2025 PGA Championship Betting Preview

Rory McIlroy finally ended his Masters hoodoo in the opening major of the season. James Punt managed to land a couple of nice side bet winners, he’s hoping to land the outright spoils this weekend. Check out his 2025 PGA Championship betting preview below.

2025 PGA Championship

The 107th US PGA Championship returns to Quail Hollow for the first time since Justin Thomas won there in 2017. The course was given a makeover in 2016 and it is now a 7626 yard par 71. So it is another very long course.

The weather has been very wet in the build up to this week’s action, but the forecast for the four days of play is for hot and dry conditions, breezy at the weekend. The fairways will be soft to start with, making the course play even longer than it already is. It will dry out and firm up over the weekend.

Course Form

The course is the venue for the Wells Fargo Championship, so we have plenty of form post course redesign to go on. Since that redesign we have had four different winners. Rory McIlroy twice, Wyndham Clark, Max Homa and Jason Day.

The key stats for these past winners are strokes gained putting, with all five being ranked top eight, and four of them top three. All five were ranked top twelve for strokes gained tee to green, and two of them ranked first. Four winners were top twelve for strokes gained on approach, and all five were top 20 for strokes gained off the tee.

Looking at the players rankings for the above stats, only one player ticks all four boxes. Patrick Reed. Two players tick three, Scotty Scheffler and Bryson De Chambeau. Four players came close to ticking three and they are Rory McIlroy, Richard Bland, Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay.

Another eight players tick two boxes. David Puig, Tryell Hatton, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Eugenio Chacarra, Xander Schauffele, Daniel Berger and Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson.

Selections

We backed Patrick Reed to finish in the top 10 at The Masters and he obliged, finishing T3rd. He plays his golf on the LIV tour now and while not many players that have gone there have improved their game, Reed is playing well.

In his last five events Reed has had three top four finishes. He is driven by his desire to play in the Ryder Cup and to do that he has to earn his points in the four Majors. He had a great start at Augusta and needs to follow that up here.

In his last five appearances at Quail Hollow, Reed has had three top eight finishes, including a runners up spot in the 2017 US PGA Championship. Reed is also a former Major Champion, having won the Masters. It is hard to find a box that he doesn’t tick.

He has the right sort of game, he has good course form, good event form and he is playing well. His odds are massive.

2025 PGA Championship Tip: 1 point e/w Patrick Reed @ 91.00 with Livescorebet (1/5 the odds 1-7)

Another player who ticks a lot of boxes is Rory McIlroy. Having finally got the Career Slam done at Augusta, he should be much more mentally relaxed. He hits the ball long and high, so the soft conditions shouldn’t bother him.

McIlroy has already won two US PGA Championships and has a total of eight top eight finishes. His course record is very impressive. He has won here four times and it was the scene of his first PGA title back in 2010.

He has had a total of nine top ten finishes here and two of his wins came after the 2016 course revamp. The only thing that is against him are odds of just 6.00. To me, he is one for the fantasy team, but the odds of reward are too short to be backing with real cash.

Bryson DeChambeau has the game to go well here. Ranked first for SG off the tee, first for SG tee to green and fourth for SG putting. His course form sees two top tens from his last two visits. His recent form sees finishes of 5/5/2/1 and in terms of event form, DeChambeau has three top four finishes from his last four USPGA Championships, including being second last year.

There is very little to put you off backing him, but like McIlroy, his odds are hardly generous at 11.00. Not generous, but twice as big as McIlroy’s and he is just enough value to warrant backing him.

2025 PGA Championship Tip: 1 point e/w Bryson De Chambeau @ 11.00 with Betfred, Skybet, Hills (1/5 the odds 1-8)

The same cannot be said about Scotty Scheffler. He is the joint favourite with McIlroy at 6.00. Scheffler is yet to win a US PGA Championship but has four top eight finishes from five starts. He has absolutely no course form, however, having never played here in competition, which is strange.

I would want to see some course form for a player going off at 6.00. His form is very strong, winning his latest event and having four consecutive top eight finishes.

Jon Rahm makes some appeal at 21.00 but his course form is poor with a MC and 58th being his only two outings here. His recent form is not great and he is a player whose game has deteriorated since he switched to the Liv Tour. Ditto Colin Morikawa in terms of course form, and Patrick Cantlay is another whose course form is off putting, with a best finish of 21st.

Brooks Koepka is a three time USPGA Champion but he is not the player he once was, his course form is sparse and recent form OK at best.

Defending Champ

Xander Schuffele has finished second in his last two visits to Quail Hollow. His recent form is decent if not stellar and he is the defending champion. Since the USPGA Championship became a stroke play event in 1958, the title has only been successfully defended three times, twice by Tiger Woods and once by Bruce Koepka.

Schauffele took a while to win his first major, but he picked up two in 2024. He has finished in the top ten seven times in his last nine majors. Maybe he could become the third player to defend his USPGA title.

2025 PGA Championship Tip: 1 point e/w Xander Schauffele @ 17.00 with Ladbrokes, Boylesports, Paddy Power (1/5 the odds 1-10)

-JamesPunt