Close-up photographs of the golf equipment star players are using at the 2023 PGA Championship.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The best golfers in the world have returned to Rochester’s Oak Hill Country Club for the first time in a decade to play the 2023 PGA Championship. The venerable Donald Ross course has undergone an extensive renovation and hundreds of trees have been removed from the property since the tournament was here 10 years ago, but it promises to push the players, and their equipment, to the limit. With thick rough, narrow fairways and tricky greens, Oak Hill does not surrender birdies easily.
Take a close-up look at the golf equipment star players like Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka are using this week at Oak Hill.
“It sucks to not be able to prepare the way I want to, but having mental tiredness out there won’t do me any good.”
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Jason Day grew up idolizing Tiger Woods, later became competitors and friends, and in recent years as they both battled a myriad of injuries they pushed each other to mount comebacks. Day, who won the 2015 PGA Championship and spent a year at world No. 1 before tumbling to No. 175 in October, ended a five-year victory drought on Sunday at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.
Among those to text him? None other than Tiger.
“I can’t say what he said because a lot of it was like F-words in it,” Day said during his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday ahead of the 105th PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
Day, 35, smiled wide amid laughter but with each passing answer to a question he grew more reflective on what hoisting his 13th PGA Tour title meant to him.
“It’s more about the actual journey and working towards and all the hours that you get into practicing behind the scenes and working on your body and all that stuff. They’re the moments that I live for the most, and then the wins kind of get in the way,” he said.
Day’s career was derailed primarily by injury, most notably to his back and it forced him to change his swing.
“It almost feels like you’re handcuffed when you do have an injury, and you’re playing against the best players in the world trying to compete and win,” he said. “That can be frustrating, disappointing, and it can almost be a feeling of depression sometimes just because of the amount of work that you’re putting in.”
As his back worsened and his play deteriorated, Day considered calling it quits. “I never told my wife that, but I was OK with it, just because it was a very stressful part of my life,” he said. “Ellie, she never gave up on me trying to get back to the winner’s circle again. She just always was pushing me to try and get better.”
Jason Day poses with the winner’s trophy during the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
A total of 1,835 days elapsed between wins, going from being, as he put it, “the best in the world to you can’t bust an egg with a hammer.” Through nothing more than hard work, Day has emerged as a winner again.
“Delayed gratification is probably the best feeling of all time,” he said. “Instant gratification is great, but delayed gratification is the best.”
Now, he is setting his sights on bigger things. He’d like to win another major and return to world No. 1. On the eve of the PGA Championship, Day noted that winning on Sunday has impacted his preparation for this week’s major and he plans to play Oak Hill, where he finished T-8 in 2013, the last time a major was played here, without having played a practice round. He’s made this choice to save his energy.
“It sucks to not be able to prepare the way I want to, but having mental tiredness out there won’t do me any good,” he said.
It’s an unusual way of preparing for his 14th start at the PGA and one of the biggest weeks of the year.
“It would have freaked me out. I would have had guilt like just washing over me that I hadn’t prepared the way I needed to prepare,” said CBS’s Trevor Immelman, a former Masters champion, who played here in 2003. “Jason knows his game is in a great spot so I’m going to trust him on that call.”
Day has climbed to No. 20 in the world and his validating win has his confidence soaring. Can he start collecting trophies in bunches again as he did during his prime? Day is trying to temper expectations and focus on the journey back to No. 1 and his pursuit of the top of the mountain.
“You definitely learn a lot about yourself through the lows more so than the highs,” he said. “I learned that I can handle the pressure still and focus, and I’ve still got the game to win.”
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It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, just ask Jason Day.
It pays to play well on the PGA Tour, just ask this week’s winner, Jason Day.
For the first time in five years, Day is a winner. His last victory came at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. Sunday was the perfect day for the Aussie to return to the winner’s circle. His wife, Ellie, is pregnant with the couple’s fifth child. A pretty great gift for Mother’s Day.
Day fired a final-round 9-under 62 to get the job done. He won by one shot over Si Woo Kim and Austin Eckroat.
C.T Pan finished solo fourth while Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton and Zecheng “Marty” Dou tied for fifth.
Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.
Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.
It has been five years since Jason Day won on the PGA Tour, but his winless drought is over.
