Betting: PGA Championship Preview
Pamela Maldonado breaks down her top picks for the 2022 PGA Championship from Southern Hills Country Club on Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Video Transcript
- And the PGA heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma for its second major, the PGA Championship and I'm pretty excited. For one, it's a bit of an unfamiliar course, and two, there's so many great players that are coming into this with some pretty great form. The course, Southern Hills Country club, a par 70, over 7,500 yards. There's only two par 5's and both of which clocked in at over 630 yards long. On this course you have undulated fairways lined with pretty thick rough, plenty of bunkers creek side beds that could come into play, short grass instead of rough near the edges of the greens and small sloped firm bent grass greens. It should be pretty difficult and it should be pretty fun.
Looking at the odds boards you have Scottie Scheffler, world number one, as the plus 1,200 favorite to win this tournament followed by Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth rounding out the top five. Looking at the stats that I used for my research there's no course history, last time they played here was back in 2007, the course has done a complete overhaul so it's not the same. However, there was some comparison to this being very similar to that of Augusta, so I used Augusta as a reference. I'm looking at iron play around the green and bent grass putting. There's two players in the field that I like to contend to win this event starting first with Rory McIlroy, definitely one of the shorter odds up on the board but it is warranted.
Minus 110 for a top 20, 16 to 1 for a win. Looking at the last 28 rounds in the field, McIlroy is third in strokes gained off the tee and third in strokes gained around the green, he's also top five in strokes gained putting on grass surfaces in the last two seasons. In fact, McIlroy has three TOUR wins on bent grass with this last one coming in the 2021, the CJ cup. Looking at the 2022 season McIlroy has done pretty well himself and is probably a little bit under the radar even, he's only played in six events and he has four top 20 finishes, three top tens and back to back top fives including at the Masters and the Wells Fargo Championship, gaining eight strokes ball striking 11 and 14 strokes total.
McIlroy definitely has the combination play that I'm looking forward to contend in this event, he has good grass history, good Masters history, everything is kind of looking towards his way. The second player I like to contend to win, Collin Morikawa. Plus 110 for a top 20, 22 to 1 for a win. Morikawa is top 10 in strokes gained tee to green and in par for scoring, which could come into play because it is a par 70. He's also top 20 in strokes gained total and top 20 in par 5 scoring, which could matter because there's only two par 5's. Now Morikawa has a driving distance and the accuracy, where he tends to lack is scrambling but when his irons are on he wins, as he has proven, because he has two majors, under his belt both a 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 the open.
He does really well on bent grass greens, really long courses and has improved on his Masters finish each year. This season he may be under the radar and I say that because we haven't really seen him play solo since the RBC in mid-april, but he does have three top five finishes at the Sentry, at Genesis and at the Masters. So the two players I like to contend to win the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa. And since I like either to win both make for solid top 20 and top 10 options. You can find odds for both players and more at the Yahoo Sportsbook. Bet $10 and win $200 in free bets by signing up at BetMGM.com/YahooVIP. New customers only, must be 21 or older in terms do apply.