The best golfers in the world will make the trip to Springfield, New Jersey and the Baltusrol Golf Club this week for the PGA Championship. The 2016 Rio Olympics forced the final major of the season to be pushed up and the fact that it will take place just two weeks after the Open Championship should provide another element of intrigue. The pressure will undoubtedly play a role in the outcome of this tournament and it will be interesting to see who is able to survive the grind and rise to the top at the PGA Championship.
Event Details
Event: PGA Championship
Category: PGA
Date: July 28-31
Location: Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield, New Jersey
There has been a lot of talk about who is in and who is out for this year’s Olympics but a number of golfers have stepped up and talked about how much more important winning a major would be to them than competing for gold. Each of the big four will pass on the Olympics this year but there is no doubt that each of them will be dialed in as they look to win the final the major of the season.
Past Five Winners
2015: Jason Day -20
2014: Rory McIlroy -16
2013: Jason Dufner -10
2012: Rory McIlroy -13
2011: Keegan Bradley -8 (Playoff)
What To Know About The Course
The Baltusrol Golf Club is the historic home of the PGA Championship this year and there is plenty of information at our disposal to help us break down the field. Baltusrol has hosted seven U.S. Open tournaments and a pair of PGA Championships including most recently in 2005, when Phil Mickelson emerged with a win on a Monday finish. The last two PGA Championships have been won with a low winning total but Baltusrol is a tough course and it won’t be any easier this year. Mickelson won with a -4 score in 2005 and a similar score might be enough to come out on top in 2016. Driving Accuracy will be among the most important stats to keep an eye out for and it is definitely more important than power from the tee. The eventual winner will put a premium on accuracy off the tee and will take advantage of his opportunities by sinking his putts.
The Field
The field for this week’s tournament will be the strongest of any event this season with 97 of the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Rankings set to compete. Henrik Stenson will look to build off his first-career major win at Royal Troon two weeks ago but he will be in tough to win outright at +1600 odds. This year’s U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson has placed in the top-10 in six straight events including a runner-up finish at the RBC Canadian Open last week and is listed as the sports betting favorite to win this event at +800 odds. The 2014 winner Rory McIlroy and 2015 winner Jason Day are both listed at +900 odds while Jordan Spieth is listed at +1400 after struggling in each of his last two major appearances. Mickelson should be another popular pick this week and he is listed at +2000 odds to win outright.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Jason Day over Jordan Spieth
Spieth won the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational and finished third at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational but he has struggled to put it all together at major tournaments including a 37th-place finish at the U.S. Open and a 30th-place finish at The Open Championship. Meanwhile, Day hasn’t exactly thrived at majors this season either but he did register top-10 results at The Masters and the U.S. Open and he is coming off another solid performance at the RBC Canadian Open last week. Day has finished in the top-10 in seven of his last 11 starts overall and he should be very confident as the defending champion this week and a good bet to finish ahead of Spieth.
Top-Five Pick: Dustin Johnson
D.J. followed up a win at the U.S. Open with another victory at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational two weeks later. Anybody that thought he was due for a letdown clearly didn’t think he would register a top-10 finish at The Open Championship in his next start, which he promptly followed up with a runner-up finish at the RBC Canadian Open last week. Johnson has placed in the top-10 at each of the first three majors of the season and six of the last seven majors overall and he has never looked better than he does right now. Johnson might not win this week but he is the betting favorite for a reason and we won’t be surprised when he delivers another top-five finish at the PGA Championship.
