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Morning 9: Ranking the best shots since restart | Tiger’s troubles | ZOZO Champ stateside this year

Published

6 years ago

Sep 1, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

1. Ranking the best shots since restart

The singular Shane Ryan assembled his top shot from each tournament and then ranked them for good measure…

From…13. Ryan Palmer’s opening tee shot, Charles Schwab Challenge…

“Don’t call us hokey! At the time, when Palmer hit the first shot of the restart at the Colonial, nobody had a clue whether any of this would work. We had high hopes for an extended run, of course, but it seemed just as likely that a COVID-19 nightmare could strike and send us back into the golf-less abyss. Returning at all was a bold move, symbolized by Palmer’s first strike that Thursday, and not just for golf. In some ways, it symbolically took back some momentum for every sport and served as a blueprint for how this could work.”

To…

“1. Collin Morikawa’s drive on 16, PGA Championship…It immediately became one of the most memorable, if not greatest, shots in the history of the PGA Championship. You can read a fuller breakdown here, but you already know the story: It was a brilliant fade into the green at the drivable par-4 16th, setting up a monumental eagle. With it, Morikawa seized control of a crowded tournament and won the first major of his very young career. When you consider the stakes, it’s one of the most stunning pressure shots we’ll ever see. As jaw-dropping as Rahm’s putt on Sunday was, the magnitude of Morikawa’s drive made this one an easy choice.”

And Shane: Sorry to showcase the prize inside the Cracker Jack box. I was going to do 13 and 2, but you wrote so little about it (what is there to say, really, I know). Plus Morikawa’s shot, as it came in a major championship and given the quality almost necessarily transcends any of the other inclusions on this list.

Full piece.

2. U.S. Open field nearly finalized

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”Sixteen players have been added to the U.S. Open field, including 11 via the Official World Golf Ranking, meaning the all-exempt field for next month’s event at Winged Foot is nearly complete.”

“The top five players from the three-event Korn Ferry Tour points list gained entry into the season’s second major, a group that was headlined by Brandon Wu. Wu won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship Sunday and finished T-35 at last year’s U.S. Open, and he’ll be joined at Winged Foot by fellow KFT players Stephan Jaeger, Curtis Luck, Greyson Sigg and Dan McCarthy.”

“Another 11 spots were awarded via the world rankings from Aug. 23, a group that ranged in rank from Kevin Streelman (No. 48) to Matt Jones (No. 89). Joining them in the field will be Harris English, J.T. Poston, Joaquin Niemann, Thomas Pieters, Max Homa, Lanto Griffin, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Matthias Schwab and Alex Noren.”

Full piece.

3. ZOZO taking a detour to Sherwood

Golf Channel’s Nick Menta….”Tiger Woods won’t defend his Zozo Championship title in Japan. But he might well do it at an old haunt.”

“The PGA Tour officially announced Monday night that this fall’s event will move to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, and be temporarily rechristened the Zozo Championship @ Sherwood.”

“Per the Tour’s release, the move is the result of “unprecedented challenges” and “unique circumstances” – namely, the ongoing COIVD-19 pandemic.”

Full piece.

4. In search of his game…

ESPN’s Bob Harig on Tiger Woods’ recent difficulties…“He was never a final-round contender, playing dew-sweeping weekend rounds meant to try to find form that was fleeting.”

“Just missing the ball in the wrong spots here and there,” Woods said after his final round was completed long before the leaders teed off Sunday at Olympia Fields. “I certainly haven’t putted as well as I would have liked, and with the scores being as low as they have been, I just haven’t been able to shoot the low scores like I needed to.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you can boil Woods’ issues down to one glaring aspect that occurred in suburban Chicago: his inability to birdie a single par-5 hole at Olympia Fields.”

“…To not birdie a single par-5 hole encapsulates his troubles…”

Full piece.

5. Biggest drivers, biggest rewards?

Golf Digest’s E. Michael Johnson examines the question. The data dump and look at the numbers are impressive, but here’s a look at the relevant portion…”Heading into this week’s Tour Championship, 74 players are averaging 300 yards off the tee. The player ranked 100th in driving distance, Matt Jones, has a driving distance average that comfortably would have led the tour every year until 1997 and would have ranked in the top five through 2002. Meanwhile, the driving distance leader in 1985, Andy Bean at 278.2 yards, would not rank in the top 200 this year.”

“Do 2020’s numbers suggest the rush of power hitters has subsided, Bryson DeChambeau and his current all-time high of 323.9 yards, notwithstanding? Well, it is true that five of the top 10 on the money list are outside the 60 longest hitters on tour and three are outside the top 100. Of course, it has been an abbreviated season and several of the tournaments since the restart were played on courses where accuracy was perhaps at more of a premium compared to distance. Still, the average driving distance for the top 10 players on the money list is 305 yards, or about nine yards longer than the tour average this year. There also are five times as many players averaging 300 yards or more off the tee among the 30 headed to East Lake than there are players averaging less than 290.”

“Then again, it’s also true that one of the three players who is not ranked in the top 100 in driving distance but still ranked in the top 10 on the current money list is Collin Morikawa, the guy to win the only major played this year.”

Full piece.

6. Tiger amid the worst putting stretch of his career?

Our Gianni Magliocco took a look at the numbers and that’s what he found…”Much of Woods’ irritation with his game also looks to be in an area that has consistently been a massive strength throughout his career – on the greens.”

“Tiger has competed in 24 rounds thus far in 2020 and has racked up some unwanted records in that period.”

“After Woods gained +0.2 strokes on the greens at the Farmers back in January, the 44-year-old then went to the Genesis and produced his worst putting performance since Strokes Gained statistics began in 2004. Woods lost 8 strokes with the flat-stick that week, and post-lockdown, he hasn’t faired much better.”

“In the four events since Riviera, Woods has lost strokes on the greens all four times. That five consecutive tournament run of losing strokes on the greens is also a record for Tiger, who never had before lost strokes at as many successive events where strokes gained are recorded.”

Full piece.

7. Rory McIlroy’s WITB

A quick look at the Ulsterman’s sticks as he prepares to take on East Lake.

Driver: TaylorMade SIM (10.5 degrees @8.75)

Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei Orange AV Raw 75 TX (45.5 inches, D4)

3-wood: TaylorMade SIM Max (15 degrees)

Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 85 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade SIM Max (19 degrees)

Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7MB (3-PW)

Shaft: Project X Rifle 7.0 (6.5 in PW)

Wedges: TaylorMade MG2 (54-09SB, 60-08LB)

Shaft: Project X Rifle 6.5

Putter: TaylorMade Spider X Copper (34.25, 2.5 loft, 70 lie)

Ball: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord (58R 1+1, logo down)

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Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

10 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

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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.