The first major on the 2022 PGA Tour was won by Scottie Scheffler. He earned his first green jacket via a Masters win that was virtually wire-to-wire. Can he repeat his success at the tour’s next major, the 2022 PGA Championship? That won’t be easy.
The PGA Championship features a stacked field of golfers that will compete at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, will have to face off against the rest of the world’s top-10 golfers, a group that is highlighted by Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Any of the top golfers in the field could win this year’s major. About the only thing that fans know for certain is that we won’t have a repeat champion, as Phil Mickelson won’t be participating in the event amid an ongoing feud with the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods, however, will be in the field, and he will look to build upon his relative success in the Masters six weeks ago.
Southern Hills is a rather long course. It plays at 7,556 yards after its re-design in 2018 and plays to a par of 70. Being a big hitter will help on this course, but having a great approach game will be the key to winning the Wanamaker trophy.
Here’s everything you need to know to bet on the 2022 PGA Championship, including the latest tournament odds and best bets for the event.
MORE: Why Phil Mickelson will not defend his PGA Championship title
PGA Championship odds 2022
Jon Rahm (+1100) is currently the favorite to win the PGA Championship, according to odds from DraftKings Sportsbook. He was originally co-favored to win the event along with Scottie Scheffler (+1200) and Justin Thomas (+1200), but Rahm has emerged as the favorite this year.
Rahm is fresh off a win at the Mexico Open and has logged a top-13 finish in three of his last four appearances at the PGA Championship. His highest finish was a T-4 in 2018. Scheffler is playing the best golf of his career and earned his first major win at the Masters in April. He has finished top 10 in each of his last PGA Championship appearances.
As for Thomas, he has had six top-10 finishes in competitions since January. He won the PGA Championship in 2017 and tied for sixth in the event in 2018. However, since then, his best finish is a T-37 in 2020, so he will be looking for a bounce-back performance this year.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods (+6500) ranks lower than usual among the field as he looks to return to form in his second event back from a 2021 car crash that left him with severe injuries. Phil Mickelson is not in the field for the first time since 1992.
Below are the odds for the top golfers in this year’s PGA Championship. Only competitors with 100-1 or better odds are listed.
| Golfer | Odds to win |
| Jon Rahm | +1100 |
| Scottie Scheffler | +1200 |
| Justin Thomas | +1200 |
| Rory McIlroy | +1600 |
| Collin Morikawa | +1600 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +1600 |
| Jordan Spieth | +1800 |
| Cameron Smith | +2500 |
| Dustin Johnson | +2500 |
| Viktor Hovland | +2500 |
| Xander Schauffele | +2800 |
| Shane Lowry | +2800 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +2800 |
| Will Zalatoris | +3500 |
| Daniel Berger | +4500 |
| Corey Conners | +4500 |
| Brooks Koepka | +4500 |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | +4500 |
| Joaquin Niemann | +4500 |
| Billy Horschel | +5000 |
| Sam Burns | +5000 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | +6000 |
| Tyrell Hatton | +6000 |
| Keegan Bradley | +6500 |
| Tiger Woods | +6500 |
| Russell Henley | +6500 |
| Adam Scott | +6500 |
| Tony Finau | +8000 |
| Jason Day | +8000 |
| Jason Kokrak | +8000 |
| Cameron Young | +8000 |
| Max Homa | +8000 |
| Matt Kuchar | +8000 |
| Seamus Power | +9000 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | +10000 |
MORE: Four NFL QBs set to participate in “The Match” 2022
PGA Championship course breakdown: Southern Hills Country Club
The PGA Championship will be played at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. The course is a rather long one at 7,556 yards and plays to a par of 70.
As such, it will be important to trust some of the bigger hitters in the field, especially considering that the two Par-5 holes are both 630 yards or longer. That will make strokes gained off the tee (SG:OTT) one of the most important metrics for evaluating this field.
