News

Morning 9: U.S. Am update | “I’m a great putter” | New LPGA commish has a plan

Published

5 years ago

Aug 13, 2021

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt

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August 13, 2021

Good Friday morning, golf fans.

1. Reaching the round of 16 before the suspension of play

Ron Driscoll for the USGA…”Competing in his third U.S. Amateur Championship, Van Holmgren, 22, of Plymouth, Minn., earned two match-play victories on Thursday at Oakmont Country Club to reach the Round of 16 for the first time. Oakmont is hosting the championship’s 121st edition – its 17th USGA championship overall and record-tying sixth U.S. Amateur.”

…”Three other players completed Round-of-32 wins before play was suspended for the day at 6:35 p.m. It was the fourth weather delay in three days – totaling more than 10 hours. The rest of the Round-of-32 matches, all of which were in progress, are scheduled to resume on Friday morning, conditions permitting.”

“Austin Greaser, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, who was a quarterfinalist in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur at Inverness Club, also notched two wins on Thursday. The University of North Carolina junior eliminated Bo Andrews, 2 and 1, then rallied to defeat Xavier Marcoux, 3 and 2, in the afternoon after trailing by two holes through the first six.”

Full piece.

2. Getting creative

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”He’s played the first hole down the ninth.”

“He’s blown it over the church pews toward the fourth fairway on No. 3.”

“He’s hit down the opposite fairway on Nos. 10 and 11.”

“And to top it all off, he’s used the 12th fairway to play the 14th hole.”

“…Vick hasn’t been alone, though. Dozens of players are zigging and zagging around Oakmont’s rain-softened layout in search of better angles and to avoid penal bunker lips that often demand layups…”

Full piece.

3. “I’m a great putter”

Golf Channel’s Max Schreiber…”Russell Henley rose to the top of the Wyndham Championship’s leaderboard with a first-round 8-under 62 behind motivation from his cell phone.”

“For several years, Henley has had an alert set on his phone that tells him every morning, “I’m a great putter.”

“Yeah. I have [an alert] on my phone right now that says, ‘I’m a great putter,'” said Henley, who took 25 putts on Thursday. “You know, it’s weird, the first years I was on Tour, my ball-striking was kind of inconsistent and my putting was, I think it was top-10 the first couple years. It might have been [No. 1] in overall putting my second or third year.”

Full piece.

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4. The new commissioner’s 100-day plan

Amy Rogers for Golf Channel…“As part of Marcoux Samaan’s transition to leading the best female golfers in the world, she outlined a 100-day plan for not only herself but the LPGA as a whole. She says the plan is broken into three phases, beginning with a period of listening and learning. Marcoux Samaan first mentioned this strategy during the announcement of her appointment in May.”

“The second phase will encompass the outlining of a strategic plan for the LPGA. She intends to incorporate the values of the nearly 72-year-old organization, which is rooted in its founding by 13 women in 1950. Marcoux Samaan says the plan will be laid out over the course of the next three months. Upon completion of the 100 days, which also happens to coincide with the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in mid-November, Marcoux Samaan says the organization will be able to move into the third phase. This phase will see the execution of a template which will outline the LPGA’s goals moving forward.”

“OK, this is where we’re going to put our energy or most of our energy,” said Marcoux Samaan about how she intends to use the template. “But again, we’re going to keep doing what we do because it’s been pretty successful.”

Full piece.

5. Local favorite leads

AP report…”Michele Thomson of Scotland shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the LPGA Tour’s Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open.”

“Thomson, the 33-year-old Ladies European Tour player from Aberdeen, rebounded from an opening bogey with an eagle on No. 2. She birdied seven of her final 11 holes at Dumbarnie Links.”

“Probably had a little bit of a nervous start I would say,” Thomson said. “Obviously, being at the Scottish Open, it’s my fourth one now, but obviously still got the nerves off the first tee and hit a bit of a ropey drive and just made bogey from there, which was fine. Stood up on the second tee and just restarted.”

Full piece.

6. More front office maneuvering

Todd Kelly for Golfweek…”Jon Podany, who spent nine years working for Mike Whan at the LPGA, has been hired by Whan as the new Chief Commercial Officer for the U.S. Golf Association, part of a tumultuous month at the top of the organization.”

“Podany was most recently a partner in two companies within the college sports industry, The Brandr Group (TBG) and CampusLore.”

Full piece.

7. Thorbjornsen on fire

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Thorbjornsen entered the week at Oakmont Country Club as the prohibitive favorite, still streaking from dominant victories at the Massachusetts State Amateur and Western Amateur. Ott, meanwhile, was still trying to build confidence after a prolonged slump.”

“While Ott appeared to be on his way to smothering the Stanford sophomore, leading 3 up through 12 holes, Thorbjornsen, as it turned out, was just slow cooking his opponent.”

“Five holes and five birdies later, and Ott was done.”

Full piece.

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8. Vice captain Rickie

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…While Fowler has an uphill climb to make the team on merit – he ranks 41st in the U.S. team point standings and only the top six automatically qualify – and his current form doesn’t suggest he’d be one of Steve Stricker’s six captain’s picks, Fowler said he’d be open to serving as a vice captain at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin for the Sept. 24-26 matches.

“With the position I’m in, age-wise, and yeah, I’d have to play my (rear) off the next few weeks to have a chance there, which like you said, it’s not out of the question. But yeah, if the team – if the guys wanted me there, I’d be there in a heartbeat,” he said. “They’re such fun weeks to be a part of whether you’re playing or not. Some of my favorite times have been when I’ve sat out and basically got to be there as, you know, a makeshift assistant captain in a way. You’re out there supporting the crew and being around.”

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?

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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.