News

GolfWRX Morning 9: Koepka! Kang! | TaylorMade to skip PGA Show?| How big of an advantage is big hitting?

Published

8 years ago

Oct 22, 2018

Ben Alberstadt

1. Koepka again

AP Report…”Koepka, the reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year, shot a final-round 8-under 64 for a 21-under total of 267. Koepka led by four strokes after three rounds.”

“Gary Woodland certainly made it interesting. Woodland started the day five strokes behind Koepka but pulled level after making six birdies in seven holes on the front nine.”

“The two dueled on the back nine, with Woodland birdieing Nos. 15 and 16 to again pull level. But Koepka did the same, and a bogey by Woodland on the par-3 17th gave Koepka the cushion he needed to close out the win despite a birdie on the 18th by Woodland.”

PGATour.com’s Ben Everill…”Just glancing at the leaderboard, which shows the reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year closing with an 8-under 64 – including a 7-under 29 on the back nine to shoot 21 under – makes it appear this wasn’t a contest on Jeju Island.”

“Oh but it was. It’s just Koepka is fast developing the reputation as the clutch king. Give him a sniff of the trophy and you’re going to need a mighty effort to keep it from him. In fact, sometimes a mighty effort won’t be enough.”

“Gary Woodland shot 63 on Sunday, joining the lead on a handful of occasions. But Koepka – who had the pressure of the tournament and the fact he could claim world No. 1 status on his shoulders – answered with authority every time.”

2. No. 1

Golf Channel’s Nick Menta with some commentary on the new No. 1

“You know,” [Gary Woodland] said, “Brooks doesn’t seem like he cares too much.” Woodland meant that there was little anyone in the field could do to rattle the 54-hole leader.

“But his comment also fits the general narrative surrounding Koepka. That he’s just detached enough for fans to have trouble attaching themselves to him. That he’s just a jock here to cash checks and collect trophies, to kick ass and chew bubblegum.”

“But for a few moments Sunday in South Korea, it became clear that Brooks Koepka does care. Crouched on the 72nd green with some time to stop and think as Ian Poulter lagged a bit behind, Koepka finally let a moment get to him. Cameras caught the three-time major champion appearing unusually emotional.”

3. Kang battles back

“Danielle Kang shot a 3-under 69 on Sunday to win the LPGA Shanghai by two strokes for her second career title.”

“Kang, who started the final round one stroke off the lead, offset a lone bogey on the par-5 fourth hole with four birdies after the turn to finish at 13-under 275 and hold off a late charge by Lydia Ko, who had the day’s lowest score of 66.” (AP)

Golf Channel’s Randall Mell...”The 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA champion said she has battled anxiety for months now and that her mental struggles have caused her to feel emotionally drained. Kang admitted to standing over the ball for four minutes before she could hit one shot in particular last week in South Korea.”

“People might wonder what I’m doing,” she said. “I actually can’t pull the trigger. It has nothing to do with the result. Having to get over that last week was incredible for me.”

Kang on her odyssey...”We’re digging deep there. I mean, I had to go through swing changes; I had the swing yips, the putting yips, to everything possibly you could think of.

“Overcoming the mentality of the anxiety you feel over the shots, it’s so much that golf does to you and the things that I had to deal with over the course of time that I’ve been on tour. … More so than anything I’m finally at a place where I’m peaceful and happy with my game, with my life. There is just so much more you can get through. I hope I win more; I did the best I can. I’m going to keep working hard and keep giving myself chances and keep putting myself in contention. I’ll win more. I’ll play better.”

4. Garcia on the verge of another (Andalucia) Masters win

ESPN report…”The defending champion was 3 strokes clear of Lee Westwood at the top of the leaderboard after seven holes of his final round before the threat of lightning forced the players off the course in the early afternoon.”

“Play was suspended Sunday evening and will restart Monday morning with the tournament already reduced to 54 holes following several suspensions of play during the week.”