MCKINNEY, Texas — Rain pelted Jason Day as he lined up his approach shot from the fairway.
With a wedge in hand, he fired at the back right pin on the par-5 18th hole at TPC Craig Ranch. His ball landed just right of the flag, took one small hop and then spun back to two feet.
It has been five years since Jason Day won on the PGA Tour, but his winless drought is over. Day was phenomenal Sunday at the AT&T Byron Nelson, carding a 9-under 62 to win by one shot at 23 under in the same tournament he picked up his first career win 13 years ago.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Day said. “I came into the week after missing last week’s cut, and I was kind of fed up with having to go over like a lot of technical thoughts with my swing. So I just decided I’m just going to go out and just try and play some golf.”
For Day, it’s his 13th PGA Tour victory and first since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.
Si Woo Kim, who played with Day in the penultimate pairing, birdied the 18th, as well, to momentarily tie the Aussie at 22 under, but Day tapped in his approach in a steady downpour before walking off the green and embracing his family.
“I was very close to calling it quits,” Day said of his thoughts during his struggles. “I never told my wife that, but I was OK with it just because it was a very stressful part of my life.
“Ellie (Jason’s wife), she never gave up on me trying to get back to the winner’s circle again. She just always was pushing me to try and get better.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It feels strange to be sitting here. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
It rained off and on throughout the day, but a downpour started once Day’s group reached the 18th tee. There were even claps of thunder as the final group approached the 18th green.
Day, 35, started his round with a pair of pars before three straight birdies on Nos. 3-5. He then birdied the ninth to turn in 4-under 32.
A birdie on 10 moved him to 19 under and into a six-way tie for the lead. But it was his chip-in birdie from the fringe on 12 that gave him the solo lead and put him in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.
“A couple years ago with all the stress — the stuff that was going on personally, it’s just strange that all that stuff kind of adds up and it’s nice to be able to — feeling like I’m on the other side of that,” Day said.
Austin Eckroat, one of the three 54-hole leaders, had an eagle putt on the final hole to tie Day, but he left it short. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old Tour rookie made the birdie to finish at 22 under and closed with a bogey-free 6-under 65 for his best finish on Tour. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week.
“I felt great all day,” Eckroat said. “Slept good last night, really surprised myself with how I felt. When I came out and birdied the first hole, it really settled the nerves a little bit. Everything was solid, and I really felt like I played well enough to win.
“It’s just hard to beat a guy that goes out and shoots 9 under. A lot of positives to build off of.”
Marty Dou and Ryan Palmer, the other co-leaders, each shot 3-under 68 to finish at 19 under and T-7.
C.T. Pan matched Day with a 62, which including a pair of eagles on the back nine. It also was the lowest round of his PGA Tour career by two shots.
Dallas native Scottie Scheffler, who would’ve moved to No. 1 in the world with a victory, shot a bogey-free 6-under 65 on Sunday, but he finished T-5 at 20 under.
Now, Day heads to Rochester, New York, site of the 105th PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Day won the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits.
“I feel that my game is starting to round into some really good form,” said Day.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jason Day was surging down Magnolia Lane ahead of the 2023 Masters.
The Aussie had finished inside the top 20 in all seven of his starts in the new year, including a fifth place showing at the WM Phoenix Open and T-5 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Day was solo second late during the second round at Augusta National and was in position to finish inside the top 12 and punch his ticket for 2024 over the weekend.
Then vertigo hit on Sunday.
“We had to finish our third round Sunday morning and then I was sitting in the caddie hut and that’s when I got vertigo,” said Day, who first struggled with the issue at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. “It really kicked my butt at Augusta. That was like kind of the time where I had to take a step back.”
The 35-year-old made four double bogeys over a five-hole stretch to shoot an 8-over 80 and finish T-39. He then was forced to pull out of the RBC Heritage to run some tests, which led to a three-week break.
“I’ve been playing a lot better so there’s obviously more stress and when you have more stress, your immune system can get compromised and for me it was just unfortunate that happened in the last round,” Day explained on Wednesday ahead of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. “It’s never really the mental side or the actual me going out there and trying to work harder that stops me from golf, it’s typically my body saying, ‘No, you can’t do that anymore.’”
