PGA Championship betting preview: Odds and predictions

Buckle up. The second major men's golf tournament of the year is here; the PGA Championship.

Jon Rahm won the first major of the year, The Masters, which means he's the only golfer who can pull off the first ever grand slam, winning all four majors in the same year. Obviously, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but it's worth noting that Rahm is the betting favorite to win at Oak Hill this weekend.

Let's dive into the odds to win this week's event and then I'll give you my three picks to win.

Odds to Win the PGA Championship

Picks to Win the PGA Championship

Jon Rahm +800

I've wrote this time and time again and I still believe it. It's gambling malpractice if you don't bet on Jon Rahm and/or Scottie Scheffler each time they both tee it up at a golf tournament this season. Rahm is the only golfer with four wins and he won the only major of the year so far. Meanwhile, Scheffler has two wins on the year, including the unofficial "fifth major", the Players Championship.

With Oak Hill being a long one, I'm going to give Rahm the edge with his length off the tee and his accuracy on shots over 200 yards, where he leads the PGA Tour. If this was a shorter course that requires precision wedges, I'd lean Scheffler instead.

Rahm leads the Tour in strokes gained: total, birdie average, scoring average. He's the best golfer on Tour and at the very least, he's going to be in contention on Sunday. At +800, I think he's worth a bet despite being atop the odds board. Him and Scheffler are that much better than everyone else.

Xander Schauffele +1600

Major championships and me betting on Xander Schauffele, name a better duo.

But, I can't resist Schauffele this week based on his recent performances and his fit for the course. Xander is seemingly peaking at the perfect time, improving in each of his last four starts. He finished T10 at the Masters, then followed it up with a 4th place finish, a T4 finish, and then a solo 2nd place finish at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Schauffele ranks fourth in total strokes gained, fifth in strokes gained: approach, and he leads the Tour in approach proximity from 150-175 yards out, a key distance at Oak Hill.

Schauffele was dealing with some accuracy issues off the tee early on the season, but he seems to have fixed that issue. He's gained strokes off the tee in four straight starts, and his driving accuracy was 6% higher than the field average at his last start at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Dustin Johnson +2500

Brooks Koepka won a LIV Golf event the week before The Masters, then went on to narrowly miss out on the green jacket, holding a 36-hole lead before eventually falling to Jon Rahm.

This time, the latest LIV winner is Dustin Johnson, who won last week's event in Tulsa. That bodes well for his chances this week. He also finished in the top 10 the last time the PGA Championship was hosted at Oak Hill, back in 2013.

We don't have the stats to back it up like we do with golfers on the PGA Tour, but he's clearly playing some great golf and he knows how to win a major championship. I like his odds this week at 25/1.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.