News

Morning 9: Women’s British Open | Lexi’s caddie details debacle | WGC ratings slide

Published

7 years ago

Aug 2, 2019

Ben Alberstadt

By Ben Alberstadt ([email protected]; @benalberstadt on Instagram)

August 2, 2019

Good Friday morning, golf fans.

1. WBO

Ron Sirak’s intro to his first-round game story on the Women’s British…”They put some beef on the bone at Woburn Golf Club for the AIG Women’s British Open, adding 300 yards to what it played in 2016. But on a windless day, the best players in the world devoured the rain-softened course with perfect greens. Ashleigh Buhai led a brilliant birdie barrage Thursday with a 7-under-par 65 for the first-round lead.”

“Hinako Shibuno, 20, a JLPGA rookie, is one stroke back along with Danielle Kang. Sung Hyun Park, trying to win a major for the third consecutive year, is at 67 as are Charley Hull, who thrilled the fans on her home course, Moriya Jutanugarn and Megan Khang.”

Full piece.

A look at the leaderboard as I write this has Lizette Salas and Hinako Shibuno tied for the lead at -8.

2. An & Im

And on the PGA Tour…

AP report…”Byeong Hun An and Sungjae Im each shot 8-under 62 on Thursday to share the lead after one round at the Wyndham Championship.”

“Mackenzie Hughes, Rory Sabbatini, Patrick Rodgers and Johnson Wagner were a stroke back of the South Korean leaders in the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs.”

“Former Wyndham winners Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson joined Jordan Spieth among the nine players at 6-under 64.”

Full piece.

3. An inconvenient quest

If you want the full story of Benji Thompson’s quest for Lexi’s passport, he detailed the debacle for The Caddie Network.

A morsel…”We pulled up and Ian had about five golf bags and three pieces of clothing luggage outside of the van on the ground. He’s a little older and it had taken a toll on him, and, hey, this wasn’t his problem or job to do. I immediately knew this was about to be a nightmare of a task to get to her travel golf bag. After I cleared the area, I started pulling these bags off and getting them out of the way. No wonder the players and caddies who used this service didn’t have anything with them when they arrived in London (It was all in the heavy-ass golf bag traveling cases)! Once I got about 30-40 bags out, I saw Lexi’s on the bottom, and cha-ching! I knew where the passports were and was able to dig down and get them out. I made sure I had both of them and put them in my pocket.”

“Now is when the fun started… Every one of those heavy bags I removed I had to put back. They had to be packed very tight and there is a certain way for all this to fit. Somehow, I got all of the bags back in the van, and I still don’t know how I did it. Looking at all of it out on the ground I was telling myself there is a way and just kept plugging. When I finished, it took the cab driver and Ian holding the bags and me sliding the door to make it close.”

Full piece.

4. Spieth’s lowest opening round of the year

Golf Channel’s Will Gray…”Jordan Spieth, who ended a six-year hiatus at Sedgefield Country Club by picking up right where he left off during a memorable playoff loss to Patrick Reed in 2013. Spieth leaned on a red-hot putter en route to a 6-under 64, an effort that left him two shots off the early lead and, surprisingly, was highlighted by a pair of impressive bogeys.”

“The first such score came on the par-3 12th, where Spieth flared an iron into an awkward lie above a bunker and needed to sink a 15-footer to avoid a double. Then on the par-4 18th, his tee shot sailed out of bounds down the right side, but a re-tee led to a 21-foot make from the fringe for a round-saving bogey that brought the Greensboro crowds to their feet.”

“That birdie with the second ball is nice,” Spieth said. “I look at the card, and I don’t really think of it as an out-of-bounds ball. I just feel like I actually stole something coming in, so hopefully that’s momentum for tomorrow.”

Full piece.

