2025 PGA Championship Best Bets and Outrights

The 2025 golf season is now in full swing and with one major now consigned to history, it’s time to tackle the PGA Championship, one of golf’s most coveted prizes, landed throughout the years by some of the greatest ever players such as Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy. 

This year, for the first time since 2017, the action will take place in North Carolina, where the best players in the world will be heading for the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. 

The pre-tournament betting 

Ahead of the Masters, world number one and multiple major winner Scottie Scheffler, who for the last couple of seasons had easily been the most feared man in golf, was a strong favorite. This time around, having failed to confirm favoritism at Augusta, Scheffler is a narrower favorite in the early betting. 

As he was at Augusta, behind Scottie in the market is recent Masters winner and new world number two Rory McIlroy, who, as well as having shown stellar form in 2025, has a fantastic record at Quail Hollow, where he’s won on four previous occasions. As a result, the Northern Irishman is many people’s idea of the winner. 

Here’s how the outright betting from our top sportsbooks currently stands ahead of the 2025 PGA Championship: 

• Scottie Scheffler +400
• Rory McIlroy +450
• Bryson DeChambeau +700
• Jon Rahm +1800
• Justin Thomas +2000
• Xander Schauffele +2200
• Collin Morikawa +2200
• Ludvig Aberg +2500
• Joaquin Niemann +3300
• Patrick Cantlay +4000
• All other players +4500 or bigger

At the PGA Championship, the cream usually rises

The Masters is probably the best example of a major being dominated by the very best players in recent times, but in the last decade, the PGA Championship has typically been won by a high-ranking player. 

Here’s a breakdown of each PGA Championship winner since the beginning of the 2010s, complete with the world ranking held at the time of their win. 

What we can see is that low-ranking players don’t typically win this event, or at least they haven’t done so often in recent times. Of the last 15 winners, only four were ranked lower than 21st when picking up this prestigious prize, and two of those were former world number ones and multiple major winners. 

Sure, it was surprising when Phil Mickelson, deep into the twilight of his career, won in 2021, but the man known as lefty had previously been one of the best players in the world for many years, so I suppose the only real shock came in 201, when Keegan Bradley won his first and only major whilst holding a rank of 113. 

Quite simply, unlikely winners are rare when it comes to the PGA Championship, so if you’re thinking you might pick out a big outsider that doesn’t hold a top ranking, think again. 

At this point, you know the drill. It’s all about trying to find some value in the betting market, and having picked up two top-10 winners at the Masters, I’m looking to stay in form. See below for a trio of PGA Championship bets. 

Justin Thomas to win & top 10 finish: +2000 & +175 with FanDuel

I’ll get right to it here and say that current world number five Justin Thomas is too big at +2000. If the early market wasn’t so focused on the battle for favoritism between Scheffler and McIlroy, Thomas would be available at less generous odds, I have no doubt about that. 

JT’s claims ahead of this event look rock solid. First off, he brings fine form into this event, finishing second at the Truist Championship last week, winning the RBC Heritage the week before that. He also finished second at the Valspar back in late March. 

A previous Quail Hollow winner, Thomas won this event when it was last hosted at the North Carolina venue, coming out on top back in 2017, while the two-time major winner secured his second PGA Championship title in 2022, so clearly he knows how to be at his best when this tournament comes around. 

Looking at the field this week, of those to have played multiple times at this venue, only three players boast a better lowest average score, while it’s absolutely worth adding that the 32-year-old, since 2016, has more Bermudagrass wins than all other players besides Scheffler. 

In the betting, both to win and finish in the top ten, Justin Thomas simply gets my juices flowing more than the early odds suggest he might. 

Bet on the 2025 PGA Championship with FanDuel

Patrick Reed top 10 finish: +490 with FanDuel

A divisive character and a player who certainly blows hot and cold, Patrick Reed knows how to raise his game when it matters most, more so than top-10 odds of +490 would have us believe. 

Reed is a big hitter off the tee and Quail Hollow is a course that often rewards those willing to be brave with the big stick, and the Texan, who recently finished third at Augusta, certainly fits that mould. 

Second behind Justin Thomas when the PGA Championship was played at Quail Hollow back in 2017, this previous major winner has very solid course form in the book, finishing in the top 10 twice since securing the runner-up spot eight years ago. He’s also the second-best player in the field in terms of strokes gained total on the North Carolina track since 2016. 

Odds of +490 for a man who ticks so many boxes to finish in the top ten, you say? Yes please. 

Max Homa top 10 finish & top 20 finish: +900 & +360 with FanDuel

Maybe he’ll show me up by putting in a poor performance, but I really do think that Max Homa is being overlooked by the early market ahead of this event. 

Listen, I know lots of other players bring much hotter form into the tournament, but it’s not as if Homa’s game has fallen apart of late. He finished T12 at the Masters recently, missing out on a top-10 spot by just a single shot, while he loves it at Quail Hollow. 

Max Homas has two wins to his name at the Charlotte venue, winning at Quail Hollow since 2019, finishing in the top on two other occasions since then too. Oh, and he’s also the sixth-best player in the field for strokes gained total at this course since 2016. 

Now, ranked at 78th in the world rankings currently, Max Homa goes against the above hypothesis, but then again, I’m not betting on him to win this, and plenty of players ranked outside of the upper reaches have gone close at previous PGA Championships. For my money, Homa is one who can get more involved at the business end than both his ranking and odds suggest. 

Place PGA Championship bets with FanDuel