News

Morning 9: Prez Cup assistants named | (Alleged) stinginess could sting Kuchar | Golf’s biggest winner’s check

Published

7 years ago

Feb 13, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

February 13, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans.

1. “Golf’s New Rules: Few Players Know Them, Fewer Understand Them”

Sometimes, you can’t beat the original headline, and such is the case with what Karen Crouse penned for the New York Times. Withering stuff!

Crouse writes…”The United States Golf Association and the R&A revised the sport’s rule book to simplify the game and speed up the pace of play. But so far the changes, which took effect at the start of 2019, have been harder to follow than a game of Simon Says.”

“In the few weeks since the modifications took effect, players have repeatedly sought guidance from the nearest rules official, their caddies or pieces of paper tucked inside their golf bags, undermining for now, at least, the stated intention of making things simpler and faster.”

“And it’s adding an extra bit of hesitancy to the pros’ trip through the course. During a rain-sodden second round at Pebble Beach on Friday, Hunter Mahan was forced to consult a tournament-issued rules sheet before touching his ball. “We thought we knew what the rule was,” Mahan said, “but there’s no clarity, so having an official or actually having it written down is the only true clarification.”

Full piece.

2. Stinginess could sting

The Irish Times’ David Gorman connected Matt Kuchar’s reported $5,000 payment to larger social issues.

“This is a life, after all, where estimates suggest US CEOs are paid 300 times what the average worker earns, up from 40 times the average in the 1980s. Wealth inequality has reached such a stage that the world’s richest 26 people hold the same wealth as the poorest 50 per cent.”

It is in this world where a golfer like Kuchar, a man who has earned more than $46 million on the PGA Tour in his career, can justify such a brazen act of stinginess – a paltry chunk of the winner’s cheque.

Kuchar would say in his defence that he was not paying his regular caddie, rather a local caddie who had picked up his bag for the week. The base fee was agreed at $5,000, with bonuses depending on performance. Golf.com reports Ortiz was offered an additional $15,000, for a total of $20,000. He refused the offer, and thinks he has been taken advantage of.

Full piece.

3. Sergio’s mea culpa

Garcia will tee it up on the PGA Tour for the first time since his unsanctioned green complex renovations in Saudi Arabia.

In an Instagram post, Sergio wrote…”Happy to be in my first @pgatour event of the season and have my brother on the bag again this year. I’ve obviously had some time to reflect, and want to again say I’m sorry to my fans and fellow competitors. What happened is not an example I want to set, and it’s not who I truly am. I am an emotional player and while I believe that’s one of my biggest strengths, it’s also one of my biggest flaws. I’m focused on working hard to channel that emotion the correct way and to be the best me, learn from it and move forward. Thanks for all the support.”

4. Prez Cup assistant captains

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard with the details on captain Woods’ selections.

“Woods named Fred Couples, Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker assistant captains for this year’s matches which will be played in December in Australia. Woods can also add a fourth assistant.”

“Couples went 3-0 as a captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team (2009, 2011 and 2013), and Stricker led the American team to a convincing victory in ’17 at Liberty National in New Jersey.”

“Freddie and I go way back in the Presidents Cup,” Woods said in a release. “We’re basically coming full circle at Royal Melbourne. He and I teamed up in one of our matches in ’98, I was a captain’s pick in ’11 and now we get to return there as two leaders of this team. We’re going to have some fun.”

Full piece

5. Playing captain

Interesting that the assistants are joining the team with the expectation that Woods will be a playing captain.

Hoggard again writes…

“We all expaect him to be a part of the team as a player,” Stricker said. “It will add another dimension for all of us to take probably some of the responsibility off of his plate.”

Stricker anticipates Woods would delegate some of his captain’s duties if he were to become a playing captain, but he admits that might be difficult for him.

“He’s one of those guys that wants to do it and do it right and put his stamp on it,” Stricker said. “If he makes the team as a player, we’re going to have to probably do some more things to take some of that off his plate so he can concentrate on playing and getting those points.”

Full piece.

6. A difficult return

Bill Haas, who last year was a passenger in a fatal car crash during the Genesis Open, is in the field for this year’s event.

Again Rex Hoggard (the man is a machine) writes…”Haas, understandably, withdrew from last year’s Genesis Open and he didn’t tee it up on Tour again for nearly a month. As he made the rounds on Tuesday at Riviera to prepare for this year’s event, the memories came flooding back.”

“There are a lot of emotions that I keep inside that impact me in ways that I’m figuring out, whether that’s good or bad,” Haas said. “It’s given me a perspective.”

“Haas is staying in Santa Monica this week with his wife, but that doesn’t mean he’s trying to forget what happened last year. In fact, he had dinner with Gibello’s wife on Monday night.”

Full piece.

7. Big names slated for Mexico

Hoggard AGAIN…”The first real test of the PGA Tour’s condensed schedule comes next week at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and if the current projected field remains unchanged, it appears most players aren’t opting out of the no-cut event in exchange for some much-needed rest.

The current field for the year’s first World Golf Championship includes 47 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, although that could change with Friday’s deadline to commit.

Full piece.

8. TW’s superstitions

…aka meticulous, consistent preparation.

From Golf Channel’s Grill Room Team/a Tiger Woods, Fred Couples discussion for GolfTV

“Three tees in the right pocket – always.”

Yardage book in the right back pocket – always.

“Just carrying a pin sheet? Well that always goes in the front left pocket, with his chapstick, which he always carries there.”

“He also revealed that he always marks his ball with a quarter from 1932, because that’s the year his dad was born.”

“He taught me how to putt. So my dad is always there with me when I play,” said Woods, whose father, Earl, passed away in 2006.

Full piece, video

9. $3 million

The European Tour announced its bumping the first-place payout for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship from $1.33 million to $3 million in 2019.

Full details in this ESPN report.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

13 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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Why do we use it?

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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.