News

Morning 9: Green Wave cometh (what’s a Green Wave?) | Who’s buying all this golf equipment? | “When Dustin Johnson stayed at my house”

Published

5 years ago

Nov 17, 2020

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

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

November 17, 2020

Good Tuesday morning, golf fans. I had the date wrong in yesterday’s newsletter and didn’t get a single email about it, which either means you all are very kind for overlooking my shortcomings or were as bleary-eyed as I was. Either way, today is the 17th of November. Pencil it in and sign at the scorer’s tent.

1. A tradition unlike any other

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard with a final note on the peculiarity of this year’s Masters experience…”There’s a reason why this was the first Masters played in November. A pimento cheese sandwich just doesn’t go with a pumpkin spice latte, and something was slightly off about Augusta National, too. The fairways didn’t have the familiar bounce and the greens were fast but soft, players explained. It had something to do with different grasses and growing seasons, but the entire effect was strangely disorienting.”

“It felt wrong in terms of kind of like the ball plugging or a putt being really slow or something not being very fast,” Xander Schauffele said. “I was talking to Henrik [Stenson], I’m sure it was harder for him to deal with. He’s been out here more than I have. I’m not scarred by what Augusta is normally like.”

“There was nothing normal about this pandemic Masters, and the common theme among players was one of gratitude. If patrons are allowed back on Augusta National next April, there will be a greater appreciation for what the galleries mean to the tournament.”

“The atmosphere, the crowds, the patrons, the feelings that you normally have here that you didn’t quite have. More than any other week of the year I feel like you’re nervous a little more often, and it didn’t quite have that,” Rory McIlroy said.”

Full piece.

2. Green wave rolling in?

Shane Ryan, who is, respectfully, the king of paragraph length, at Golf Digest observes…”It’s the story of the transformation of men’s professional golf by a group of young players not yet 30 who come from the large swaths of the globe that are not the United States or Europe, and would fall under the “International” umbrella as defined by the Presidents Cup. For convenience, let’s call it the “Green Wave,” after their uniforms in Australia last December. The Green Wave encompasses budding talents like Sungjae Im and Abraham Ancer, both of whom made the final group with DJ at Augusta National; Cameron Smith, who became Johnson’s biggest challenger on Sunday; and Sebastian Munoz, Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan, all of whom hung around near the top of the leader board with varying degrees of success in the final round.”

“What five of those six players have in common (all but Munoz) is that they played together at the 2019 Presidents Cup, an event that looks likely to grow in significance historically as a turning point for things to come. At Royal Melbourne, the out-gunned Internationals, armed with a woeful record over the history of the matches and a massive deficit in World Rankings, stunned the jet-lagged Americans during the first three sessions before Tiger and his charges found their feet on the brink of elimination and squeaked out a 16-14 win. Despite the eventual American victory, there was some degree of shock at the close outcome, and the fearlessness of the youngest Internationals.”

Full piece.

3. Fowler’s drought continues

John Feinstein asks one of golf’s lingering questions, now that the answer is “not in 2020.” When will Rickie Fowler win a major? “Fowler has never wanted to be one of those guys who made millions off his name, charm and looks and not off his golf. In 2014, he hired Butch Harmon as his teacher, and his game took off. He finished in the top five in all four majors that year—he had one top five in a major previously—when he finished T-5 Masters, T-2 at the U.S. Open, T-2 at the Open Championship and third, after a back nine duel with McIlroy and Mickelson, at the PGA.”

“He had arrived … almost”

“When he came from behind late to win the Players Championship the following May, it seemed he had taken another step forward, that the elusive first major victory wasn’t far off.”

“Five years—and 22 majors appearances later—he’s no closer. In fact, he is trending in the wrong direction. While he did finish second to Patrick Reed at the Masters in 2018 and was T-6 in 2019 in Ireland when Shane Lowry won the Open Championship, his best post-COVID major finish this year was Sunday’s T-29.”

Full piece.

4. Better understanding the rise in play and purchases

David Lorentz for the National Golf Foundation’s Q…”There’s an adage in business that 80% of sales come from 20% of customers. This phenomenon – known also as “the law of the vital few” – may not be the universal truth that some suggest, but it does have pretty broad acceptance and application, and is viewed by many as a powerful tool for growing business.”

“Coincidentally or not, this principle applies nicely to the pandemic-induced lift that golf has experienced over the past five months, as it’s become pretty clear that a certain 20% of existing customers are contributing disproportionately to the outcome. (What follows begins to answer the question we’ve been asked more than any other in recent months: who’s driving the surge?)”

