, if you spray it right and find it, if you thin your approach but still watch it roll onto the green, you’re far less likely to get bogged down by strategic deficiencies. Who cares what it looks like, you might break 40 on the back!”

“Walkability: The only thing worse than a bad golf course is a bad golf course comprised of absurd elevation changes or tedious stretches between greens and tees. At least when walking, you’re privy to exercise and moments of quiet reflection, and you don’t have to trudge back across the fairway because you brought the wrong wedge. You’ll grade the whole experience on a more favorable scale, especially since they can’t ding you $25 for the mandatory cart.”

See his full list.

4. Johnny Miller retiring?

After nearly 30 years in the chair, NBC’s lead golf analyst, the irrepressible Johnny Miller, may be stepping down..

“It’s been 50 years on the road, and part of me is saying, ‘That’s enough,'” Miller told the AP’s Doug Ferguson. “I haven’t gotten to that point yet. They’re still trying to convince me to keep going. So we’ll see. I usually listen to my gut, so to speak, and my wife. Right now, I am planning on scaling down even more. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I will say, ‘Hey, one more year.'”

5. Encouraging rounds played data

Golf Datatech, well, data, via Golf Digest’s Mike Stachura. (Was he “Bomb” or “Gouge”?)

“Rounds played numbers for July were down across the U.S. by 1.6 percent compared to July 2017, which might be the most misleading statistic in golf history next to Jeff Sluman holding the record for the longest drive ever recorded on the PGA Tour (473 yards, in 2003-yes, that Jeff Sluman and, yes, that 2003).”

“The slight decline in rounds played is remarkable in that it came in a month where many sections of the country were receiving buckets of rain that likely washed out entire weekends, even weeks of rounds. At the very least, it could close a course to golf carts, further chilling the incentive for some to play. So let’s look a little more closely at the numbers from Golf Datatech’s thorough research of the country’s golf in July.”

“First, 18 states showed more than a 2 percent increase in rounds played, almost equal to the number that showed more than a 2 percent decrease (21). But the real story again is precipitation and bad weather, which has plagued the golf business much of the year. While it is the sixth month of seven this year that rounds played were down, it is also the sixth month this year when temperatures in much of the country were colder (early in the year) or precipitation amounts were higher.”

Full piece.

6. Bryson vs. the robot

This morsel from L’Artiste about his ping pong prowess ahead of the Dell Technologies Championship…

“I used to practice at lunchtime with a couple buddies of mine against this little robot…We got a robot where this thing would shoot out the ball, different velocities, and different spin rates — this is what professionals practice with. We practiced every lunch period for a couple of years. And I got pretty good, needless to say.”

Just another reason he belongs on the Ryder Cup team…

7. What’s ahead for Brooke?

Golf Channel’s Randall Mell looks at what’s ahead for Brooke Henderson after her storybook Canadian Open win.

“Henderson jumped inside the top 10 with Sunday’s triumph, moving six spots to No. 8. While you won’t catch her coveting the No. 1 ranking publicly, she relishes a chance to get there. And she is in a great place now to make a run at it before the year is out.”

“Henderson is hot at an opportune time. She won in Portland in 2015 and ’16. There’s something about Columbia Edgewater Country Club that brings out her best….”I’m really excited to be back here in Portland, where, really, my career got started,” she said.”

“The victory in ’15 was Henderson’s first LPGA title. She was still a few weeks from her 18th birthday, and not yet an LPGA member, but she got into the field as a Monday qualifier. She ended up winning in an eight-shot runaway. She claimed LPGA membership with the victory.”

“After this week’s event, the women get a week off and then head to the Evian Championship for the year’s final major. That’s where Henderson could really put her signature on this season.”

8. For your listening pleasure…

A great guest on the TG2 podcast! Sean Toulon, Founder of Toulon Design and GM of Odyssey, joins the Two Guys Talking Golf podcast. He discusses getting his start in the industry, why he started his own putter company, why his diamond-milling face pattern works, blades vs. mallets, his famous Indianapolis design, the benefits of toe hang, and much much more.

Check it out.

9. A sign to be heeded?

While another user commented that the actual sign most often unheeded is probably, “No alcohol beyond this point,” Redditor Azione 81 suggested that the sign below is one of the most often ignored in golf. Whether that’s true or not, the point stands: #PlayItForward, folks!

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.