News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Remembering Celia | Valentino Dixon freed | Bryson the muse

Published

8 years ago

Sep 20, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

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

September 20, 2018

Good Thursday morning, golf fans. Did you catch the stealth announcement in yesterday’s M9? The FedEx Cup, in addition to other stated changes, will be changing its name to the “FexEx Cup.” At least, that’s the conclusion you could have drawn from the typo in my subject line. More coffee hopefully equals fewer mistakes this morning.

1. Remembering Celia

We know what happened. We will probably only ever have a superficial understanding of why it happened. The golf world now turns to remembering Celia Barquin Arozamena.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols writes…”Celia Barquin Arozamena was a feisty competitor. She was thoughtful too. The kind of player who bought flowers for teammates on Valentine’s Day and left inspirational quotes on the bulletin board. Iowa State coach Christie Martens choked back tears on the phone as she talked about the special relationship Barquin Arozamena had with her own daughter, Norah.”

“There are no answers for times like this. Only questions, tears and cherished memories of time spent with a 22-year-old woman whose future was bright”

“The spotlight is on her because of her golf,” said Martens. “But it’s everything else about her that has made her so special to me personally and to our team.”

Full piece.

2. Valentino Dixon freed

AP Report…”A New York prison artist who never played golf but became known for drawings of lush courses he could only imagine was set free Wednesday after authorities agreed that another man committed the murder that put him behind bars for nearly three decades.”

“Valentino Dixon walked out of Erie County Court into bright sunshine and hugs from his mother, daughter and a crowd of other relatives and friends, ready for a meal at Red Lobster and vowing to fight on behalf of others who are wrongly convicted.”

“Earlier Wednesday, a judge agreed to set aside Dixon’s conviction in the 1991 shooting death of 17-year-old Torriano Jackson on a Buffalo street corner and accepted a guilty plea from another man who had confessed to the killing two days after it happened.”

…”While behind bars, Dixon rekindled his childhood passion for drawing, often spending 10 hours a day creating vivid colored pencil landscapes, including of golf courses, while imagining freedom. Articles in Golf Digest and elsewhere have drawn public attention to Dixon’s case. NBC Sports’ Jimmy Roberts spotlighted Dixon in a 2013 segment for his “In Play” series on Golf Channel”

Full story.

3. Bryson remains a muse

The scribes can’t get enough, and who can blame them? Nearly every week, DeChambeau offers bon mots or behavioral fodder for articles-and the overarching storylines are too good not to pick up a pen/peck at a keyboard.

This week, it’s David Dusek writing about BAD’s comfort with his place in the golf world.

“Part of DeChambeau’s comfort level comes from knowing his game is firing on all cylinders right now. He enters this week ranked fourth in strokes gained total (1.664), 13th in scoring average (69.62) and after having played a few practice rounds under bright Georgia sunshine, he said East Lake suits his style.”

“…DeChambeau is also getting used to the demands that are being placed on him and the commitments that come with success.”

“I’ve had to prioritize now more than I’ve ever had to in my life, so Brett (Falkoff, DeChambeau’s agent) has been very instrumental in that, my caddie (Tim Tucker) has been helpful with that,” he said. “I’ve just had to plan things out more and really be on point. When I wake up in the morning, I can’t be messing around. I’ve got to get up and get ready to go to work. It’s more of like a 9-to-5 job in a sense.”

…and ESPN’s Bob Harig with “Bryson DeChambeau is different from every golfer you’ve ever seen,” the angle of which you can probably surmise.

“What makes DeChambeau different from others at the highest level of the game is his “single-length” irons and wedges. Each club measures 37.5 inches and is built with a 7-iron shaft — unlike traditional sets of irons that get progressively shorter as you go from a 2-iron down to a wedge…All of the head weights in his irons are 280 grams, and he uses oversized grips on each of his clubs.”

“Jordan Spieth, who has known DeChambeau since their college days at Texas and SMU, respectively, is somewhat amused but also impressed with the approach….”I think he phrases stuff differently than he needs to at times, but the belief in what he’s doing is very important in this game, and when you’re that exact on what you’re trying to do … . When you feel the slightest bit off, you’re trying to fine-tune to the nth degree,” Spieth said.”

4. Brooks wasn’t invited

Credit to Golf Digest’s Brian Wacker for getting Brooks Koepka’s response to being left off the pre-tournament interview schedule at the Tour Championship.

“[The media] has their guys they wanna talk to,” Koepka said when tracked down on the course. “I’m not one of them and that’s fine.”…”We don’t get asked to do many interviews, so I’m not gonna go out of my way to do one,” he said. “I don’t really care.”