“Since March we’ve surveyed several thousand Core consumers, chronicling their sentiments and behaviors and drawing distinctions between different groups, time periods and locations. Within this pulse survey we’ve also inquired about current and expected 2020 golf spend, asking respondents to compare these amounts to 2019 and/or their “typical” annual spend. The data here is more directional than scientific/projectable, but it’s showed us that 20% of Core golfers will be “over-spenders” this year, while roughly 30% will be “same-spenders” and, believe it or not, half will actually underspend this year versus last (or typical).”

Full piece.

5. “The time Dustin Johnson stayed with my family”

Claire Rogers of Golf Digest on Dustin Johnson’s brief residence at her residence…”Every June, Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R.I., hosts the Northeast Amateur Invitational Golf Tournament, an elite amateur event that brings future stars to our small town outside of Providence. Most members live in Rumford and will often host players, which is both fun for the family while helping the amateurs save some money and a commute.”

“In 2006, my family had just moved to a bigger house in Rumford and we were excited to finally host two players for the first time. With four kids between 5 and 14, my mom was a little uneasy about having two college kids stay with us for a week, but my dad got a call on Sunday morning that our first player had arrived at the course and was ready to be picked up. We drove to Wannamoisett and met Dustin Johnson in the parking lot. He was in workout clothes and flip flops, and looked more like a basketball player than a golfer. His hair was spiked up, which made him look even taller as he squeezed into the passenger seat of my dad’s Volvo.”

Full piece.

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6. The saga of Christiaan Bezuidenhout

“At the 2014 British Amateur, I took a drug test, and they found a substance in the medication that was banned for golf. We obviously didn’t know it was illegal. I had been using the medication for 10-plus years and had no idea. I got banned for two years from all competitive golf. It was a shock. I was hurt and confused. I’d stayed amateur that year just to play for the Eisenhower Trophy for South Africa. I worked my entire amateur career for that tournament, and then I couldn’t play it. I was heartbroken. I took a couple weeks off to reflect on what happened, to try to sort it out with the national team and clear my name. That was the worst part, being treated like I was a cheater when I didn’t even know what I did was against the rules. Luckily I had the right people on my side, we got my name cleared and my ban shortened to nine months. I was 21 years old, and I turned professional. I gave my game my full attention, did a lot of short-game work, kept my play sharp. I knew I would return. When I came back to competitive golf, I wanted to be ready to try to dominate. My first event back was an event on the Big Easy Tour, a mini-tour in South Africa. I won by five.”

More of his first-person account at Golf Digest, below.

Full Piece

7. LPGA Tour returns to Tampa this week for Pelican Womens Championship

Ron Sirak for LPGA.com…”Like many things, the Pelican was put on hold, pushed back from its original date in May. And, appropriately, the area where the Tour started 70 years ago will be where the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings, Jin Young Ko, makes her 2020 LPGA debut after remaining in South Korea during the pandemic. “I think it’s important for not only the area, but women’s golf and women’s sports in general, given everything that’s going on,” Scott Reid, the tournament’s executive director, told the Tampa Bay Times about rescheduling the event.”

Full Piece

8. $70 million man

Todd Kelly for Golfweek with the details of Dustin Johnson’s ascent of Mt. $70 Million….”His 2020 Masters win was worth $2,070,000 and that amount puts him over the money milestone of $70 million.”

“Johnson becomes the fifth golfer to surpass that mark in career on-course earnings. He is now at $70,710,215 and that leaves him just $526,001 behind Vijay Singh, who is in the No. 4 spot. Singh has earned $71,236,216.”

Full Piece

9. Best three hole nicknames in golf

Erik Matuszewski, writing for Links Magazine…”Amen Corner. For true golfers, just saying the name evokes a wistful smile and a rush of mental images at one of the game’s most historic and celebrated courses: Rae’s Creek, the Nelson and Hogan bridges, the pond fiercely guarding the 11th green, azaleas blooming behind the par-three 12th hole, and the 13th tee box tucked away in the farthest reaches of Augusta National Golf Club…”

“Technically, the way Wind described Amen Corner (inspired by a jazz song he’d heard years earlier) was the second shot on 11, the 12th hole and its swirling winds, and the first half of the par-five 13th. But the name has evolved over time to become synonymous with perhaps the most well-known three-hole stretch in the nation. In honor of Amen Corner, here are a handful of our other favorite nicknames when it comes to three-hole stretches in the golf world…”

“The Bear Trap…“Holes 15–17, PGA National Resort & Spa—The Champion Course (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.)”

“Jack Nicklaus is known for some challenging course designs and, outside of Amen Corner, the Bear Trap might be the most well-known (or best-branded) stretch of holes the pros play every year. A life-size statue of a bear and a plaque precede this daunting trio of holes that includes two tough par threes sandwiched around a par four and a heck of a lot water…”

Full Piece

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour 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

1 day 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.