The second main of the 12 months begins with the 2025 PGA Championship from Thursday by way of Sunday at Quail Hole Membership.
Which gamers do our golf consultants assume will win? The place do our betting consultants imagine there’s worth? We break down the favorites and rather more forward of the 2025 PGA Championship.
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Specialists’ picks to win | Betting roundtable
Specialists’ picks
Matt Barrie
Jon Rahm. Why: As a result of it is too simple to choose Scheffler, and Rahm is rounding again into main championship kind. He tied for 14th on the Masters and eighth on the PGA Championship. He is beginning to look and remind us that he was the very best participant on the planet earlier than his LIV defection.
Tory Barron
Scottie Scheffler. By all accounts, Oakmont is a monster primed to chew up any golfer in its manner. Thus, it stands to cause the eventual champion will have to be an equally formidable foe. I am going with the man who received in three of his previous 4 begins by a mixed 17 strokes — as a result of there isn’t any one scarier than Scheffler on a heater.
Michael Collins
Scheffler. Placing this in Marvel phrases — Scheffler has the Infinity Gauntlet (glove) and all of the Infinity Stones. Scottie is inevitable. There are solely about eight guys who might probably win on this golf course when the USGA units it up. Scottie is inevitable.
Jeff Darlington
Scheffler. We have reached the purpose with Scheffler that is paying homage to Tiger Woods — the place the cliché of choosing him to win outweighs the need to assume outdoors the field. Despite the fact that Bryson DeChambeau matches up properly with Oakmont, Scheffler is simply too good and too constant proper now.
Michael Eaves
Sepp Straka. The present Oakmont setup appears to be a throwback to when the U.S. Open perennially performed brutally laborious, placing an enormous emphasis on fairways and greens. To this point this season, Straka has been among the best gamers on tour relating to these elements of the sport. Dude is correct and assured, having already received twice this 12 months. Plus, 5 of the final six U.S. Open winners have been first-time main winners. Search for Straka so as to add to that pattern.
Peter Lawrence-Riddell
Scheffler. If it was Scottie vs. the sector, I would choose the sector — however that is not how this train works. The a part of me that thinks nothing this apparent ever occurs desires to choose another person — the a part of me that watches golf is choosing Scottie.
Andy North
Scheffler. Gained three of previous 4. At Oakmont you must hit your irons effectively, and who’s higher than Scottie.
Mark Schlabach
Scheffler. Yeah, I do know, it is not precisely going out on a limb, but when the duty is to choose the golfer who’s going to elevate the U.S. Open trophy on Sunday, how might you go together with anybody else? I picked Rory McIlroy to win the PGA Championship due to his success at Quail Hole, and Scheffler as soon as once more proved he is the person to beat. The world No. 1 golfer is taking part in unbelievably effectively once more, main the PGA Tour in nearly each stroke-gained statistic from tee to inexperienced. He is additionally twenty fifth in strokes gained: placing, which was presupposed to be his weak spot. If he is anyplace close to the highest of the leaderboard on Sunday, nobody places their foot on the gasoline like Scottie.
Marty Smith
Scheffler. Oakmont is arguably the toughest golf course on this planet. It requires uncanny precision and accuracy. Scottie is taking part in so freely and so exactly, and I feel that may proceed at Oakmont.
Curtis Unusual
Scheffler. No. 1 in world, winner three of his previous 4 occasions, on one of many strategically hardest programs in world — Oakmont!
Paolo Uggetti
Jon Rahm. I actually appreciated what I noticed out of Rahm on the PGA Championship. It wasn’t simply that he put himself again in rivalry for a significant for the primary time for the reason that 2023 Masters, but it surely was that his recreation and aggressive juices have been as soon as once more working collectively to supply some actually compelling golf. His recreation ought to arrange effectively for Oakmont, and I like his possibilities of being one of many few gamers who can problem Scheffler this week.
Scott Van Pelt
Rahm. As a result of somebody has to choose a unique participant than Scottie.
Betting roundtable
Odds by ESPN BET 
Who’s your choose to win?
David Gordon, ESPN Analysis
Rory McIlroy (+1200). McIlroy was simply the co-favorite at +450 ultimately month’s PGA Championship. Now he is practically triple the worth thanks partly to some tools points. I belief Rory to iron out the problems and get again to kind at a event he is completed runner-up at in every of the previous two years.
Pamela Maldonado, betting analyst
Collin Morikawa (+2200). Morikawa has the emotional management and analytical mindset that fits Oakmont. He began the 12 months scorching with two runner-up finishes in his first 4 stats, the Sentry and Arnold Palmer, and has since cooled with just one High-10 end since March. He has the construct to sort out this course — fourth in accuracy and fifth in method. If he stays calm and performs his recreation, Morikawa is quietly within the combine Sunday, and nobody could be stunned.