“You’ve got guys who will kiss up, and I’m not gonna kiss up,” Koepka said. “I don’t need to kiss anyone’s butt. I’m here to play golf. I’m not here to do anything else. A lot of guys are known for the stuff they do off the golf course and who they like to hang around. It’s pretty obvious who’s doing that and who isn’t. I don’t need to bend over backwards to be friends with anyone [in the media], but certain guys do that because they want their names written. I’d rather be written about because of my play.”

“Sometimes it does suck, but I’ve started to care less. Come Sunday, I won’t forget it when everyone wants to talk to me because I just won. I don’t forget things.”

5. Tiger reflects on 2018

USA Today’s Steve Dimeglio with a few notes and some context from Tiger’s pre-Tour Championship presser.

“Starting his comeback ranked 1,199th in the world, he is now No. 21. Exceeding his own tempered expectations, he has six top-6 finishes, including a tie for second in the Valspar…Championship, a second in the PGA Championship, a tie for sixth in the British Open and a tie for sixth in the BMW Championship, the third of four events in the FedExCup Playoffs.”

“He also earned a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup, and will play in the biennial tussle with Europe for the first time since 2012. And he’s one of just 30 players to make it to The Tour Championship.”

“I haven’t been here in quite some time, and it’s great to have accomplished one of the goals I set out at the beginning of the year, to make it back to East Lake to be part of The Tour Championship and part of these top 30 guys,” said Woods, who is looking for win No. 80 and his first since 2013. “To have come back from where I’ve come back from and to get here has been a pretty tall order and something I’m proud of.”

Woods offered this perspective on his attitude entering the season…”I just needed rounds. In order to get rounds, I needed to be physically fit and healthy enough to do it, and I felt pretty comfortable to be able to add a tournament in there. I just needed to keep my body strong, keep it moving, and eventually I would find a game that could contend and that eventually would lead to wins.”

6. “Weird”

A solid take from Geoff Shackelford on the new FEC format-and Justin Thomas as well.

“The PGA Tour faced one major dilemma in trying to improve the FedExCup: how to make sure FedEx gets full value for their sponsorship.

“….So to have recent FedExCup champion Justin Thomas calling the new 2019 system “weird” right out of the chute, with the social media reaction suggesting he gave the perfect summary of how most feel, comes off as pretty weird given all of the brainpower put into the latest FedExCup overhaul.”

“From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story…”It’s something that is very, very weird and going to be hard to get used to,” Thomas said. “We talked about it, and it’s … never going to be perfect.”

7. Ryder Cup memorabilia of years past

Our Gianni Magliocco rounded up 10 interesting finds from eBay and elsewhere.

A 1987 Ryder Cup money clip, a 2010 Scotty Cameron Team Europe putter cover, and much more!

Check ’em out.

8. Here comes the night

Dark wedges are in. Titleist’s limited edition Slate Blue Vokey SM7 is the latest example of the phenomenon.

WRX staff report…”The Vokey SM7 L Grind proved to be a welcome addition for those golfers who were looking to excel around the greens on firm conditions. The enhanced heel, toe and trailing edge grind provided the lowest bounce option available from Titleist upon its release.”

“Now, Titleist has announced the release of their new Vokey WedgeWorks Limited 60-degree T Grind. Just like the L Grind, the latest release from Titleist is a low-bounce option designed for players with a shallow attack angle playing in firm conditions, however, the new T Grind’s dual-bounce sole allows the wedge to sit closer to the ground, making it easier to get the leading edge under the ball and promoting lift. According to Titleist, the dual bounce sole creates a narrow, forward bounce which helps to provide a gliding sensation.”

More on the wedge, including pictures, here.

9. Bury me in the Ryder Cup

Credit to Golf Digest’s Alex Myers for this funerary find.

He writes…”Urns for Ashes is now offering a Ryder Cup replica urn. And all kidding aside, this thing looks pretty sweet:..Here’s what it says under product description”

“A perfect send off for a golf loving friend or family member. We have been commissioned to create a variety of golf urns for ashes, from a customised bag to a ball and tee to immortalise a special memory. Our 3d printed, 100% unique urns are hand finished in as much detail as you wish. We work with award winning designers and artists to ensure only the highest quality. I look forward to helping you create a memory to keep forever.”

“According to someone who works for the UK-located company, the Ryder Cup replica urn was actually a special request recently made by a Golf Digest reader,” which the company decided offer for sale after the positive response.”

Is Ian Poulter a Golf Digest reader?

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

2 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.