Golf PGA Championship lines

The PGA Championship is the second of four major championships on the PGA and European Tours, but is conducted by the PGA of America, the organization that is made up of club professionals who operate pro shops and give lessons to local players. The tournament has been a stroke play event since 1958 and was played in August from 1969 to 2018, moving to May in 2019 to accommodate a change to the PGA Tour schedule.

The move to May increased the course options for the tournament, with cooler temperatures bringing more potential venues into the mix or better weather for longtime host courses. The site of the 2022 PGA Championship, Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, saw 90 degree temperatures in 2007, so golfers and fans alike appreciated the more temperate weather moving forward. The tournament is generally considered the least of the four major championships, especially after the resurgence of The Open Championship in the 1970’s.

Throughout its history, the PGA Championship has produced a large number of not only first time major champions, but also winners who ended up with the victory remaining their only major title. For bettors, that fact makes it a little more difficult event to wager on, with numerous longshots, like Rich Beem, Y.A. Yang, Mark Brooks, Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner pulling surprises to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

Since the PGA Championship is a major tournament, the PGA Championship Odds are usually available far in advance of the event, even before the full field has been announced. However, given the qualifying criteria, at least half the 156 player field, and especially most of the top contenders, are locked in months prior to the start of the tournament.
There are 20 spots in the event that are reserved for the top finishers in the PGA Professional Championship that takes place in late April, but since those mostly club pros aren’t experienced tournament players, they rarely factor into the outcome of the tournament and really aren’t legitimate threats from a wagering perspective. Since Tour winners in the year prior to the tournament qualify, there can occasionally be late additions to the field that could threaten the favorites.

The most popular wager on the PGA Championship is futures betting, where the early PGA Championship Odds are established on who will win the tournament. The favorite usually has odds of around +1000, which means a winning $100 wager returns a net profit of $1000 to the bettor, with the biggest underdogs having odds of as high as +100,000.

The week of the tournament, after the field has been finalized and players have committed to playing, other wagers are also available, particularly head to head matchups even if the two golfers aren’t actually paired with each other on the golf course. There are also proposition bets, for instance over/under wagers on the winning score, the continent in which the winning player was born and margin of victory, among others.

Live betting has also become popular, with sportsbooks offering PGA Championship Odds on scoring for a stretch of holes for particular competitors, as well as prop bets like closest to the hole or the longest drive. The increased popularity and legalization of sports wagering has greatly expanded the type of wagers that sportsbooks are willing to offer.