News

Morning 9: Desert winners: Simpson in Phoenix, G-Mac in Saudi Arabia | Shark backs Premier Golf League, Player calls it greedy

Published

6 years ago

Feb 3, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

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

February 3, 2020

Good Monday morning, golf fans. With all due respect to Webb and G-Mac, I’m most excited to see Andy Reid get a (Super Bowl) win under his belt! The Chiefs could be the next football dynasty.

1. Finau stymied by Simpson

AP report…”Simpson birdied the final two holes of regulation to force a playoff with Finau, then won with a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole.”

“Two strokes ahead with two holes left, Finau missed an 18-foot birdie try in the playoff on the par-4 18th after driving left into the church pew bunkers.”

“Simpson two-putted for birdie from the fringe on the short par-4 17th and made a 17-footer for birdie from the edge of the green on the 18th. Finau, after hitting a 366-yard drive and an approach to 8 feet, missed a chance to win when his birdie try slid right.”

Full piece.

2. G-Mac’s Euro Tour victory drought ends in Saudi desert

ESPN report…”Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell has ended his five-and-a-half-year wait for a European Tour title with victory at the Saudi International on Sunday.”

“McDowell cared an up-and-down par 70 to finish 12 under for the tournament, two shots ahead of second place American defending champion Dustin Johnson”

“The 40-year-old Northern Irishman struggled to a bogey at the first hole, before carding a further two bogeys in a mixed final round. However, back-to-back birdies at the 12th and 13th holes were enough to secure McDowell his 11th Tour win, his first since defending his Alstom Open de France title in 2014.”

Full piece.

3. Shark: Bring on the Premier Golf League

Australian Associated Press report…“Greg Norman believes the mooted Premier Golf League has every chance of succeeding, 26 years after his own world tour proposal was shot down by the powerful PGA Tour. The Australian great says changing times mean the plan for 18 tournaments worth US$10 million (AU$14.9m) each featuring 48 leading players could work despite likely opposition from existing tours.”

…”You’ve got to remember back in my day the players were looked on a little bit different,” Norman told The Scotsman at the final day of the Saudi International on Sunday.

“Seve (Ballesteros), Jose (Maria Olazabal) and I were trying to tell everybody we were independent contractors who could go and play anywhere in the world we want…”

“Restraint of trade is not as prevalent – you can’t do it basically in this day and age – so that’s why this one probably has a little more legs.”

Full piece.

4. Mickelson’s momentum

Brentley Romine for Golf Channel…“Mickelson fired a closing 3-under 67 Sunday to finish the week at 9 under, just three shots back of winner Graeme McDowell.”

“It was so fun to be back in the mix,” Mickelson told reporters afterward. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in contention. It’s been a while since I’ve been playing well and it feels really good. This has been a great week for me, a good step, and it was so fun coming down the stretch to feel the nervousness and the excitement and the opportunities.”

…”I haven’t been my best this last year since I won Pebble a year ago, and I’m excited to go back there next week with a little bit of momentum,” Mickelson said. “I feel like I have been playing well, but yet I haven’t had the results. I missed a couple of cuts and this week I really started to put things together and it’s a great week to build off of.”

Full piece.

5. “Bitter”

A bit of what Tony Finau said following his playoff defeat…

“Hat’s off to Webb. A couple birdies coming home, and if you’re going to get beat that’s how it should happen.”

“I definitely didn’t give him the tournament. He took the lead from me early and I got it late, but unfortunately it’s how the cookie crumbles today.”

“It’s a bitter week as I look back on it. But man, lots of stuff to be learned…I had a chance, a great chance to win this week. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but my game’s better than it’s ever been. I have more confidence now than I’ve ever had. And again, if you know anything about me, I’ll persevere through anything. If you want to say this is a stumbling block or whatever it is, to chase this next one, but I’ll knock it off soon and will be on my way.”

Full piece

6. Player on Premier Golf League and “greed”

Gary Player’s money argument is a curious one in the world of pro sports (Kevin Durant earned more than $100 million in salary last year, for reference)…anyway…

Geoff Shackelford pulling from a John McCauley report…”I find a lot of greed in the sport now,” Player added. “When someone comes along like this, what do you do?

“Do you discard the PGA Tour where you’ve played all your life? Are you just going to say ‘to hell with you now?’ I don’t like that. It is crazy to say you don’t like money, but it’s not as though they are struggling.

“I think Rory McIlroy made $23 million last year without even taking in his contracts. How much money do you want? Loyalty to me is very big.”

Full piece.

7. Motivating McDowell

G-Mac is drawing inspiration from an unlikely source…

Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski writes...”Graeme McDowell was thinking of Drew Brees when he arrived in Hawaii just before the start of the new year to compete in the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. The former U.S. Open champion always has appreciated the hard-nosed competitiveness of the New Orleans Saints quarterback, but it was something Brees had recently said, not something he did, that got McDowell’s attention as he arrived at Kapalua’s Plantation Course.”

“[Brees] just said he’s going to play every season like it’s his last. He’s going to work his ass off and enjoy it while he’s doing it, and that struck a chord with me,” said McDowell, who at 40 is just seven months younger than Brees. “You never know how long you can play, how long you’re going to have out here. So yeah, I like that attitude. I’m going to try and have that kind of an attitude this season. And the next couple of seasons, really.”

Full piece.

8. Haley Moore heads Down Under

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…”Haley, 21, will begin her 2020 LPGA season roughly 8,000 miles away and 19 hours ahead of those she loves. But while she won’t have an entourage, Moore will have some familiar faces in the crowd at the ISPS Handa Vic Open. For two years she competed in the Australian Master of the Amateurs event and her host family, the Sephtons, hope to make the drive over from Melbourne for Thursday’s round.”

“The third LPGA event of 2020 will feature a second round of rookies making their first appearance. In addition to Moore, newbies Andrea Lee, Jiwon Jeon, Maia Schechter, Matilda Castren and Linnea Johansson are also in the field. Eight rookies played in the new Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.”

Full piece.

9. The full WMPO experience

Young Quinn may have been overserved…

Chelsea Curtis, Arizona Republic…“Quinn Jamieson, 20, was accused of stealing alcohol about 11:45 a.m. inside the event, said Scottsdale police spokesman Sgt. Ben Hoster.”

“Initially, Jamieson was being chased on foot by event workers, said Hoster. He ran inside the event before scaling a barbed-wire fence of the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct and jumping into the canal, Hoster said.”

“Jamieson swam in the canal for about 10 minutes and was unable to get out on his own, according to Hoster. Scottsdale fire personnel threw him a “throw bag” to help him out of the canal just after noon, Hoster said.”

Full piece.

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

13 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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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.