2024 PGA Championship Best Nationality Prop Bets (Trust Hideki Matsuyama)
The 2024 PGA Championship is here. With some of the world's top players set to take to the course at Valhalla Golf Club, the tournament promises to be thrilling for spectators and bettors alike.
While players like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm are early favourites for the 2024 PGA Championship, the unpredictable nature of golf leaves the outcome uncertain. These players have consistently showcased their skill and expertise, but anything can happen in the golf world, adding suspense to the tournament.
But rather than putting focus on who is going to win, today, I want to talk about a couple of golfers who will likely perform the best of any other golfer from their country.
Here are our two bet Nationality Props for the 2024 PGA Championship:
- Hideki Matsuyama - Top Japanese Golfer (+100)
- Corey Connors - Top Canadian Golfer (+290)
Hideki Matsuyama
Japanese Golfers In Field: Keita Nakajima, Ryo Hisatsune, Takumi Kanaya
First, let's address Matsuyama's competition. Nakajima is in the middle of playing his first season on the DP World Tour, and while he had a T11 finish and event win his last two times out, he has been inconsistent in his first seven DPWT starts and has missed the CUT all four times he has qualified for a major.
Hisatsune is the only one of these three who plays on the PGA Tour, but since January, he has only had two top-30 finishes, which came in much less competitive fields (Puerto Rico Open, Byron Nelson).
Finally, Kanaya has been playing reasonably well on the Japanese tour this year, but that only tells you a little, considering the gap is miles wide between players' skills on the PGA and Japanese tours. Kanaya has played in nine majors since the 2019 Masters; he missed the CUT in eight straight of those majors, and the only time he got through all four rounds at a major was when he finished T58.
Now for Matsuyama, who ranks fifth among golfers in my model this week. Matsuyama also ranks 14th in total strokes gained in significant championships over the last three years and second in strokes gained approach on Zoysia grass fairways.
He also ranks second in strokes gained tee-to-green over the last three months and ranks fourth in that same stat for the entirety of the 2024 PGA season.
Valhalla will be a course that requires sharpness in every aspect of the game for success, and Matsutyama is the best, most consistent golfer in this group.
Corey Conners
Canadian Golfers In the Field: Taylor Pendrith, Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin, Nick Taylor, Adam Svensson.
This group is much more competitive than the Japanese group we just talked about, but my model has Conners ranked ninth in this field. The next closest Canadian is Hughes, ranked 68th; the rest are ranked between 84th and 90th.
Conners's fellow Canadians' recent finishes on tour make this group more competitive. While none of them have been as consistent as Conners, all of them but Svensson boast multiple top 10 finishes over the last three months on the PGA Tour.
However, Conners has finished inside the top 30 in six of his last nine events and has two top-20 finishes at the PGA Championship over the last three years.
The caveat with Conners' competitor's top 10 finishes is that they all came in events with less competitive fields and on much easier courses than Valhalla, which is the venue for this weekend.
Over the last three years, Conners ranks 19th among all golfers in this field in total strokes gained under difficult scoring conditions on a very long course. He also ranks 24th in the field in total strokes gained over the last three years in major championships.
In addition, Conners ranks fifth in strokes gained ball striking over the last three months and fourth in the field year-to-date. I think this ball-striking consistency will give Conners the edge this weekend over the other Canadians in the field.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.