USPGA Championship Betting Tips
First Round Leader: Ryan Fox
First Round Leader: Bryson Dechambeau
Top 40 Finish: Lucas Glover
Top Continental European: Sepp Straka
To Miss the Cut: Brian Harman
We’ve nailed our main outright bets so it’s time to look at the Specials markets for the USPGA Championship. The weather forecast for Thursday shows there’s little advantage for either wave of morning or afternoon starts, so I’ll side with two from the morning tee offs who catch my eye.
First Round Leader: Ryan Fox
The first man who jumps out at me is Ryan Fox who heads out at 7.37am local time. The big hitting Kiwi gradually appears to be finding his feet on the PGA Tour with two top 5 finishes in his last three starts.
A four-time winner on the DP World Tour, Fox clearly knows how to win, however whether he has the game to stick around for all four days to triumph at the highest of levels is debatable. Fox has shown Stateside over the past 12 months that he enjoys a Major test and with opening rounds of 68, 68 and 69 at last year’s PGA and US Open and this year’s Masters, Thursdays have been particularly kind to him. Let’s take him here to start quickly again.
First Round Leader: Bryson Dechambeau
The second pick for this market is Bryson Dechambeau who gets underway at 8.59am local time. Dechambeau led after day one at Oak Hill last year and having repeated the feat at Augusta last month, he is becoming something of a day one Major specialist.
Add to that, he also has two fourth-place finishes in the PGA in his last three starts and this is clearly a Major he enjoys. In strong form on the LIV Tour this year, and with soft conditions expected on Thursday morning, the setting looks ripe for the 2020 US Open Champion to enjoy himself on day one again.
Top 40 Finish: Lucas Glover
The one who grabs my attention here is Lucas Glover who hit the headlines last Autumn when winning back-to-back trophies at the Wyndham and Fedex St Jude. While 2024 hasn’t seen him scale those heights he’s quietly putting a solid year together posting eight top 40 finishes in his past nine starts. On the back of a good week at Quail Hollow, I expect him to perform strongly again.
Top Continental European: Sepp Straka
Two-time tour winner Sepp Straka has produced some hugely impressive performances in the Majors over the past 12 months, including a runners-up finish at the Open, a top 20 berth recently at Augusta, and most pertinently for this week, a seventh place at last year’s PGA Championship. Add this to his recent form, which has seen him post back-to-back solo top 10’s since his 16th in the Masters, and he can go well this week.
While the three big names ahead of him in the market are of course all worthy, there are question marks about them all. Jon Rahm has been lacklustre since joining LIV, Viktor Hovland has been searching for his game all year and Ludvig Aberg withdrew from the Wells Fargo last week with a knee issue. I’ll take Straka to upset the odds.
To Miss the Cut: Brian Harman
A couple of bigger names here at odds against to find themselves with a weekend off. The young Korean Tom Kim has the game to compete on the world’s biggest stage, however the PGA Championship has been a Major that to date he hasn’t enjoyed, missing the cut on all three starts in the event.
Outside the top 100 in ‘Driving Distance stats’ it would seem that this Major, which tends to favour big hitters doesn’t suit him. Add this to his disappointing 2024 form, which has seen him post only one top 20 in the past three months, and I see him packing his bags early this week.
On a similar vein another shorter hitter Brian Harman has missed the cut in three of his last five PGA Championship starts. With the reigning Open Champion missing the cut at Augusta too after opening with an 81, he may just be feeling the pressure of living up to his Hoylake Triumph.
Read More on the PGA Championship 2024
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