Anita Marks, betting analyst
Jon Rahm (+1200). Rahm has the right lengthy recreation to succeed at Oakmont. He comes into the week in nice kind, and that feisty mojo is again! His T-14th on the Masters and T-Eighth on the PGA Championship tells me he can pull this off. Rahm leads LIV in greens in regulation proportion, which is a vital metric on this observe.
Who’s your favourite guess to make the highest 10?
Gordon: Xander Schauffele (+210).
I am leaning with spectacular event historical past over mediocre season kind with Schauffele at a worth I do not assume we’ll see for him too usually sooner or later. He has seven High-10 finishes in eight profession appearances on the U.S. Open, whereas T-14th is his worst profession end (2022).
Maldonado: Keegan Bradley (+475)
The sport of golf is about trusting your swing. With back-to-back High-10 finishes and optimistic placing, Bradley has the belief. Bradley is a high-quality ball striker throughout the board and surprisingly sturdy across the inexperienced. The putter is essentially the most unstable facet of his recreation, however Bradley has the ballstriking ceiling that’s completely excessive sufficient to win.
What’s your favourite Scottie Scheffler guess?
Gordon: To complete Spherical 1 in High 10 (+150)).
Scheffler has been contained in the High 10 after 10 of his previous 11 main rounds (91%) courting again to final 12 months. Every of the previous 4 U.S. Open winners, and 9 of the previous 11, have been contained in the High 10 after 18 holes.
Maldonado: To complete Spherical 1 within the High 10 (+150))
Third on tour in Spherical 1 scoring common, Scheffler is past elite from the bounce. Separating his strokes gained numbers by spherical, Scottie is at his finest off the tee, along with his irons, and from tee-to-green within the opening spherical of tournaments, gaining a mean of three.98 strokes complete, at the least a full 1.5 strokes higher in comparison with the remainder of the three rounds to shut. He begins scorching, then stays stable the remainder of the best way.
Who’re your favourite lengthy photographs/worth bets?
Gordon: Cameron Younger: (+10000)
After a brutal begin to the season with 4 missed cuts in a five-start span, Younger is coming off a T-4th end on the RBC Canadian Open and completed tied for seventh in Pennsylvania on the Truist Championship three begins prior. He has loads of main championship expertise and success, with 5 High 10s between the 2022 PGA and 2024 Masters.
Maldonado: Keegan Bradley to win (+7500)
Placing and scrambling are the purple flags, however his method and ballstriking flooring is huge. With two High 10s in his previous two begins, his kind is peaking. He is a full-on tee-to-green monster proper now, second within the area within the final 32 rounds. If you’d like a man with winning-level ballstriking at longer odds, he belongs in your card.
Every other bets stand out to you?
Gordon: Make the minimize parlay: Tommy Fleetwood and Harris English (-104)
English is in the midst of a profession 12 months and has by no means missed the minimize on the U.S. Open in 9 profession appearances. Fleetwood hasn’t missed a minimize this season and hasn’t even been outdoors the High 40 by way of 36 holes in his previous 11 begins. I really feel relatively comfy placing the 2 collectively for this one!
Maldonado: Scottie Scheffler High 5 (-140)
The juice is steep however might even nonetheless be undervalued. In 31 begins since January 2024, Scheffler has completed prime 5 in 19 of these, together with 10 wins. In contrast to most juice-heavy markets, this one has the information to again it. Scheffler is not unstable, not often posts a foul spherical, and even with a chilly putter, his ballstriking alone can hold him close to the highest
Tyler Fulghum: Dustin Johnson to overlook the minimize (-120)
DJ received the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2016, and that basically does really feel like a lifetime in the past. Since his transfer to LIV in 2022, Johnson hasn’t even come near rivalry in main competitors. His finest end in 10 main begins since 2023 is a T-Thirty first ultimately 12 months’s Open Championship. He is missed the minimize 5 occasions, together with each the Masters and the PGA Championship this 12 months.
Marks: McIlroy to overlook the minimize (+290)
McIlroy has not been the identical golfer since successful the Masters. He shot a 78 within the second spherical of the Canadian Open, and he didn’t play effectively at Quail Hole. His driver difficulty is an actual factor, and his iron play has not been stellar. Did he lose his starvation after successful the grand slam? Presumably.
Marks: Ludvig Aberg prime 20 (+155) and prime Nordic golfer (+190)
Aberg got here near successful the Canadian Open, and I imagine we get good worth right here for him to complete within the High 20 at plus cash. He drives the ball simply in addition to anybody on tour, and his previous 5 rounds have been within the 60s.
Marks: Sepp Straka prime 20 (+170)
Straka is having a profession 12 months — he completed third on the Memorial Match and has received twice on tour this season. He has the potential to dominate this course along with his ballstriking strengths. Straka ranks first greens in regulation, fourth tee-to-green, second strokes gained: method, and prime 10 in driving accuracy
