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Rory does it | Further Rules clarification needed? | Brooks “out of sorts”

Published

6 years ago

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

March 18, 2019

Good Monday morning, golf fans. Rory McIlroy’s win at yesterday’s Players Championship accomplished on the most satisfying feats in sports: (At least for now) shutting up critics who contend a player can’t (based on their armchair psychological assessment) close a tournament.
1. Rory does it
While he wobbled early, Rory McIlroy successfully walked the tightrope at TPC Sawgrass. With Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood faltering, McIlroy only needed a 2-under final-round effort to secure pro golf’s biggest payday.
  • AP Report…”McIlroy, one of eight players to have at least a share of the lead in the final round, was coming off a bogey on the 14th to fall behind and was in trouble with a tee shot that found a bunker right of the fairway. He responded with his best shot of the day to 15 feet for birdie.”
  • “Then, McIlroy hit the longest drive of the round on the par-5 16th, leaving him a 9-iron from a good lie in the rough to set up a two-shot birdie and the lead.”
  • “Most important, he found dry land on the par-3 17th, the Island Green that never looks smaller than on Sunday at THE PLAYERS.”
  • “He was solid to the end on a chilly, cloudy day and finished at 16-under 272 to win THE PLAYERS on his 10th try.”

Full piece.

2. Eddie! (and Jim)
Not only is he the game’s best blogger and Tweeter (no disrespect to Tiger Woods’ blog…does he still blog?), but it’s hard to be unhappy about Eddie Pepperell’s T3 finish.
  • The 28-year-old Englishman, who was paired with Justin Rose, played the first six holes in one over par, but then made seven birdies in 12 holes from the seventh to storm through the field and card a six-under 66.
  • The highlight was a 50-foot putt for birdie at the par-three 17th and he then did well to salvage a par at the last to give himself an outside chance of victory until McIlroy and Jim Furyk nosed ahead of him.
  • “To be honest I just had a few ups out there, I didn’t even have the downs to deal with because I holed a couple,” he said.
  • “The pitch, the bunker shot I hit on 14 and the pitch I holed on 15 were, no matter who hits them at any stage of a golf tournament, they’re great short game shots. They just gave me kind of a sense of huge confidence, actually. I kind of felt invincible, really, that last bit. Only around the greens, obviously.”

Full piece.

None of this is to sell Jim Furyk, 20 years Pepperell’s senior, short. The Businessman was a mere millimeter of a golf ball (his narrowly missed putt at the 17th) away from a playoff with Rory McIlroy. His walk-after-it approach to the 72nd hole as he stuffed his approach was the enduring image of the final round–certainly more so than McIlory’s massive sigh of relief (literally) after holing the tournament winner!
3. Magical Migliozzi
Nosing ahead of the field with a birdie at the 12th hole, all untested tour rookie Guido Migliozzi did was par his way in to take the Magical Kenya Open. A bit of sorcery indeed.
  • EuropeanTour.com report…”Guido Migliozzi showed nerves of steel down the back nine to claim his maiden European Tour title at the Magical Kenya Open presented by Absa.”
  • “The Qualifying School graduate was in uncharted territory at Karen Country Club, playing just his 14th European Tour event with no previous top tens to his name.”
  • “He has three wins on the Alps Tour, however, and the Italian drew on those experiences to card a 69 and get to 16 under, one shot clear of playing partner Adri Arnaus and South Africans Louis de Jager and Justin Harding.”

Full piece.

4. Tiger…
PGATour.com’s Ben Everill…”Tiger Woods never recovered from a quadruple bogey on the iconic Island Green on Friday at TPC Sawgrass, but the 80-time PGA TOUR winner left THE PLAYERS Championship full of optimism.”
  • Woods came into the week following a neck injury that kept him out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, but the 43-year-old closed with his best round of the championship on Sunday.
  • His 3-under 69 left him at 6 under for the week, well off the pace, but still looking ahead with a positive mindset as he gears up to play the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play for the first time since 2013.

Full piece.