Strokes gained approaching the green (SG:APR) will also be important for this major, as will one-putt percentage. Why is this? Because as Southern Hills superintendent Russ Myers says, getting close to the pin is the hardest part of the course. To have a really good day, players will need to do that and sink some puts on the greens, which may play slower than those at other majors.
“It’s so hard to get close to the pins because the greens are not large, and they’re compartmentalized,” Myers told Golf Digest. “You can go out and hit 18 greens and two-putt each one and shoot 70 and be disappointed because you feel like you should’ve shot 64.”
So, good putters should fare well on this course. But those that can get close to the pin should be in the best position to win. Finding a big-hitter with a good approach game should give us a good opportunity to find a winner on this course.
It will also be good to find a player that can find success out of the rough. The course plays differently than it has in the past, as the rough isn’t as thick as it once was thanks to a course re-design in 2018. There also aren’t as many trees narrowing angles to the fairway and hole. So, golfers won’t get stuck as often as they used to with errant tee shots.
PGA Championship expert picks
Below is a breakdown of several candidates to consider in this year’s PGA Championship field. You can bet all of them as winners, but some fit better into betting cards as top-10 finishers, sleepers or DFS value picks.
PGA Championship best bets to win tournament
There are two players that stick out as solid winner bets for this weekend’s major: Justin Thomas (+1200) and Viktor Hovland (+2500). Both check all of the boxes that we are looking for on the Southern Hills Country Club course.
Thomas ranks top-five in SG:OTT, top 10 in scrambling from the rough and is the best one-putter on the PGA Tour with a one-putt percentage of just under 46. His approach game is the weakest part of his arsenal, but he still ranks 27th in SG:APR, so he has the tools needed to challenge for his second win at the major.
Hovland comes both with a little more risk and a bit more value. The 24-year-old has never finished better than 12th in a major and his best finish at the PGA Championship was a T-30 in 2021. That said, he has a top-three approach game, ranks 12th in SG:OTT and is a top-five scrambler from the rough.
Hovland, like Thomas, has one weaker portion of his game, and that is his one-putt percentage. Still, Hovland is plenty good enough in that category — he ranks 28th — to have a quality outing in this major. He has had hot putting streaks before too, so perhaps he can find his stroke at the right time in Tulsa.
PGA Championship value picks for top-10 finish, DFS lineups
There are a few solid, mid-tier values on this week’s card. Shane Lowry (+2800) is fresh off a top-three finish at the 2022 Masters and looks poised to do well on this course. He ranks top-20 in SG:APR, one-putt percentage and scrambling from the rough, so he should be a safe bet to remain in contention this week. That makes his +275 odds to log a top-10 finish look pretty appetizing.
The same can be said of a couple of players further down the board in Matt Fitzpatrick (+4500) and Daniel Berger (+4500). Fitzpatrick is an excellent player from tee to green but ranks 47th in one-putt percentage. Meanwhile, Berger ranks top-10 in SG:APR and scrambling from the rough but like Lowry, is a bit weaker than some other performers off the tee.
Still, if Fitzpatrick can get hot with the putter and if Berger can get a bit more distance in the Oklahoma heat, both could make a run at the top spot on the leaderboard. They each have +400 odds for a top-10 finish and would be great DFS fillers in the sub-$9,000 salary range.
PGA Championship sleeper picks
If you’re looking for picks that are a bit more daring, Keegan Bradley (+6500) and Cameron Young (+8000) each have the potential to outperform expectations.
Bradley doesn’t excel in any of the four key categories we’re looking at for this week’s tournament, but he ranks top-36 in SG:APR, SG:OTT and scrambling from the rough. He ranks just 87th in one-putting, but he should be a steady performer this week. That makes him an intriguing long shot.
The same can be said of Young. The 25-year-old has never played in the PGA Championship nor has he made a cut at a major, but he has the tools needed to make noise this week. He ranks second on the tour in SG:OTT and ninth in one-putt percentage. So, if he can blast some quality drives and make putts, he could be a surprise contender.
