News

Back to back: Tech Sunday at the Masters

Published

1 month ago

Apr 13, 2026

So if it keeps on rainin’, levee’s gonna break
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s gonna break
When the levee breaks, have no place to stay

Led Zeppelin’s levee broke last year for Rory McIlroy. If he hadn’t won the Masters in 2025, he probably would not have won in 2026. McIlroy always knew how to win the green jacket, but knowing and doing are different altogether. As Bobby Jones is attributed to have said, there is golf and there is tournament golf, and the two bear little resemblance. With his one-shot triumph over Scottie Scheffler, Rory is now halfway (or three-quarters way) to a second career grand slam.

McIlroy began the day in a dead heat with Cameron Young, recent winner of The Players Championship. Young struggled to find his authentic game on Sunday, posting two birdies and three bogeys for 73 and a tie for third, two back of the champion. Charging hard on Sunday was Scheffler, who made up four shots in a bogey-free 68, and finished solo second at -11. Tied with Young for third were Russell Henley, Tyrrell Hatton, and two-time runner-up Justin Rose.

Rose will sleep worst tonight. The Englishman reached 12-under par by the ninth green, but bogeys at eleven and twelve dropped him back to minus-ten. Like Young, Rose could not buy a birdie on the second nine and was once again gutted by the course and tournament that he dearly loves.

How did Rory McIlroy survive a gut-check, first nine, then calmly build his lead on the second nine? Let’s take a look at five shots that ironed the wrinkles from his game and brought him once more to victory. Unlike Jack Nicklaus, who had to slip the jacket on his own shoulders, Rory benefitted from the same treatment as Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, the last two winners in consecutive years. This time around, chairman Fred Ridley did the honors.

Thanks to Todays Golfer and Inside Tour Golf for original equipment reporting, and to the Augusta National Golf Club/Masters Tournament for video links.

Shot #1: Second shot at the fourth hole

McIlroy addressed the ball on the tee of the par-three fourth, fresh off his first birdie of the day, and promptly decelerated on a long iron. The ball sailed left, shortsiding the defending champion, and leaving a deep bunker between his ball and the hole. McIlroy stepped up and zip-flopped his wedge to five feet. Never mind that he took three putts to get the ball in the hole. McIlroy could easily have dumped the wedge in the bunker, or thinned it across the green, but he did neither. Regardless of the double-bogey outcome, McIlroy had to take heart from his recovery pitch.

Critical Club: 60-degree TaylorMade MG5

Shot #2: Tee shot at the seventh hole

Rory McIlroy absolutely crushed … hold on, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Rory McIlroy made bogey at the sixth hole, the second par-three on the first nine. His heroic tee ball landed pin high right and bounded over the green. He failed to get up and down, and dropped back to minus-nine. The wheels were spinning and the train was wobbling. Then, Rory McIlroy absolutely crushed his drive on the par-four seventh, leaving 100 yards to the hole. His wedge approach landed long, then eased down the slope to six feet, where he converted for his first birdie since hole three. McIlroy would follow up with another birdie at eight and return to even par for the day. Without that confident swing off the tee, who knows where the round might have routed.

Critical Club: TaylorMade Qi4D driver, fitted with a Fujikura Ventus Black 60g X-Stiff shaft.

Shot #3: First shot at the twelfth hole

Remember for a moment, if you will, that Rory McIlroy had made a mess of the first two, short holes on Sunday. Forget that four and six demand long irons, while number twelve asks but a mere pitch to its putting surface. The Eddy Effect, the swirls of winds down in the hollow of Raes Creek, has rerouted many a mere pitch into the watery depths that front the green. McIlroy stepped to the tee and carved a nine-iron tee shot over the creek, just past the front bunker, seven feet from the hole. His putt for two was center cut, and he was back in the lead.

Critical Club: TaylorMade Rors Proto 9-iron (similar to the P7MB model) carrying a True Temper Project X Rifle 7.0 shaft.

