News

The Perennial Masters Dark Horse

Published

18 years ago

Mar 24, 2008

R Hetzel

Every year around this time I wonder who has the best shot at winning The Masters. Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Singh and Goosen can all be considered contenders at Augusta this year.

Not so fast there big fella, what about Jose Maria Olazabal? The quiet guy with the distance challenged and wayward tee shots is always a dark horse at Augusta National. His rock solid iron and short game, simply cannot be ignored. If he can play decently off the tee, he can win at Augusta. Jose Maria always seems to fly well below the radar and, this year even more so.

Jose Maria has been absent from the game for no less than seven months. This is a lifetime in golf time. Where has he been? He has been suffering with shoulder and groin rheumatoid pains. He will tune up this week at the Andalucian Open in Spain and then at the Shell Houston Open. After that, it is on to the world stage at the 2008 Masters Tournament.
The United Kingdom press quoted Olazabal as saying, "Even sitting down for any length of time has been painful, but the good news is that tests indicate a marked improvement and my long-term aim is to get back in action in January.

"I’ve seen a lot of doctors and they’ve done all kinds of tests. They know it’s some kind of rheumatism, but they don’t know what has caused it and it’s just a matter of treating the symptoms until they go away.

"I believe I have another five or six good years in me and I want to be playing as soon as possible."

I really enjoy watching Jose Maria when his game goes on a tear. In contrast, when his game is hurting, it can be quite painful to watch. If his game is golden in early April, Jose Maria will be a wolf in sheep’s clothing prowling down Magnolia Lane. Let’s hope the long layoff provided ample healing time, ample practice time and a renewed spirit for contending in the majors. More specifically, the 2008 Masters in just a few short weeks.

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 OccuNet Classic

Published

3 hours ago

Jun 9, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

With the PGA Tour across the border in Canada this week, GolfWRX Tour Photographer Greg Moore stayed stateside and headed to the OccuNet Classic presented by Amarillo National Bank in Amarillo, Texas.

It’s always interesting to see what the guys are playing on the KFT, and this week certainly hasn’t disappointed so far, with some incredible wedge stamping on display.

Check out links to all our albums below.

General Albums

2026 OccuNet Classic (KFT) – Monday #1

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Luke Potter’s custom Cameron putter – 2026 OccuNet Classic (KFT)

News

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Scotty Cameron GOLO 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition

Published

3 hours ago

Jun 9, 2026

Will Schube

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @HuskerFlyer is sharing a Scotty Cameron GOLO with a BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition shaft. While the putter is certainly enviable, the Augusta-inspired shaft is equally noteworthy.

From the listing:

Scotty Cameron Golo 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition Scotty Headcover 34″ $375

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.

News

J.T. Poston delivers career-changing victory after major gear changes

Published

1 day ago

Jun 8, 2026

Alistair Cameron

J.T. Poston required extra holes Sunday to earn a handshake from Jack Nicklaus himself and walk away with the biggest victory of his career.

Poston outlasted Ryan Gerard on the second playoff hole at the Memorial Tournament, and the victory at Jack’s place was aided by two significant gear switches ahead of the tournament in Ohio.

Firstly, Poston swapped from the Titleist Pro V1x to the new Pro V1x Left Dash in his last start at the Charles Schwab Challenge. It’s the ball that made headlines just a month ago, when Jordan Spieth also transitioned into the low-spinning variant at the Cadillac Championship.

Poston’s ball change was spurred by a discussion with Titleist Tour reps about testing some options that could be a little better for him in the wind, after the now four-time PGA Tour winner had gained slightly more speed of late and was feeling like his irons and full wedge shots were overspinning.

Poston spent time testing both the current-generation Pro V1 and the new Left Dash at home the week after the PGA Championship, and at Colonial Country Club, he spent more time dialing things in on the range with J.J. Van Wezenbeeck before deciding to tee up the Left Dash that week. At the time, Poston was 85th in SG: Approach (+0.024); he gained +1.402 at Colonial.

“So we felt like today was going to be a good test of that and it obviously performed really well,” Poston said after a second-round 65 at Muirfield Village which propelled him into the lead. “We had a couple shots that I felt like didn’t quite hit ’em perfect and it hung in there pretty well. So I feel like just having that confidence in that too is big, where I just — we’re trying to hit the smart shot and hit the right shot and just trying to execute and go from there.”

On his way to victory, Poston delivered a dominant performance from tee-to-green and was +8.081 in approach and tied for fourth in greens in regulation.

Poston’s Memorial victory was also the first on Tour for the new torched line of TaylorMade’s 2026 Spider putters. Poston also added the L-Neck Tour X at the Charles Schwab Challenge the week prior, something prompted because “it seems to be working for a lot of the other guys.”

A usually reliable putter, Poston had dropped to as low as 89th on Tour in strokes gained, and when he saw his good friend Denny McCarthy using the Spider, he thought about the change. With the new flatstick in hand, Poston gained close to seven shots on the field at the Memorial and ranked third in SG: Putting for the week.

Poston was the first to agree, though, that neither switch was more important than the other.

“The ball got me there, the putter helped me get it in the hole,” Poston said.

See Poston’s full winning WITB here.