Of course, Young’s weakness is the all-important approach game, where he ranks 83rd in SG:APR. Still, he drives and putts well enough to draw consideration as an 80-1 sleeper pick. Betting him as a top-10 finisher at +650 odds could also be a profitable strategy.
MORE: How a fantasy football punishment led to a 112 score at a U.S. Open qualifier
PGA Championship winners by year
Phil Mickelson is the reigning winner of the PGA Championship. He became the oldest major winner in golf — the first over 50 years of age — with his two-stroke win over Louis Oosthuizen in 2021.
Mickelson won’t be participating in the event in 2022, so there will be a new champion by the end of the weekend.
No golfer has won the PGA Championship more than Jack Nicklaus. He has five titles to his name, one more than Tiger Woods’ four. Woods is set to participate in the event this year; he missed it in 2021 while recovering from injuries sustained in a Feb. 23 car crash earlier that year.
| Year | Winner | Score |
| 2021 | Phil Mickelson | -6 |
| 2020 | Collin Morikawa | -6 |
| 2019 | Brooks Koepka | -8 |
| 2018 | Brooks Koepka | -16 |
| 2017 | Justin Thomas | -8 |
| 2016 | Jimmy Walker | -14 |
| 2015 | Jason Day | -20 |
| 2014 | Rory McIlroy | -16 |
| 2013 | Jason Dufner | -10 |
| 2012 | Rory McIlroy | -13 |
| 2011 | Keegan Bradley | -8 |
| 2010 | Martin Kaymer | -11 |
| 2009 | Yang Yong-eun | -8 |
| 2008 | Pádraig Harrington | -3 |
| 2007 | Tiger Woods | -8 |
| 2006 | Tiger Woods | -18 |
| 2005 | Phil Mickelson | -4 |
| 2004 | Vijay Singh | -8 |
| 2003 | Shaun Micheel | -4 |
| 2002 | Rich Beem | -10 |
| 2001 | David Toms | -15 |
| 2000 | Tiger Woods | -18 |
| 1999 | Tiger Woods | -11 |
| 1998 | Vijay Singh | -9 |
| 1997 | Davis Love III | -11 |
| 1996 | Mark Brooks | -11 |
| 1995 | Steve Elkington | -17 |
| 1994 | Nick Price | -11 |
| 1993 | Paul Azinger | -12 |
| 1992 | Nick Price | -6 |
| 1991 | John Daly | -12 |
| 1990 | Wayne Grady | -6 |
| 1989 | Payne Stewart | -12 |
| 1988 | Jeff Sluman | -12 |
| 1987 | Larry Nelson | -1 |
| 1986 | Bob Tway | -8 |
| 1985 | Hubert Green | -6 |
| 1984 | Lee Trevino | -15 |
| 1983 | Hal Sutton | -10 |
| 1982 | Raymond Floyd | -8 |
| 1981 | Larry Nelson | -7 |
| 1980 | Jack Nicklaus | -6 |
| 1979 | David Graham | -8 |
| 1978 | John Mahaffey | -8 |
| 1977 | Lanny Wadkins | -6 |
| 1976 | Dave Stockton | +1 |
| 1975 | Jack Nicklaus | -4 |
| 1974 | Lee Trevino | -4 |
| 1973 | Jack Nicklaus | -7 |
| 1972 | Gary Player | +1 |
| 1971 | Jack Nicklaus | -7 |
| 1970 | Dave Stockton | -1 |
| 1969 | Raymond Floyd | -8 |
| 1968 | Julius Boros | +1 |
| 1967 | Don January | -7 |
| 1966 | Al Geiberger | E |
| 1965 | Dave Marr | -4 |
| 1964 | Bobby Nichols | -9 |
| 1963 | Jack Nicklaus | -5 |
| 1962 | Gary Player | -2 |
| 1961 | Jerry Barber | -3 |
| 1960 | Jay Hebert | +1 |
| 1959 | Bob Rosburg | -3 |
| 1958 | Dow Finsterwald | -4 |