Shot #4: Third shot at the thirteenth hole

After smoking a driver to a right-side, hanging, fairway lie, McIlroy went for the green in two on the first par-five hole of the second nine. His club slump told the story: this one was headed left. McIlroy’s third was from a declivity, long and left. Eschewing a pitch shot, McIlroy putted up the slope and across the green. His speed was perfect, and the ball broke slightly right, leaving him four or five feet for birdie. He converted, the putter was officially back in his good graces, and McIlroy reached two-under on the day.

Critical Club: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3 putter

Shot #5: Pick one

McIlroy’s drives at fifteen and eighteen barely stayed on the planet, but his recovery shots found daylight. His wedge third at fifteen barely cleared the water, but clear the water it did. His tee shot on sixteen ended in a familiar (cough, Tiger, cough) spot long and left. Given the historic knowledge and a better lie than the originator had, McIlroy putted to the fall line, and watched his ball slide to within inches of the hole for par. At this juncture, he was full-on palimpsest, re-creating the canvas that had depicted doom and frustration on previous major and Masters occasions. On seventeen, from the middle of the fairway, his approach drifted right, yet he nearly pitched in for the second time this week. McIlroy did very little well over the closing four holes, but his Houdini act lasted long enough for him to claim victory. As will always be said, it’s never the how, but rather, the how many.

Critical Club: The six inches between his ears.

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

With the second major of 2026 now behind us, the PGA Tour arrives in Texas for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

GolfWRX Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, is on site at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, and he’s already captured several WITBs and a look at some new colorways of just-spotted L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i putters.

Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

News

How much each player won at the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

7 days ago

May 18, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Aaron Rai upset the odds to win his first major championship on Sunday at Aronimink, firing a final round of 5-under par to see off his competitors and claim the winner’s check for $3,690,000.

Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley were the best of the chasing pack, with both men sharing runner-up spot which was good enough for each to receive a check for $1,804,000.

With a total prize purse of $20.5 million up for grabs, here’s a look at how much each player won at the 2026 PGA Championship.

Players who missed the PGA Championship cut each received $4,300 each.