5. Patrick Rodgers’ “really tough year”

Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski on a difficult 2019 for the Stanford alum…”First, he fired weekend rounds of 61-62 in the RSM Classic in November in a bid for his first PGA Tour title only to lose in a playoff to Charles Howell III. More recently he was forced to spend 16 weeks on the sidelines with wrist and thumb injuries while watching his place in the FedEx Cup standings drop each Sunday night.”

“But had it not been for that career-best finish in Georgia, Rodgers would have been fidgeting on his sofa a bit more nervously. When he shut it down after a missed cut at the Valspar Championship in late March, he was 38th in the FedEx Cup standings. He showed up this week ranked 96th, well inside the top 125 that ensures retaining his card.”

“It’s been a tough year. It’s been a really tough year,” said Rodgers, 27, the top collegiate golfer in 2014. “I didn’t really know what was going on with my injury for a couple of months, and I just kind of had to sit and watch myself fall down the FedEx Cup. After getting off to such a great start, that was frustrating. But it’s really nice the way the FedEx Cup is formatted, you can make a nice little run here late in the year and that’s my intention.”

Full piece.

6. This guy!

AP report…”Jake Beber-Frankel, the 17-year-old son of Academy Award-winning director David Frankel, followed his record 10-under 60 with a 65 on Thursday in the Boys Junior PGA Championship to break the 54-hole mark.”

“Beber-Frankel, from Miami, had an 18-under 192 total at Keney Park Golf Course to shatter the tournament record of 199 set by Akshay Bhatia in 2017 at the Country Club of St. Albans outside St. Louis.”

“I definitely never had to ‘bounce back’ from a 60 before,” said Beber-Frankel, a Stanford commit. “It was a fun experiment to see what happened.”

Full piece.

7. In praise of senior golf

Shane Ryan with some excellent perspective in general, and superb work putting meat on the bone…

“Golf is not the only professional sport that features official contests among players “of a certain age,” by which I mean those who have passed their competitive prime and entered the autumn of their years. If you’re a tennis fan, you can watch John McEnroe play in barnstorming exhibitions, and you can see similar matches between former stars at some of the grand slams. The New York Yankees famously have Old-Timers’ Day, which has been duplicated by a few other major league baseball teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. And … well, after that, the well of examples runs a bit dry.”

“Despite this debatable company, though, golf is the only sport that takes competition among older players seriously. The PGA Tour Champions, founded in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour, features golfers 50 and older playing a full January-through-November schedule with major championships (five of them!), a money list and playoffs. The European Senior Tour was founded in 1992 and features 21 events (some of them co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour Champions) and a two-tournament championship. Besides the fact that the non-major tournaments are 54 holes rather than 72, and players are mostly allowed to use carts, the format is essentially the same as the “real” tours.”

Full piece.

8. Remembering Gordon Brand, Jr.

Golfweek’s Alistair Tait on the departed all-class Mr. Brand…”This writer can’t believe he’s gone either. The breakfast conversation was one of several I had during the Open Championship, one of too many to mention over the years. My fellow Scot revelled in taking the mickey out of me every chance he got. Not just me, but many others too.”

“Yet while he was one of the most affable and approachable players I dealt with during my career, he didn’t suffer fools gladly. Brandie wasn’t afraid to speak his mind when something was amiss, like the Spanish tournament when he took a popular local pro to task for being, shall we say, a little lax with the rules. Said player was disqualified after Brand reported him, and local galleries booed the Scot for the final two rounds as a result.”

“Was it worth it?” I once asked him.

“Absolutely,” he said. “You’ve got to play the game the way it’s meant to be played, otherwise why play?”

Full piece.

9. WGC ratings slide

Geoff Shackelford…”The schedule in 2020 will stick the new Minnesota stop in the slot after The Open, so maybe this is an aberration. But given the quality of the leaderboard (Brooks Koepka/Rory McIlroy final pairing), the final ratings for the WGC FedEx St. Jude were not good.”