Ultimately, all good things as we march toward the Masters, it has to be said. 
5. “An epidemic the PGA Tour has no desire to cure”
A grim prognosis from Dr. Eamon Lynch!
  • Consider the particulars. Players are permitted 40-50 seconds to play their shots depending on the order of play in a group, but exceeding that limit doesn’t incur a bad time. For a group to be officially considered out of position they not only have to exceed the allotted time to play a shot but also reach a hole that is open and free of play. Only then does a group go on the clock. The punishment for that bad time is, well, nothing. A second bad time earns a one-stroke penalty, the third gets two. A DQ only comes at four. The fines levied are so meager as to be meaningless.
  • The most imbecilic mind on Tour would struggle to parse the policy but not to manipulate it.
  • Like a persistent rash, pace of play was again an irritant at the Players Championship. When the first round was called for darkness – despite daylight saving time – Anirban Lahiri still faced a short putt on the final hole. He had to return Friday morning to finish up. The Tour’s invariable stance is to insist there’s nothing to see and that everyone should just move along (at their own pace, of course).

Full piece.

6. Webb asks for further rules clarity
Closing in on his best round of the week at The Players, Webb Simpson was eyeing his 47-footer for birdie from the fringe of the 14th green when a rules infraction shattered the relative calm.
  • Simpson explained that his putter accidentally became tangled in his shirt and hit his golf ball, moving it “a quarter of an inch.” An official ruled that Simpson had violated Rule 9.4b (Ball Lifted or Moved by Player) and was assessed a one-stroke penalty which led to a bogey on the hole.
  • “I’m going to be loud and clear, we have to get intent into the rules. We have to. Because it’s killing our game when it comes to these kind of things,” said Simpson, who finished with a 4-under 68.

Full piece.

7. “Out of sorts”
Not sure what to make of this cryptic Ryan Lavner piece for GolfChannel.com, but here’s the relevant portion.
  • (Regarding Brooks Koepka)...”He has lost 24 pounds since November….It’s intentional, of course, though Koepka isn’t yet saying why.”
  • “You’ll see,” he said after the final round of The Players. “After Wednesday I’ll be fine.”
  • Over the past few months Koepka has been training twice a day, running and eating healthier.
  • “More of everything,” he said.
8. Tarde on Jenkins
Plenty has been penned on the passing of Dan Jenkins, but his friend/Golf Digest Editor-in-Chief, Jerry Tarde’s reflection is excellent.
  • A bit of his remembrance…”Dan lived in a penthouse in New York on “Park Street,” as he called it; then in a mansion on Ponte Vedra Beach, and finally moved back to the ancestral home near his beloved TCU in Fort Worth, where he passed away at 90 on March 7.”
  • “I tend to go to major championships the way Dorothy Kilgallen used to go to murder trials,” Jenkins wrote in Golf Digest in 1986. “I don’t cover tournaments anymore. I preside over them.” He ended up presiding over 232 majors in all-68 Masters, 56 PGAs, 63 U.S. Opens and 45 British Opens-a record that will never be matched. He was the most influential sports writer since Homer. And when it comes to lovers of the game, that rattling you hear is all of us moving up a notch in the world ranking.
  • “Who else but Jenkins would be sitting in the press dining lounge at a Ryder Cup when the door flings open and the president and first lady, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, rush over to give him a hug. “I bet the King of England never stopped by to see Bernard Darwin,” said his wingman Bev Norwood.”
9. WRX PSA: forum upgrades
We are excited to announce that we are going to be upgrading the forums! To facilitate this, the forums will be offline starting Monday 3/18/2019 9:00am Eastern. We are expecting the migration process to take 24 hours.
  • Please excuse the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience.
  • Once the initial upgrade is complete, we will be rolling out several enhancements in the coming weeks. There will be a dedicated thread once we’re back online to report any issues and we will work as fast as possible to address any bugs.
  • You will have to login again after the upgrade. If you have any issues getting logged in you will be able to reset your password using the email you used when you registered.
THANK YOU for being a part of GolfWRX!

 

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Bob

    Mar 18, 2019 at 12:00 pm

    this is horrible…what i am supposed to do today with no forums?????? I might actually have to do my job, a complete travesty. You will be hearing from my solicitor.

    Reply Report comment

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News

Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

Published

3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

By

I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

Published

4 weeks ago

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Jul 29, 2025

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

 

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News

BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

Published

4 weeks ago

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Jul 28, 2025

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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