2024 PGA Championship Odds: Rory McIlroy The Popular Pick Among Bettors For Valhalla
2024 PGA Championship Odds: Rory McIlroy The Popular Pick Among Bettors For Valhalla
The 2024 PGA Championship will begin this week at Valhalla Golf Club located outside of Louisville, Kentucky. It's the second major of the PGA Tour season and should provide plenty of challenges for the field to conquer.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is back competing in this major event following the birth of his first child. Scheffler has been on fire this spring, winning four of his past five events played, while recording a top-ten finish in nine of ten events.
Rory McIlroy's comeback over Xander Schauffele on Sunday at Quail Hollow Club marked the fourth time he's won the Wells Fargo Championship. This comes on the heels of his team victory with Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic, so McIlroy is undoubtedly carrying a lot of momentum and confidence into Valhalla.
Finally, Brooks Koepka, who didn't fare well during the first major at Augusta National, is set to tee off and defend his 2023 title win. The LIV golfer won at Oak Hills, a different venue than Valhalla, but he's won the PGA Championship three times since 2018, so expect Koepka to come out firing early during Thursday's opening round.
PGA handicapper Matt MacKay is back to share his latest betting insights, plus some of the latest betting data on the most popular golfers, to determine how to wager the outright winner market during the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS
| GOLFER | OUTRIGHT WINNER ODDS |
|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | +400 |
| Rory McIlroy | +700 |
| Brooks Koepka | +1400 |
| Xander Schauffele | +1400 |
| Ludvig Åberg | +1600 |
| Jon Rahm | +1600 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | +2200 |
| Collin Morikawa | +2800 |
| Max Homa | +3000 |
| Joaquin Niemann | +3300 |
| Cameron Smith | +3500 |
Valhalla has its challenges but the past winning scorecards at this major event, won by two of the PGA Tour's biggest stars, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, yielded 18-under-par and 16-under-par.
Players will need to bring their long game off-the-tee, as well as stay sharp on their approach shots to find the greens in regulation. Numerous water hazards in the form of two different creeks exist, plus over 60 bunkers inconveniently placed along fairways and guarding the 5,000 square foot greens.
Outside of Scheffler, McIlroy, and Koepka, who are all massive favorites in the current outright winner betting market, there are several other interesting names to target before Round 1 tees off. Collin Morikawa is 28-1 and played very well at Augusta National. He's also won the PGA Championship back in 2020 at TPC Harding Park.
Jason Day and Justin Thomas are also some of the most recent PGA Championship winners, with the Aussie recording an outright win at Whistling Straits in 2015, while Thomas wound up with an outright win at Quail Hollow in 2017.
A couple of longshot golfers I'd recommend sprinkling a 0.10 unit wager on include Taylor Pendrith, Nicolai Højgaard, Keith Mitchell, and Stephen Jaeger, who are all available between 150-1 and 170-1 in outright winner betting markets.
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP BETTING DATA
| GOLFER | PERCENTAGE OF BETS |
|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy | 12.41% |
| Scottie Scheffler | 7.13% |
| Brooks Koepka | 6.49% |
| Max Homa | 4.83% |
| Ludvig Åberg | 4.03% |
RORY MCILROY (12.41%)
Rory McIlroy commands the biggest portion of the betting handle on the 2024 PGA Championship. Whether it's due to winning here in 2014, the last time Valhalla hosted the PGA Championship, or McIlroy winning at the Zurich Classic and Wells Fargo Championship in each of his last two events played, bettors are bullish on Northern Ireland's star golfer.
McIlroy's last major win came at Valhalla back in 2014. We know he's strong off-the-tee, but if he can keep his approach shots and putter tuned up like we've seen lately, there's a lot of reason to be confident investing in McIlroy as the second betting favorite at +700 odds.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (7.13%)
Despite his feverish frenzy on the PGA Tour, winning four of his last five events outright, including The Masters, Scottie Scheffler is getting barely over seven percent of the betting handle at the 2024 PGA Championship. Scheffler hasn't competed in a couple of weeks due to the birth of his first child, following an outright win at Harbour Town during the RBC Heritage.
Last year, Scheffler wound up recording a T2 finish at Oak Hill with a final scorecard of 7-under-par. He missed the cut in 2022 at Southern Hills but previously wound up with a T8 finish and T4 finish in 2021 and 2020. Ranked first in strokes gained off-the-tee, on approach, tee-to-green, and around the green, the putter is the only volatile variable in this equation.
Scheffler is the outright betting favorite by oddsmakers at +400 odds, followed by McIlroy at +700.
BROOKS KOEPKA (6.49%)
Brooks Koepka looks to add his fourth PGA Championship major under his belt this week at Valhalla. Koepka previously went T14 at Valhalla in 2014, starting even par in the first two rounds before finishing 9-under-par across his final two rounds.
A lackluster showing at The Masters shouldn't keep us from betting on Koepka this week. He's getting roughly 6.5 percent of the betting handle and for good reason. The LIV golfer can absolutely stripe it off the tee with his driver, while he's shown a propensity to be a great putter at times.
Approach shots will dictate whether or not Koepka can defend his 2023 title at Oak Hills. We haven't seen a back-to-back PGA Championship winner since Koepka achieved this feat in 2018 and 2019 at Bellrive and Bethpage Black, so he's certainly up for the challenge.
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GOLF ODDS
Matt is an avid writer, editor, and researcher. He enjoys analyzing the game within the game which is fantasy sports and sports betting. Music is another constant in his daily life. Matt loves spending time with his wife and three pets. He likes to read, listen to podcasts, and is constantly motivated to create the most accurate and engaging content in the sports betting industry.