“Paulsen from SportsMediaWatch attempted to compare them to both the old WGC Bridgestone (played in August) and the FedEx St. Jude Classic’s ratings (June). And the new WGC FedEx still fell shy of those events.”

“Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour/WGC-St. Jude Invitational averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.31 million viewers on CBS, down 30% in ratings and 33% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.45M), and down 11% and 13% respectively from 2017 (1.8, 2.66M). The 1.6 rating is the lowest for final round coverage of the event – previously the Bridgestone Invitational – since 2012 (1.3).”

Full piece/a link to the Paulsen piece.

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open

Published

5 hours ago

Jun 3, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX Tour Photographer made the trip from the Memorial Tournament across the country to the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera. Check out links to all the photos below!

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 Memorial Tournament

Published

2 days ago

Jun 1, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site this week at the Memorial Tournament, with both Alistair Cameron and Tour Photographer Greg Moore on the ground in Dublin, Ohio, where a strong field is assembled to pay homage to the Golden Bear.

In addition to WITB galleries, we’ve already been treated to an in-hand look at Tommy Fleetwood’s new TaylorMade Spider putters.

Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

News

Tour Tech Rundown: Heroic Henley

Published

3 days ago

Jun 1, 2026

Ronald Montesano

Around the world, the golf wheel spun this final week in May of 2026. From New Jersey to Austria, with stops in Korea, Texas, and North Carolina (don’t let me route your next trip) the world’s finest put their golf games on display. There were three playoffs, some known commodities and some new talent. It was the sort of week that we hope to have at this point in the seasons. June and July afford double-digit major events, and perhaps, one of this week’s champions will use this success as a springboard to new heights. Time to run it all down, tech style, in this week’s Tour Tech Rundown.

Thanks to WITBHub, Today’s Golfer, GolfWRX, and Inside Tour Golf for initial research into equipment.

PGA Tour @ Charles Schwab Challenge: Heroic Henley denies Cole

Eric Cole did nearly everything that a fellow can do, to secure a first PGA Tour title. He stayed one shot clear of Ryder Cup player Ben Griffin. He kept US Open champion Gary Woodland and wunderkind Michael Brennan two shots distant. He posted 70 on day four to reach twelve under par. And then, Russell Henley revealed his Dr. Strange cloak. Henley made 47 feet of birdie putts on holes 16, 17, and 18, to jump from minus-nine to twelve-deep, and secured a spot in a playoff with Cole. The duo returned to the final tee, and put on a stripe show.

Both golfers found the fairway off the tee, and Henley improved on his regulation play with an approach to four feet. Cole did himself proud, tucking an iron to a dozen feet, but he was unable to convert the putt for three. Henley is one of the best putters on tour, and he proved it once more by draining a putt for a fourth consecutive birdie, and a sixth PGA Tour title. For Eric Cole, that first victory should come, and soon. He has done everything necessary to earn the chalice lift.

Henley’s Suitcase

Driver: Titleist TSi3 at 10 degrees. Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70g 6.5 TX
Metal: Titleist TS3 at 16.5 degrees. Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 80 TX
Hybrid: Titleist TSi2 at 21 degrees. Shaft: Mitsubishi MMT hybrid 100 TX
Iron: Titleist T250 4-iron. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf AMT Tour White X100
Irons: Titleist T100 5-6 irons. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf AMT Tour White X100
Irons: Titleist T100 7-9 irons. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 at 48 and 50 degrees. Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Golf Tour Issue X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 at 54 and 60 degrees. Shaft: rue Temper Dynamic Golf Tour Issue S400
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron T5 Tour Prototype

LPGA @ Shoprite LPGA: Welcome back, Celine!

Soo Bin Joo had her eyes on a maiden LPGA title. She held the lead after two rounds, then hit a red light at the intersection of can-I and how-To. Joo posted plus-two on day three in New Jersey, and dropped to a T4 finish, which was still a career-best for the young Korean golfer. Instead of a new face, a familiar face returned to the top of the podium.

