News

Morning 9: Stanford redeemed? | Mike Davis on player complaints | Haney in hot water

Published

7 years ago

May 30, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

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

May 30, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans.

1. Stanford redeemed?

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine on the Cardinal’s (never the Cardinals’!) impressive NCAA Championship win. (Although, to use No Laying Up’s analogy the stellar “regular season” play of Oklahoma State cannot be forgotten)

“With three matches in a 27-hour period on a 7,550-yard golf course, the final match of the NCAA Championship was always going to be a test of endurance.”

“No team was more prepared to handle the rigorous finish than Stanford.”

“All season, the 10th-ranked Cardinal trained their games, minds and bodies to peak at the right time. They won each of their final four tournaments and grabbed momentum by the horns entering this week’s demanding test at Blessings Golf Club, where Wednesday they were the last team standing after a 3-2 victory over Texas in the final.”

“We pushed these guys harder than any team I’ve ever coached,” said Stanford head coach Conrad Ray, “and they responded.”

“Stanford’s victory marked the program’s ninth NCAA title and first since 2007. In recent years, though, the Cardinal had developed a reputation for being soft when it mattered most. After advancing to the NCAA semifinals in 2014, Stanford failed to make it past the 54-hole cut in four straight championships.”

Full piece.

2. Bortis’ story

Golfweek’s Adam Woodard on a compelling element of the Stanford victory saga…

“An assistant coach in his first year with a new school wins the national title at the course he used to play on against the team, and coach, he once played for.”

“About 1,500 miles east of Hollywood at Blessings Golf Club, that’s exactly what happened to Stanford assistant coach Matt Bortis when the Cardinal defeated Texas 3-2 to win the men’s NCAA Championship.”

“Honestly I couldn’t believe it,” said a shocked Bortis after the final match on Wednesday morning. “To be able to do this on my old home course and then to do it against the team I used to play for was incredibly special.”

Full piece.

3. Mike Davis’ take

Rex Hoggard with what the USGA’s ED had to say about a Golf Digest article he is surely thrilled went to press weeks ahead of the U.S. Open…

(Over/under 2 times for “dialogue”?)

“On Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament, USGA executive director Mike Davis addressed the criticism and what the association is doing to bridge a widening gap with some PGA Tour players.”

“We’re listening a lot and having a dialogue with them,” Davis said. “Some of it was about new rules. Some of it is concerns about the distance initiative, some of it is U.S. Open. It’s a combination of things. But we’re looking forward and we obviously want to work with the Tour. There are so many great players and we want to get it right.”

“Just getting more dialogue with the Tour was important,” Davis said. “It was evident with the new rules that a lot of the complaints happen because I don’t think they actually understood the rationale. Why would you drop from your knee? Why would you have the flagstick in? Why are we changing some rules on the putting green? If it’s down to more ‘why’ than it’s because you aren’t communicating enough.”

Full piece.

(Push)

4. …and Rory’s

Hoggard also reported on these remarks from Rory McIlroy…

“Following a string of high-profile miscues at recent U.S. Opens, many are anxiously awaiting next month’s championship at Pebble Beach, which is widely considered the event’s most storied venue.”

“I think we should give [the USGA] the chance to redeem themselves. If they can’t redeem themselves at Pebble Beach, then there could be a problem,” Rory McIlroy said on Wednesday at the Memorial.

Full piece.

5. Say what, Hank?

Golfweek’s Christine Brennan recounts Haney’s remarks on his radio show yesterday and offers her perspective in a scathing editorial. Forgive the length of the excerpt, but the transcript portion is a necessary inclusions.

“Golf instructor and commentator Hank Haney was having a great old time on his SiriusXM radio show Wednesday morning, ripping women’s golf, the game’s magnificent South Korean standouts and this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, the crown jewel of the women’s game.”

“His racist, sexist, xenophobic behavior was on display for anyone who listens to him on PGA Tour Radio.”

Co-host Steve Johnson: “This week is the 74th U.S. Women’s Open, Hank.”

Haney: “Oh it is? I’m gonna predict a Korean.”

Johnson, laughing: “OK, that’s a pretty safe bet.”

Haney: “I couldn’t name you six players on the LPGA Tour. Maybe I could. Well … I’d go with Lee. If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.”

Johnson: “We’ve got six Lees.”

