News

Morning 9: Smith wins Sony as Steele falters | Grace in South Africa | Lynch: Tour’s risky Reed behavior | Michelle Wie isn’t finished

Published

6 years ago

Jan 13, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

Email me at ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com and find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram and golfwrxEIC on Twitter.

January 13, 2020

Good Monday morning, golf fans.

**Drop me a line (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com) if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership.**

1. Sony: Smith wins one for Australia

It was Brendan Steele’s tournament to lose down the stretch, and lost it he did, falling to Cameron Smith on the first playoff hole.

BBC report with a bit of the context for the Australian’s victory…”Australian Cameron Smith claimed the PGA Tour’s Sony Open and said he hoped his play-off win would allow people in his country to “smile for a moment or two” during the bushfire crisis.”

“Smith, 26, won the first play-off hole at Hawaii’s Waialae Country Club to beat American Brendan Steele.”

“Smith’s uncle Warren has lost his home in the bushfires in Australia….”Australia is doing it tough right now and the focus is probably not on my golf, for good reason,” said Smith…”But hopefully it gave a few people reason to smile for a moment or two.”

Full piece.

2. Why Steele didn’t win

AP report…”For this PGA Tour victory, his help came from the guy he was trying to beat.”

“Steele had a three-shot lead when he holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 11th hole, and he never trailed the entire day until it fell apart at the end. He missed a 6-foot par putt on the 17th, and then hit a wild hook from the fairway on the par-5 18th and never had a reasonable look at birdie.

“On the 10th hole for the playoff, Steele was in ideal position in the fairway, 88 yards from the hole, when he hit wedge over the green. He chipped off the rain-soaked grass and mud to 15 feet and missed the par putt. Smith, who had driven into right rough, chased his shot to 10 feet. He never imagined winning would come down to two putts from short range.”

Full piece.

3. Grace wins in South Africa

Golf Channel’s Will Gray...”Branden Grace’s red-hot putter netted him both a comeback victory at his national Open and a spot in the final major of 2020.”

“Grace started the day three shots behind countryman Louis Oosthuizen at the South African Open, but he torched Rand Park on the final day for a 9-under 62 that earned the South African a three-shot win and his first worldwide victory since 2017.

“That was remarkable. I’m at a loss for words,” Grace said. “I can’t remember the last time the putter was that hot. You know I told my caddie on 16, said I’ve made six one-putts leading up to this hole on the back nine. So I’m good, this is the one I really wanted.”

Full piece.

4. And in Hong Kong…

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak...”Australian Wade Ormsby fired his third consecutive 4-under 66 to complete a wire-to-wire victory at the Hong Kong Open.”

“Ormsby entered the final round with a two-stroke lead at the Asian Tour and European Tour co-sanctioned event and never relinquished it. He finished at 17-under 263 to notch a four-stroke triumph over reigning British Open champion Shane Lowry, who closed with 64 to record his best result since hoisting the Claret Jug in July.”

Full piece.

5. Lynch: Risky behavior

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch…”A number of truths became apparent when Golfweek revealed that Reed has engaged a lawyer in an effort to silence Brandel Chamblee, the most prominent critic of his alleged cheating at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last month.”

“…Reed either ignores good advice or receives bad advice, and neither scenario recommends his inner circle, a group so small and lightweight it could fit comfortably on a golf cart and still leave room for his Tour bag.”

“…Others care more about Reed’s reputation than he seemingly does, specifically the PGA Tour. And that is where the deepest disconnect exists in this sorry episode – not between the Tour and Reed, or between Reed and fans, but between the Tour and a public that believes it has seen the evidence for itself.”

Full piece.

6. Byron Nelson leaving Trinity Forest

Golf Digest’s Joel Beall…”The PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson is leaving Trinity Forest after just three years. The decision, first reported by the Dallas Morning News on Saturday, has been confirmed by Golf Digest, with an official announcement expected to come Sunday.”

“As the necessary footprint to grow the event continues to expand, collectively, we will be evaluating other facilities in the Dallas area for 2021 to ensure a premium fan experience and allow the Salesmanship Club to continue to do great things through its support of the Momentous Institute,” Tyler Dennis, chief of operations at PGA Tour, told the Dallas Morning News.

Full piece.

7. Phil the host

Larry Bohannan at the Palm Springs Desert Sun, syndicated in Golfweek…”Now Phil Mickelson has La Quinta…Palmer served as host of a PGA Tour event at the Bay Hill club where he lived, an event that still bears his name. Nelson grew up in Fort Worth and was a long-time host of a Tour event in Dallas. Nicklaus and Woods also host PGA Tour events in cities and at golf courses that are important to their paths to golf greatness.”

“While the immediate connection for Mickelson to the Coachella Valley might not be as obvious to the average golf fan, Mickelson’s new role as host of the 61st American Express golf tournament in the desert puts him in the same company as the other Hall of Famers and major championship icons.”

Full piece.

8. Wie: Motherhood will make me play more, not less

Golf Channel’s Keely Levins...”After announcing her pregnancy, Wie said she has no intention of quitting golf. In part, it’s because she has some “unfinished business” when it comes to her career. Equally important, though, Wie said she wants her daughter to see her play. Wie was inspired last summer when Suzann Pettersen held her son, Herman, in her arms after holing the winning putt at the Solheim Cup, and when how Tiger’s children were there to see him win the Masters.”

“The motivation to come back is even stronger because I’m having a girl,” Wie said. “I really want her to see me play. I want her to see me be a strong woman. That’s really important to me. The motivation to come back and play is definitely there.”

Full piece.

9. PGA stepping in to try to save Palm Beach muni

Via Geoff Shackelford...”Tony Doris files an in-depth Palm Beach Post piece on PGA of America president Seth Waugh trying to get the city of West Palm Beach to not develop its shuttered muni.” (Doris’ piece here)

“‘With the city’s latest effort to nail down a redevelopment deal ending unsuccessfully, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, a longtime Palm Beach County resident, has urged West Palm Beach leaders to let the organization restore the course, run programs there and still have it affordable for city residents, he said in an interview Monday night.'”

“‘The city has to make a fundamental choice,” he said: “Do we want this to be about real estate and finances or about golf? … We just want it to be golf, not another development.'”

“A two year effort to find a savior for the golf course has failed, so Waugh has offered to get the PGA involved along with instructor Mike McGetrick and investors. It would seem a no-brainer”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

9 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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.