Scottie or Rory?

That’s the elemental question facing sports bettors this week as the PGA Championship prepares to tee off at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy both enter the season’s second major having won their past two starts, and now stand first and second respectively in the world rankings. From an odds perspective this week in the Bluegrass State, it’s Scheffler, McIlroy and everyone else, with Xander Schauffele a distant third on the board.

2024 PGA Championship Odds

Odds as of May 14

Scheffler won the Masters and RBC Heritage before taking time off to await the birth of he and wife Meredith’s first child, Bennett, who arrived May 8. Then it was McIlroy’s turn, and the Northern Irishman won the Zurich Classic team event with partner Shane Lowry before firing a final-round 65 last Sunday to dust the field in the Wells Fargo Championship. McIlroy has shot in the 60s in seven of his last eight individual rounds, Scheffler in a ridiculous 14 of his last 17.

And there’s one other defining difference between the two: while Scheffler has won the Masters in two of the past three years, McIlroy is in a decade-long major championship drought dating back to his PGA and Open Championship triumphs in 2014. Scheffler has been eighth or better in three of his four PGA appearances—including a career-best T2 last year—while McIlroy has been T7 and solo eighth his past two times out.

2024 PGA Championship Best Bets

Scottie Scheffler To Win (+365)

While McIlroy’s exploits of the past few weeks have been great, they simply can’t approach the all-time season that Scheffler was in the midst of before he took time off for his son’s arrival. The Texan hasn’t just won his last two tournaments—he’s won three of his last four, and the outlier in that span is a tie for second. He won not just the Masters, but also The Players Championship and a the PGA Tour Signature Event in Hilton Head, all of them tournaments with loaded fields.

Will he emerge from his hiatus a different player? Slightly more sleep-deprived, maybe, but it’s still tough to go against a big-game player with four wins and nine top-10s in 10 starts in 2024.  

Rory McIlroy Top 5 Finish (+175)

McIlroy looked like his dominant old self at the Wells Fargo, a tournament he’s now won four times, with a blistering finishing kick on a major championship course in its own right. And he certainly knows his way around Valhalla, having won the PGA Championship the last time it was contested on the Kentucky layout in 2014.

From his mentality to his game, all signs have been positive for McIlroy, who at times has clearly been weighed down by this years-long major title drought. He’s been seventh or better in three of his last four majors, so he’s definitely been close, and his performance the past few weeks certainly hints that he’ll contend once again.

Brooks Koepka Top 10 Finish (+170)

The majors are all that really matter to Koepka, and as his history clearly indicates, he thrives in pressure-packed events like the PGA Championship and U.S. Open where the rough is high, the golf courses are hard, and other players crack mentally before they even tee it up.

Winner of the most recent LIV Golf event in Singapore, Koepka’s track record in the PGA Championship is awesome, with three wins, a tie for second, a T4 and a solo fifth over the past decade. His average finish of 17.8 is best among all players with more than two career starts in the event. And as he showed last season, the defending champ can unquestionably sashay into the PGA and flip the switch after playing 54 holes in shorts on the LIV tour.

2024 PGA Championship Betting Tips

Struggling to choose between Scheffler and McIlroy? You don’t have to! Major championships bring far more bet types than regular PGA Tour events, and several books are offering a Scottie or Rory to win wager with odds in the neighborhood of +210. Bettors can also get Scheffler and McIlroy both finishing in the top five for around +500, or both finishing in the top 10 for around +140. You can also find Scheffler winning wire-to-wire for +2200, and McIlroy doing the same for +5000.

Who else can contend at Valhalla? Schauffele is having an excellent season, with runner-up finishes at both The Players and the Wells Fargo, and a T8 at Augusta. But Schauffele’s best PGA Championship finish in seven career starts is a T10, and he struggles to close out tournaments—evidenced by final rounds of 70, 73 and 71 at Augusta, Sawgrass and Quail Hollow respectively. There’s also phenom Ludvig Aberg, who was top-10 in five of his last eight starts (including second at the Masters) before skipping the Wells Fargo due to knee soreness.

Will Zalatoris, eighth and second in two career PGA Championship appearances before missing the 2023 edition due to back surgery, posted a T2 at the Genesis and a T9 at Augusta in what’s otherwise been a highly uneven season. Collin Morikawa and Max Homa have both enjoyed nice seasons that included a T3 at the Masters. Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Tyrell Hatton showed the most punch of the LIV contingent in the season’s first major at Augusta—and all of them have at least one top-10 in the PGA Championship, including DeChambeau’s tie for fourth last year at Oak Hill.

Who Are The Past 10 PGA Championship Winners?

How to Read PGA Championship Odds

Looking at golf odds can be complicated if you’re new to betting on the sport, so don’t worry if it’s a little overwhelming at first. To learn more about the various ways to wager on golf, check out our How to Bet on Golf page.

If sportsbooks have Rory McIlroy as the +1000 favorite in PGA Championship odds, that means a $100 bet on him to win the tournament would pay out $1,100 – your bet amount of $100 plus winnings of $1,000.

It’s incredibly tough to win major championships and the PGA Championship is no different, so there is risk involved in pre-tournament bets given the significant amount of competition in the field. But McIlroy’s immense talent and past success in majors makes him an appealing option despite the shorter odds.

On the other side of the fence, a golfer like Brandt Snedeker would be considered a long shot to emerge triumphant at the PGA Championship. According to the latest PGA Championship odds, Snedeker has +20000 odds to go all the way. A $100 bet on him to win outright would pay out $20,100 – your $100 is returned coupled with your winnings of $20,000.