The PGA Tour still has the U.S. and British Opens on tap before the 20116 PGA Championship tees off from the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, but it’s never too early to start wagering on the final major tournament of the season.
Let’s take a closer look below at the top three golfers expected to emerge victorious from New Jersey in a couple of months’ time, plus a couple of under-the-radar players worth mentioning as well. And for more PGA majors futures odds, check out our updates for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship right after this.
Since the PGA Championship is a major tournament, it is with good reason that the early favorites for such grand events are those found in the upper echelon of the Official World Golf Rankings.
Rory McIlroy is currently ranked as the third-best golfer in the world right now, but he still has a pair of PGA Championship titles (2012 and 2014) under his belt already, and he’s playing more like the top dog that he once was after suffering a serious injury late last year.
Though his first win of 2016 hasn’t come to fruition yet, McIlroy still has a pair of top-5 finishes, just one missed cut in eight starts, and no other finish outside of the top 30 this season. As such, the Irishman is still in good graces with the oddsmakers as the leading favorite at becoming just the sixth golfer to win the PGA Championship on more than two occasions.
Jordan Spieth
Expectations were high this season for World No. 2 Jordan Spieth, who put the sport of golf back on the map with his back-to-back majors wins last year at The Masters and the U.S. Open. So when the 22-year-old sensation experienced a relative slump after winning at Kapalua in January, Spieth proved his doubters wrong by finishing tied for second and nearly winning his second green jacket at Augusta last month.
Sure, Spieth is still quite far from his elite form of 2015, but you also can’t ignore the fact that the Dallas native goes into high gear on the PGA’s grandest stages. Top-5 finishes in all five of his most recent majors appearances, including his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship last year, is what’s mainly keeping Spieth as a darling in the golf betting community as we speak.
Jason Day
As of this writing, current World No. 1 Jason Day is being regarded as a shade behind McIlroy and Spieth in the running for this year’s PGA Championship title. Have people already forgotten that he’s the tournament’s defending champion, and that he has four-consecutive top-10 majors finishes right now?
In addition, Day has a couple of wins this 2016 already. While his T10 finish at Augusta was a bit disappointing, but it’s still a superb result nonetheless. Grab the Aussie while he’s still not considered as the leading candidate to win at Baltusrol, because his price will definitely shoot up the moment that he generates sweet returns from the U.S. and British Opens.
Sleeper
Martin Kaymer
Consider Martin Kaymer as the Tour’s silent assassin. Although Kaymer only has one top-10 finish to his credit dating back to November of 2014, he has the tendency to go supernova in major tournaments. The German has won a PGA Championship title already (2010), and even secured a massive U.S. Open victory just a couple of years ago.
All in all, Kaymer has nine top-15 finishes in the majors. Three of them came from the PGA Championship, including his solid T12 finish from last season’s installment of the event at Whistling Straits. Heck, he has more wins from the majors than all of his other outings in the PGA Tour combined.
Play the part of spoiler like Kaymer, and pick him to shock everyone else by siding with the one guy that can truly make the other elite golfers sweat.
Long Shot
Kevin Na
Kevin Na kicked off this season with four top-3 finishes through his first six starts, but has then cooled off significantly. A nice T4 finish from the recently concluded RBC Heritage has even him back on the right path for the time being.
Then again, none of that matters when dealing with the majors. Na’s best result at a major tournament happens to be his T10 finish at the PGA Championship, but that was way back in 2011. Since then, he’s been a virtual no-show at the event for four years running, failing to make the cut both in 2014 and 2015 after withdrawing from play in 2012 and not qualifying for 2013’s edition.
Na has been quite a trendy dark horse pick this year, but it would still be best to skip on the Seoul-born swinger once he’s officially set to take on Baltusrol’s greens and fairways this July.
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