Odds Outlook: Scottie Scheffler starts week as betting favorite for PGA Championship

The PGA Championship, the second major championship of the season, returns to the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Picking up his first win of the season in dominating fashion two weeks ago at TPC Craig Ranch at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, Scottie Scheffler (+400) reaffirmed his place at the top of the FanDuel sportsbook pyramid. The No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking headlines a field of 99 of the top 100, with only Billy Horschel missing out due to hip surgery. Scheffler, a two-time major championship winner, makes his sixth visit to the PGA Championship. He owns four top-10 paydays in his first five appearances, highlighted by sharing second at Oak Hill Country Club in 2023. After missing time in winter recovering from off-season surgery, he took last week off. He has never played Quail Hollow Club on his own ball (Presidents Cup in 2022). He leads the TOUR this year in Strokes Gained: Total, SG: Tee to Green, and SG: Approach.

To the surprise of many, Rory McIlroy (+450) is not the betting favorite this week. Completing the career Grand Slam in April at the Masters, the two-time PGA Championship winner (2012 Kiawah Island and 2014 Valhalla) became only the sixth golfer in history to accomplish the feat. He returns to Quail Hollow, where he has won four times since 2010, including the 2024 edition of the Truist Championship, owns the 18-hole (61) and tournament scoring (to par; 21-under) records, and has produced 10 top-10 paydays. Form is not an issue. His victory at the Masters was his third win of 2025, the most on TOUR, and only Scheffler, by the slimmest of margins, owns a better adjusted scoring average.

The winner of the U.S. Open in 2024 and 2020, Bryson DeChambeau (+950), takes his place in the trio of top favorites this week. Like Scheffler, he will also look to add a second piece of the career Grand Slam puzzle to his resume. The big hitter outdueled McIlroy late Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2 last summer to win his second major championship. McIlroy returned the favor from the final group on Sunday this year at the Masters to complete his masterpiece. DeChambeau cashed T6 or better in four of his last five appearances in major championships and will embrace the 7,626 yards (par 71), 20 yards longer than 2017, including the “Green Mile”, the moniker of the arduous three finishing holes.

Halfway to the career Grand Slam, Jon Rahm (+1800) leads the group behind the favorites. The Masters and U.S. Open champion has found the top 10 just twice in eight visits at the only major championship that does not feature amateur players. Dealing with a foot injury, he missed the cut at Valhalla and did not enter the U.S. Open. Fully healed, he returned to Royal Troon to collect T7, his 13th top-10 payday from playing the weekend in 28 of 33 major championships. The 2023 Masters champion owns four top-10 finishes from his last eight starts in the majors.

The two players sitting at +2000 both add to a captivating top of the board at FanDuel. Xander Schauffele (+2000), the defending champion from Valhalla in 2024, made a birdie on the 72nd hole to hold off DeChambeau to win his first major. Two months later at Royal Troon, the Californian followed with his second major championship and is now halfway to the career Grand Slam. The only two players to defeat him at the Quail Hollow Club over the last two seasons were Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark (+9000), the previous two winners of the Truist Championship. After an early winter rib injury saw him miss time, he’s rounding into form with four consecutive T18 or better paydays, including T11 with four rounds in the 60s last week at the Wissahickon Course.

The co-runner-up last week and winner at the RBC Heritage the week after the Masters, Justin Thomas (+2000), returns to Charlotte in red-hot form. The event defending champion at the course, the 24-year-old, rallied from an opening round 73 to post three rounds in the 60s to win the first major championship hosted at the Quail Hollow Club in 2017. He added his second Wanamaker Trophy at the 2022 championship at Southern Hills in a playoff, his second major title, and is one of four multiple PGA Championship winners from the 21st century in the field. If the forecast of rain holds up, he has plenty of power, like the players mentioned above, to handle this big ballpark. The big hitters will also enjoy the “light” rough. At the beginning of the week, the overseeded perennial ryegrass, measuring less than three inches, will encourage recovery shots from off the fairways, a skill that favors the best-of-the-best.

Winless in 2025, Collin Morikawa (+2200) is one of three first-time PGA Championship winners from the 21st century in the field of 156 professionals. The champion at TPC Harding Park in 2020, and playing only in his third major championship, the Californian joined Keegan Bradley (2011 Atlanta Athletic Club) and Shaun Micheel (2003 Oak Hill) as the only players this century to win on debut. A victory the following year at Royal St. George’s at The Open Championship secured half of the career Grand Slam in eight career starts. Without a win on his ledger since the 2023 Baycurrent Classic, he split with long-time caddie J.J. Jakovac and hired Joe Greiner, the winning bagman for Justin Thomas at the RBC Heritage. Opening with 63 last week in Philadelphia flashed a spark for the two-time runner-up in 2025. Cashing T17 suggested this is not a finished product.

Ludvig Åberg (+2200) is the only player in the top eight choices on the board in the field of 156 yet to win a major championship. He’s also the only player who has not made more than 10 attempts. Making his sixth start in a major championship, the Swede surged onto the scene at his first offering, the 2024 Masters, where he ran second to Scheffler. A nagging knee injury saw him miss the cut in two of the last three majors of the season. Returning to health and blowing away the field later in November 2024 at The RSM Classic, he began 2025 with a win at The Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines South, the longest course used on TOUR annually at 7,756 yards at sea level, before cashing solo seventh at the Masters. In his previous two starts, the RBC Heritage and Truist Championship, events hosted on two of the shorter courses used on TOUR, have produced results of T54 and T60, respectively. His power with the driver is his strength and advantage. He should also enjoy targeting the large greens, measuring over 6,700 square feet on average.

With a victory this week, Jordan Spieth (+5500) would be the seventh player to achieve the career Grand Slam and the second to do so in five weeks. Sepp Straka (+7000),already qualified for this week through many channels, held off Thomas and Shane Lowry (+6000) to win for the second time in 2025, joining McIlroy as the only multiple winners on TOUR this season. Ryan Fox (+25000) chipped in to win a playoff in the second edition of the Myrtle Beach Classic to earn his spot as the last man in the field.

Here's a look at the odds for other selected players via FanDuel:

• +3500: Joaquin Niemann
• +4000: Tyrrell Hatton
• +4500: Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood
• +7500: Jason Day, Corey Conners, Russell Henley
• +9000: Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee, Sungjae Im, Patrick Reed
• +10000: Justin Rose

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