Celine Boutier was the It Girl in 2023. She collected four victories, including a major title at Evian. Boutier reached world number one status, then simply faded into the background. No wins came her way over the next 30 months. On Sunday, she collected LPGA victory number seven, at the same trace as LPGA victory number two.

Day three saw Boutier manage the windswept Seaview Bay course with six birdies and a bogey. She was challenged in the end by Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol, who signed for a 66 of her own. Yubol came up one shot shy of the top ladder rung. Finishing in third place at -7, two back of the winner, was Ireland’s Lauren Walsh.

Celine’s Suitcase

Driver: PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 at 9 degrees. Shaft: Graphite Design AD IZ-5
Hybrid: PXG 0311 Black Ops at 19 and 22 degrees. Shaft: KBS Hybrid Prototype
Hybrid: PXG 0311 Gen5.
Iron: PXG 0311 P Gen 4 5-9 irons
Wedge: PXG 0311 T Gen 4 PW
Wedges: PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy II at 50, 54, 58 degrees
Putter: Bettinardi Studio Stock 3 DASS

DP World Tour @ Austrian Alpine: KK? KK!

Kota Kaneko has a rhythmic name. It has strong vowels and a run of voiceless stops in its crunchy K sounds. On Sunday in Austria, Kaneko put a stop to a challenge from Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia and everyone else, and claimed a first-ever title on the DP World Tour. Gouveia did well to reach 16-under par over four days, but Kaneko held firm, two shots in the clear.

Davis Bryant of the USA also forged a strong challenge for the win. He ended in a tie with Gouveia for second place. Kaneko began and finished his final round in a bit of a malaise, but he caught fire midway through. Birdies at 10, 12, and 13 provided the necessary cushion to cruise to the finish line without breaking a serious sweat.

Kaneko’s Suitcase

Driver: Ping Max G440
Metals: TaylorMade Qi4D at 15, 16.5, 21, and 24 degrees
Irons: TaylorMade P760 5 and 6 irons
Irons: TaylorMade P7TW 7-9 irons
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design at 46, 52, 56, and 60 degrees
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Arm Lock #7

Korn Ferry Tour @ UNC Health Championship: Improbably Alvaro

Alvaro Ortiz may have had a bit of scare on the outward nine on Sunday, but he came through in clutch fashion in the end. Ortiz began the day bogey-double, and added another double bogey at the 11th hole. He was mired in a downward trend, spiraling away from the top of the leader’s board. Ortiz found hope at the 14th, where his first birdie of the day tumbled home. Inspired, he closed with birdies and 17 and 18 to catch Ross Steelman at 10-under par, and the duo returned to the 18th deck for overtime.

The extra session concluded in brief time. Ortiz, buoyed by his newly-retrieved confidence, hit the fairway with driver, then approached to six feet and drained the putt. Gobsmacked, Steelman could do little more than smile and applaud, as his run at the top came to a close. The victory was the first for Ortiz on the KFT, and will implant him squarely in the chase for a PGA Tour promotion.

Alvaro’s Suitcase

Driver: Ping G430 MAX driver at 9 degrees loft
Metal: Ping G430 MAX 3W
Iron: Ping iDi Driving Iron
Irons: Ping Blueprint S irons
Wedges
Putter: Scottsdale TR Piper C

A party on the green!

Alvaro’s time comes in Raleigh with his first win @UNCHealthChamp ? pic.twitter.com/2dmtZdbSzk

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) May 31, 2026

LIV @ Korea: Me llamo Joaquin

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann had been away from the LIV winner’s circle throughout all of 2026. This week in Korea, he reminded us that he is still a force to consider. Niemann chased down Taylor Gooch over the closing holes at Asiad Country Club, then claimed victory with a hole-one birdie in extra time. Bryson DeChambeau claimed solo third, one shot in arrears at minus-eleven. Dustin Johnson finished on fourth, one putt farther back.

Niemann’s Suitcase