“Garcia opened with a 4-shot lead after a faultless 64 on Saturday and built on his advantage with a 20-foot putt for birdie at the fourth…The home favourite dropped a shot at the fifth, missing a makeable putt, but then converted two solid pars to stay at 10 under before the klaxons sounded to end play.”

5. No TaylorMade at PGA Show?

Golfweek’s Forecaddie with the news…”TaylorMade will not take part in the 2019 PGA Merchandise Show, The Forecaddie has learned. The deadline to commit came and went last week. The news is a blow to the annual January gathering of golf business principals.”

“After conversations with TaylorMade Professional Staff members and key leaders within the golf industry, we will be investing into growth initiatives that we believe will create even greater value for the game of golf,” wrote CEO David Abeles to TaylorMade staff professionals. “As a result of our additional spend, we have decided not to attend the 2019 PGA Merchandise Show.”

Abeles delivered the news after noting TaylorMade’s nearly 40-year dedication to the PGA of America and its members, insinuating that savings from eliminating the elaborate show effort will be part of a plan to broaden “support of PGA Professionals across the country.” Abeles said details would be announced in the “coming months.”

Full piece.

6. Brooks cares

Odd we continue to debate this or that a defense is warranted…nevertheless, Ryan Herrington writes…

“The golf world has spent the last year, in the wake of all Koepka’s success, trying to figure out the guy-what motivates him, why he doesn’t show much emotion on the course. Koepka seems to wear his nonchalance like his polo shirts, tight around his biceps and loose around the collar.”

“Yet that does Koepka an injustice as it suggests that he doesn’t care. His play speaks otherwise. If he didn’t care, why would he keep going out there and beating everyone’s brains in? Wouldn’t it be so much easier just to kick back on his boat, and while away the hours with a fishing rod in one hand, a Michelob Ultra in the other?”

“Indeed, if this run of Koepka’s proves anything, it’s that he really does care, more perhaps than he even understood. He cares about the attention he gets-or lack thereof in his mind-from the media, even as he insists otherwise. He cares about proving his game is more than just launching rockets off the tee. He cares about winning, not just major titles, but every tournament he plays.”

Full article.

7. A slow play penalty arriveth…

John Strege…”After completing play in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, Corey Pavin was informed by PGA Tour Champions tournament official Michael Petch that he was being assessed a one-stroke penalty. Instead of shooting an even-par 72, he posted a one-over 73 and finished in a tie for 15th.”

Interesting. And by “Corey Pavin,” Strege didn’t mean Bernhard Langer.

8. Distance not the ultimate advantage?

Golfweek’s David Dusek crunched the distance numbers from the season that was. Some of his observations…”The average PGA Tour player last season won $1,329,295, but the chart shows some of the biggest hitters – such as Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas – earned significantly more. At the same time, other players who have high driving-distance averages – such as Trey Mullinax, Harold Varner and Robert Garrigus – earned less. As a group, the 20 longest hitters on the PGA Tour averaged more than $3.5 million in prize money last season, which was 164 percent more than the Tour average.”

:As massive as that percentage may seem, it falls within a range that goes several years. In 2017, the 20 longest hitters on the PGA Tour averaged 123 percent more prize money than the PGA Tour average. In the three seasons before that, they earned about 150 percent more, which tells us that as distance off the tee has increased over the last few years, the longest hitters have maintained an edge in terms of earnings.”

Full piece.

9. The importance of practicing under pressure

Our Mike Dowd offered his thoughts on the futility of most practice methods. While this may be something you’ve heard in the past, Dowd’s take is worth a read.

“Practice, as most of us employ it, is borderline worthless. This is because most of the practices, if you will, typically employed during practice sessions have little chance of improving our performance under pressure.”

“The type of practice that improves performance is, for the most part, rarely engaged in because practicing under typical “practice” conditions does very little to simulate the thoughts, feelings, and emotions we deal with once our performance actually means something. If we want to really improve our performance when it matters, we need to put ourselves in situations, often and repeatedly, that simulate the pressure we experience during competition.”

Check out the piece for his suggestions how to do just that.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

8 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

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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.