PGA Championship

Odds to Win Tournament

Whistling Straits will host the PGA Championship for the third time in the last 12 years as the 1998 resurrection of a former waste dump to a European style links course with tons of sand has become one of the PGA’s favorite spots for big events. The par-72, 7,514-yard course along the banks of Lake Michigan will also be the host of the 2020 Ryder Cup and should have some more fireworks in store this year after sending the players to a playoff in the last two installments of this major being played here (2004, 2010). The first of those was won by Vijay Singh (-8) as he took down American’s Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard in extra holes while Martin Kaymer earned the victory in 2010 with a score of 11-under, outlasting Bubba Watson in the three additional holes. Since that 2010 event, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy has won this event twice (2012, 2014) as Keegan Bradley (2011) and Jason Dufner (2013) were victorious in the other two. All but two of the last eight of these tournaments have been won by two strokes or fewer with McIlroy’s 2012 margin of victory of eight strokes being the largest in the tournament since they began with stroke play in 1958. The field is very deep with all but two of the top-100 players from the OWGR making the visit to Whistling Straits as No. 24 Chris Kirk (Hand) and No. 74 Alexander Noren (Rib) are held back by injury. The Spieth watch will be on once again as the now 22-year-old looks to become just the third player in PGA history with three major victories in one year, the others being Ben Hogan in 1953 and Tiger Woods in 2000, after finishing in a tie for fourth at the Open Championship nearly a month ago. Also gunning for the trophy will be Tiger Woods, who has won this major four times, but has not done so since 2007 and has seen his standing in the OWGR drop to No. 278 while sitting at 186th in the current FedEx Cup standings. Let’s now breakdown a few players in this week’s field who could overcome the best golfers in the world and bring home the trophy.

Jason Day: At this point, it seems like a matter of when rather than if Day will ever win a major championship as the 27-year-old has played at a high level in nearly every tournament he is in, but cannot finish things off when at the majors. In his career, he has three runner-ups in such events and another six top-10s as he has been able to creep into the top-15 at the PGA Championship three times; including a tie for 10th when it was last at this venue. On the year, Day already has two victories (Farmers Insurance Open, RBC Canadian Open) and had a top-nine showing at each of the last two majors as he’s totaled seven top-10s in his 15 events played. His drive (314 yards per) is the third longest on TOUR and when paired with his impressive putting (0.525 strokes gained putting, 14th on TOUR), he has a chance to be victorious in any given week. The day will come for this Australian-born player to etch his name on one of the major trophies, and this week could very well be it.

Brooks Koepka: Koepka has the makeup of a major winner and the 25-year-old has already shown flashes of this with a top-10 finish at two of his past six attempts. He also did well last year in this tourney, ranking 15th with a score of nine-under-par after a 66-67 on the weekend. Koepka figured out how to earn his first career win earlier this season at the Waste Management Open and has been on fire of late with performances no worse than 18th in his last five appearances which included two majors and a World Golf Championships event. Just like Day, Koepka combines his unique ability of hitting the ball far (309.5 yards per, 6th on TOUR) with impressive putting ability (0.638 strokes gained putting, 5th on TOUR) in order to have the third-best scoring average (69.649) amongst his peers. The FSU alum jumped into the top-20 of the OWGR with his WGC performance last week and should be poised to continue his rise up the ranking with a nice week at Whistling Straits.

Keegan Bradley: While Bradley is in the midst of the worst season in his career, ranking 61st in the FedEx Cup standings after doing no worse than 33rd before that, he is still a former major championship winner and has eight top-25s to his credit in 20 events played this year. He took this tourney back in 2011 and followed that up with a tie for third in 2012, so he knows how to get things done under the big lights of majors. Bradley also been playing some solid golf recently and after failing to make it to the weekend at the Open Championship, placed in a tie for 17th at the Bridgestone Invitational last week when he averaged 335.5 yards per drive. His driver (306.1 yards per, 65.68% fairways hit) will be a strength against the winds at this course and he has the ball-striking ability (1.107 total strokes gained, 16th on TOUR) to be competitive from day one. Bradley may be having a down year by his standards, but he can break out on any given week and dropping a few units on him would be smart.

Danny Lee: Lee is one of the hottest players on TOUR right now, and has placed in the top-six at four of his last five tournaments after racking up just three top-10s with 16-of-25 cuts made up until the Traveler’s Championship. The big knock on the 25-year-old could be that he has not performed well in the big events, missing the cut at the PLAYERS Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship before finally performing amongst the best with a tie for sixth last week in the Bridgestone Classic. In the WGC event, Lee was able to putt 0.531 strokes better than the field and that should factor in once again as he is ranked 31st on TOUR in the category (0.390 strokes gained putting). Lee is feeling it lately and should be a factor over the weekend at this beautiful course.

David Lingmerth: Joining Lee as a hot golfer heading into this huge event is Lingmerth who actually tied with Lee at the Bridgestone Invitational after shooting six-under over the weekend and carding his fourth top-six performance in his last six outings. One of those performances was a victory at the Memorial Tournament back in June where he staved off Justin Rose in a playoff for his first career PGA TOUR win. Major events such as this one are new to the Swedish player who has attended just three since joining the TOUR in 2013 and has made the cut twice; including a few weeks ago at St. Andrews where he shot five-under over the first three days before a 77 derailed his week on Sunday. Lingmerth is solid across the board while not being amongst the elite in any one area of his game, but that ability should give him opportunities to score in any type of condition and do well on Lake Michigan this week.