“If Haney is not fired from that job (and Johnson with him) and every other role he plays in golf and the news media by dinnertime Wednesday, then the leadership of the game, the PGA Tour and SiriusXM is condoning racism, sexism and xenophobia while basically telling everyone who isn’t a white male that golf is not the sport for them.”

“If there’s any golf club in the country (let’s make it the world) that allows Haney to set foot on its property after that despicable exchange, that club is telling every girl and woman and person of color to go play any one of the dozens of other sports they can play for life, not golf.”

Full piece.

6. State of the Tiger

Golfweek/USA Today’s Steve Dimeglio on where things stand for TW as he gears up for the third major of the year…

“All in all, Woods said he’s in a much better place than where he was after missing the cut two weeks ago in the PGA Championship. He said he has put on nearly all the weight he lost two weeks ago when an undisclosed illness struck two days before the start of the second major of the season.”

“Woods took three days off, then practiced hard for two days in Florida. The following day, he played 18 holes at Pebble Beach, the site of his historical 2000 romp in the U.S. Open and next month’s U.S. Open.”

“…After Tiger Jam, Woods spent a good day practicing Monday before heading to the Memorial. He got in a late-evening practice session on Tuesday.”

“I feel a lot better,” Woods said. “I just need to play a little bit more now. And hopefully it will be four solid days this week heading into the U.S. Open.”

Full piece.

7. The DEFINITIVE ranking

At times, you imagine over at Digest they just dump a box of papers on Shane Ryan’s desk and say “make something great out of this.” In this case, it’s the results/game stories of every single tournament on the PGA Tour this season so far.

Here’s a taste of his singular rundown…

“5. Arnold Palmer Invitational (Francesco Molinari): Just the greatest winning final round of the year by a winner, culminating in this monster [Ryan includes a video of Molnari’s winning putt]”

“4. AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Phil Mickelson): Most years, this combination of venue and champion, both legendary, would be enough to make it the most compelling non-major of the season. Most years …”

“3. Sony Open (Matt Kuchar): Not only is Kuchar always an interesting champion, and not only was this the first full-tournament field of 2019, but the caddie-tipping controversy from his win at the Mayakoba came out that weekend thanks to a tweet from Tom Gillis, and it would dominate discussion in the golf world for the next month, until Kuchar issued his apology. He was asked about it for the first time at the Sony, and depending on how much you knew that Sunday, his win there was either the last win of his pre-TipGate career, or the first of his post-TipGate career. In any case, we were watching the perception of one of the game’s most popular figures change in real time, knowing it would never be the same, and it was fascinating.”

Full piece.

8. “Lowest lows” for DeChambeau

Golf Channel’s Will Gray on the tour’s resident Einstein’s recent equation of frustration.

“Everybody is susceptible to lows. Mine hopefully aren’t as low as some others. And this, to me, is my lowest of lows,” DeChambeau said. “I really don’t feel like I can play much worse.”

“DeChambeau hadn’t missed a cut prior to Harbour Town since last year’s PGA, a stretch of 16 starts that included four worldwide victories. He hadn’t missed more than two cuts in a row since the summer of 2017, when he missed seven in a row ending with the U.S. Open at Erin Hills.”

…”Personally for me I feel like this is as low as it’s going to go. I just have to keep running, I have to keep just scratching at the door, keep going with trying to understand why does this dispersion happen? Why do I have this range of possibility of shots?” DeChambeau said. “You have to go back through your checklist, things that you do understand and kind of branch off of that. When you go down a rabbit hole and it doesn’t work, you pull yourself out and find ways that work better.”

Full piece.

Worth noting: DeChambeau has (single-length, of course) Cobra King Forged MB irons (6-PW) in the bag this week. Our Ryan Barath on the rationale for the switch from his Cobra King One Length irons.

9. Pro debuts for ANWA heroes

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…

“They’re back. And this time, they’re playing together for at least two rounds of the 74th U.S. Women’s Open. Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi, rock stars of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, make their highly-anticipated professional debuts on Thursday at 8:28 a.m. local time at the Country Club of Charleston.”

“…It’s not just that Fassi and Kupcho are playing for money now. Both LPGA rookies have a limited amount of time to earn enough money to keep their cards for 2019, and this week’s $5.5 million purse is the largest on tour. A strong week here can go a long way toward securing status.”

Full piece.

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.