Refreshed with a new diet and some much-needed rest, the 2018 Wells Fargo champion is back in action and making his seventh career start at the event, which has been elevated to one of the Tour’s 14 designated events for the season and offers a $20 million purse, with $3.6 million going to the winner.
“I think a lot of the decisions we’ve made, the Tour and the policy board has made over the last year, there obviously has been a reaction to what (LIV Golf) has brought to the table. To be honest, I think everyone’s better for it. I mean, we’re playing for more money on both sides,” said Day of the schedule changes. “What’s more sustainable, I’m not sure, but I’m looking at the picture right now and it feels pretty good. I’m just trying to get back to winning at the end of the day and leave the decision making to (Rory McIlroy) and those guys.”
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It’s tough to believe that Day’s last win came five years ago at the Wells Faro Championship, especially since he won 10 times between the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open and the 2018 event here at Quail Hollow – including the 2015 PGA Championship and 2016 Players Championship – and rose to world No. 1.
“I need to get back into the winner’s circle, I know that. I feel that my game is starting to round into some really good form where I know that I can win more consistently, it’s just a matter of putting myself into contention a little bit more,” said Day. “Not too worried about it too much. To be honest, I’ve got past the point of like thinking about winning and more of the point of just trying to go through the correct process every single day and then at some point it’s going to yield more confidence and better play.”
“When that happens, it’s going to happen a lot, which would be nice.”
Day has been a horse for this beast of a course but was left off Trevor Immelman’s International squad for the 2022 Presidents Cup held last fall at Quail Hollow. A four-time member of the worldwide All-Stars, Day didn’t watch the event, and was happy he didn’t get the call from the captain.
“I was just trying to gain more confidence in myself and my game, just trying to build my game back up. Like I was kind of glad that I didn’t get the call from (Immelman) because my game was not in a position to be put on stage, a large stage like the Presidents Cup,” said Day. “There would have been a lot of holes exposed and I feel like I’m better off now for it.”
We’re less than 24 hours away from the start of round one at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship.
Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking, have decided to take this week off (all players are permitted to skip one designated event this season).
Max Homa enters the week as the defending champion, although his win came at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm after the venue changed to accommodate the 2022 Presidents Cup being staged at Quail Hollow later in the year. Rory McIlroy, a three-time winner of this event, is the last player to win in Charlotte.
If you’re looking for a fantasy lineup to use this week, you’re in luck. Here’s one of our favorite rosters for the Wells Fargo Championship.
Which prop or position play are you adding to your card?
The biggest stars on the PGA Tour have made their way to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. The top two players in the world, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, have decided to take this week off.
Max Homa returns as the defending champion, although he won at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm after the event was moved to accommodate the Presidents Cup being held at QHC later in the year.
Rory McIlroy, who is making his first start since missing the cut at the Masters, is the last player to win at Quail Hollow. McIlroy has won this event three times, including in 2012 for his first win on Tour.
If you’re looking for a few plays to add to your card for the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship, here are five of our favorite prop bets and position plays.
The PGA Tour is back in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. The 2022 edition was forced to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm due to the staging of the Presidents Cup at QHC later in the year.
Max Homa took home the trophy in Maryland last season, however, Rory McIlroy is the latest winner at Quail Hollow.
McIlroy is making is first start on Tour since missing the weekend at Augusta National nearly a month ago.
World Nos. 1 and 2, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, are taking the week off. Every player is allowed to miss one designated event this season, and they’ve decided to skip the North Carolina stop.
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Golf course
Quail Hollow Club | 7,538 yards | Par 71
Quail Hollow Club looking down the 16th fairway during the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament. (Photo: Jim Dedmon/USA TODAY Sports)
After months of build-up, after months of anticipation, the opening round of the 2023 Masters is less than 24 hours away. The gates of Magnolia Lane are open, and the best players in the world have migrated to Augusta, Georgia, where they’ll battle for the most coveted prize in all of golf: the green jacket.
World No. 1 and defending champion at Augusta National Golf Club, Scottie Scheffler, is the betting favorite at +650. Rory McIlroy is +750 while third-ranked Jon Rahm is next in line at +850.
One of the best parts of Masters week is the lengthy list of prop bets available at most sportsbooks, including DraftKings.
Let’s go over some of our favorites and cover why they would make great additions to your betting card.
