News

Rory McIlroy questions the merit of internet sensation Hosung Choi’s Pebble Beach invite

Published

7 years ago

Jan 24, 2019

Rory McIlroy’s frankness has at times rubbed people the wrong way, but a large portion of golf fans appreciate his openness and honesty when speaking to the media, and for those fans at least, McIlroy obliged once again this week while discussing the internet sensation Hosung Choi.

Choi, who has become a cult hero in the golfing world for his unusual behavior on the course, will make his first ever start on the PGA Tour at next month’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the age of 45. Though the majority of golf fans were thrilled when the news broke and are excited to see him in action stateside, McIlroy, while speaking before this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, questioned whether the viral star deserved his place in the field.

“Whether he should be taking a spot away from a PGA Tour player at a PGA Tour event, I’m not so sure.”

The Irishman’s statement is surprising since the South Korean tasted victory on the Japan Golf Tour back in November and has risen over 300 places in the Official World Golf Ranking in just 12 months, to a career-high position of 193rd in the world. But while McIlroy appears skeptical over the merit of Choi’s invite, he revealed his positive take on the 45-year-old’s swing.

“I mean, technically his swing is good. If you watch it up until impact, he’s technically got a pretty good swing. He’s obviously a pretty good player.”

Concerning Choi’s antics following making impact with the ball, while the majority of golf fans find Choi’s reactions both fascinating and hilarious, McIlroy believes that the South Korean may be trying a little too hard.

“I’m not sure a golf shot should mean that much to you that you’re doing that after you hit it like it’s just trying a little too hard. You have to try hard at golf, but that’s taking it to an extreme.”

Rory McIlroy is playing this week’s Farmers Insurance Open for the first time and tees it up in today’s opening round alongside Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott on Torrey Pines’ South Course.

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Gianni Magliocco

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com

17 Comments

Lovejoy

Jan 27, 2019 at 8:58 am

McIlroy is a fool with no authority to question sponsor’s invites and if he’s so concerned about players lacking merit taking tournament spots why doesn’t he go to the Tour and ask for all exemptions to be cancelled and restoration of qualifying rounds?

Reply Report comment
Nathan

Jan 26, 2019 at 5:25 am

Did Rory get sponsor invites when he was starting out ?? I haven’t looked into it –
but I’m sure he would of.

Reply Report comment
Liberty Apples

Jan 25, 2019 at 11:10 pm

When Rory puts up the $7.6 million, he can decide who’s in the field. Until then, zip it.

Reply Report comment
ND Hickman

Jan 25, 2019 at 2:24 pm

I’m inclined to agree. It feels like Choi (entertaining as he is) is being given the spot in place of someone potentially more deserving.

Reply Report comment
- TZ
  
  Jan 27, 2019 at 9:33 am
  
  Deserve has nothing to do with it!
  
  Reply Report comment
  - ND Hickman
    
    Jan 28, 2019 at 3:25 am
    
    Cool so why not invite more ladies to play in men’s events?
    
    Reply Report comment
Jose Pinatas

Jan 25, 2019 at 2:19 pm

This is good for the game, and will get more people to pay attention. No different than giving sponsor exemptions to Steph Curry, Michelle Wie, or any other well liked/popular person. Rory can say what he wants when a reporter asks a question, it’s his opinion and we should leave it at that.

Reply Report comment
FritoBandito

Jan 25, 2019 at 12:18 pm

The dude has won as much the past year or so as McIlroy. I question Rory’s merits since the new drug testing policy.

Reply Report comment
ht

Jan 25, 2019 at 11:04 am

I don’t dislike Rory, but it seems like he’s been salty over the past 1-2 years for the sake of being salty. This is the kind of thing that gets people to tune in and it’s the reason sponsors are given exemptions.

Reply Report comment
TonyK

Jan 24, 2019 at 7:37 pm

Choi partially lost his right-hand thumb when he was 20 years old while he was working in the fishing industry (hence the “fisherman’s” swing). After working as a driving range attendant, he started playing golf at the age of 25. Became the pro at 27 in just 15 months. You may not like his swing, but how could anyone not love his story?

Reply Report comment
Eric Vallee

Jan 24, 2019 at 2:09 pm

Sponsors exemptions are common place. Selling tickets is the whole point of them. This happens almost every week. This guy just happens to be outlandish.

Reply Report comment
NA NA

Jan 24, 2019 at 12:57 pm

hater

Reply Report comment
Tay

Jan 24, 2019 at 11:23 am

They should give Choi an exemption into an event where Rory is playing and pair them together for the first two rounds!!!!!!!!!!

Reply Report comment
Shallowface

Jan 24, 2019 at 10:32 am

Choi will actually sell some tickets, unlike most of the players playing today. Drawing money, eyeballs and putting people in seats is the only thing that matters in the entertainment business, of which professional golf is a very small part.
Professional entertainers, no matter the variety, need to remember that the ONLY reason they get to do that which they do is because someone wants to watch it. Professional golfers historically are among the most forgetful of this most basic of principles.

Reply Report comment
- Dave
  
  Jan 24, 2019 at 10:38 am
  
  I think you are spot on but I also think that Rory has a legit point. He is taking the place of someone “more” deserving. I, for one, am pretty excited to watch Choi play. From an entertainment standpoint, this will be awesome. If Choi makes the cut, the weekend will be awesome. Maybe even pair him with Rory!
  
  Reply Report comment
  - 1 iron
    
    Jan 24, 2019 at 9:57 pm
    
    What’s the matter Rory., you afraid he may take away your thunder
    
    Reply Report comment
  - MhtLion
    
    Jan 25, 2019 at 2:20 pm
    
    I think we can also say whoever sells more tickets and earns more viewing is more deserving. Shallowface is spot on. This is an entertainment industry, not academic.
    
    Reply Report comment

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News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

7 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.