1: Aaron Rai, $3,690,000

T2 : Jon Rahm, $1,804,000

T2 : Alex Smalley, $1,804,000

T4: Justin Thomas, $843,866

T4: Ludvig Aberg, $843,866

T4: Matti Schmid, $843,866

T7: Cameron Smith, $637,050

T7: Rory McIlroy, $637,050

T7: Xander Schauffele, $637,050

T10: Kurt Kitayama, $496,707

T10: Chris Gotterup, $496,707

T10: Justin Rose, $496,707

T10: Patrick Reed, $496,707

T14: Matt Fitzpatrick, $364,762

T14: Scottie Scheffler, $364,762

T14: Max Greyserman, $364,762

T14: Ben Griffin, $364,762

T18: Maverick McNealy, $229,128

T18: Jordan Spieth, $229,128

T18: Stephan Jaeger, $229,128

T18: Padraigh Harrington, $229,128

T18: David Puig, $229,128

T18: Harris English, $229,128

T18: Min Woo Lee, $229,128

T18: Joaquin Niemann, $229,128

T26: Nick Taylor, $125,523

T26: Alex Noren, $125,523

T26: Cameron Young, $125,523

T26: Andrew Novak, $125,523

T-26: Daniel Hiller, $125,523

T26: Tom Hoge, $125,523

T26: Sam Burns, $125,523

T26: Hideki Matsuyama, $125,523

T26: Bud Cauley, $125,523

T35: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, $78,805

T35: Patrick Cantlay, $78,805

T35: Ryo Hisatsune, $78,805

T35: Daniel Berger, $78,805

T35: Ryan Fox, $78,805

T35: Haotong Li, $78,805

T35: Aldrich Potgieter, $78,805

T35: Si Woo Kim, $78,805

T35: Martin Kaymer, $78,805

T44: Chris Kirk, $53,743

T44: Matt Wallace, $53,743

T44: Shane Lowry, $53,743

T44: Jhonattan Vegas, $53,743

T44: Denny McCarthy, $53,743

T44: Chandler Blachet, $53,743

T44: Taylor Pendrith, $53,743

T44: Dustin Johnson, $53,743

T44: Nicolai Hojgaard, $53,743

T44: Michael Kim, $53,743

T44: Kristoffer Reitan, $53,743

T55: Collin Morikawa, $34,186

T55: Corey Conners, $34,186

T55: Andrew Putnam, $34,186

T55: Brooks Koepka, $34,186

T55: Mikael Lindberg, $34,186

T60: Sami Valimaki, $29,218

T60: Sahith Theegala, $29,218

T60: Rico Hoey, $29,218

T60: Rickie Fowler, $29,218

T60: Brian Harman, $29,218

T65: Casey Jarvis, $26,900

T65: Jason Day, $26,900

T65: Rasmus Hojgaard, $26,900

T65: Keith Mitchell, $26,900

T65: Sam Stevens, $26,900

T70: Luke Donald, $25,070

T70: Ryan Gerard, $25,070

T70: John Parry, $25,070

T70: William Mouw, $25,070

T70: Kazuki Higa, $25,070

T75: Elvis Smylie, $24,158

T75: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, $24,158

T75: Alex Fitzpatrick, $24,158

T75: Daniel Brown, $24,158

79: John Keefer, $23,970

80: Ben Kern, $23,930

81: Michael Brennan, $23,910

82: Brian Campebll, $23,900

News

Pro’s must-see putter grip at the PGA Championship

Published

1 week ago

May 17, 2026

Andrew Von Lossow

When it comes to the PGA Championship, we get some first-timers. With that, there are great stories and experiences about the players that arrive. This week has been the first trip to the PGA Championship for Bryce Fisher. Bryce plays out of Arrowhead Golf Club in Molalla, Oregon, and qualified for this week’s event through the PGA Professional Championship at Bandon Dunes, where he finished in a tie for 10th, battling the wind and links conditions. Certainly, he trusted his clubs when it came to the event at Bandon, especially when it came to holing the final putt. Some of the GolfWRXers had a grip on things from GolfWRX PGA Tour Photographer Greg Moore’s photos this week of Fisher’s golf bag.

When it comes to Bryce’s bag, we see a Titleist GT3 driver with a Graphite Design Tour AD VF-7 shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align grip. For fairway woods, Titleist GT2 three and GT3 five woods, the hybrid is a GT2 21 degree with a Graphite Design Tour AD VF-hybrid 95-X.

Keep working with me here.

Titleist T100 irons, 5 through pitching wedge, Vokey wedges, all black setup with custom hand stamping on the wedges with black Dynamic Gold S400 shafts. Very sleek! All from the years 2024 and 2025.

We get to the putter, an Odyssey White Hot XG Marxman. A putter that was released in 2007! With a putter in play from 2007, my radar is up for some nicely played golf in this period.

Bryce is no stranger to playing golf at a high level. He played at Scottsdale Community College, where he was a part of two national championship teams. He then finished his college career at Oregon State University from 2001 to 2004. After college, he played events on the Gateway Tour, Spanos Tour, and the Nationwide Tour, aka the Korn Ferry Tour today. Around 2006 he wrapped up golf to raise a family and in 2015 began to get back to tournament golf, fast forward to today, this week he is playing in the PGA Championship at 46 years old.

Piecing together this timeline, if Bryce got this putter brand new, this is right after the Tour days. Now I do realize this could have been a gift or anything else, as we know, acquiring putters is a world of its own.

Then it gets better. Take a look at this grip, doesn’t get much more game-used than this. The tennis wrap was layered up so much it would make Scott Verplank proud. It is truly incredible that the original grip is buried under the wraps with the butt end of the grip worn down to the steel!

This putter alone got some good reactions on the GolfWRX Forum. “MikuTheGolfer” states ‘I got sick looking at that putter grip. “Cmb71 says, “I feel like that putter grip requires surgical gloves.”

These are reactions of emotion, this to me shows that the putter and especially the grip are a work of art. Art evokes emotion as well.

Layers of tennis wrap, a grip worn through to the shaft. If the putter has been in the bag off and on since 2007, Fisher has literally made miles of putts with it. The thing I like about the whole setup is that we have all-new clubs in the bag, and the tried-and-true putter that has seen it all and been there for everything. How fitting to be at the PGA Championship this week.