The US PGA Championship 2022 Preview
The 2022 US PGA Championship is making a welcome return to the Southern Hills Country Club, Oklahoma in May – and golf bettors will certainly be rubbing their hands together to see what odds are being offered for their favourite players.
This year, the newly renovated venue will welcome the strongest field in Major Championship golf that it has seen for many a year. Tiger Woods will be in attendance – for the first time since he defeated Woody Austin by 2 strokes in 2007.
The 104th edition of the PGA Championship will start on Thursday 19th May 2022 and there will be plenty of profit hunters out there, scouring the odds and markets to see what value is on offer for the most promising players.
The tournament has been around for over 100 seasons. It was originally played in August, just a week after the World Championship tournament, but has only recently been moved to May – and since the change in schedule, it has been won by Brooks Koepka in 2019 and by Phil Mickelson in 2021.
Championship Winner Tips and Hints
Making golf bets on Major Championships, especially the PGA Championships can start to get very complex. And making mistakes can be very costly. On the other hand, selecting the correct player can be insanely rewarding.
In more recent history, the PGA Championship has seen a number of long-hitters seeing success – and many have managed to lift their first Major titles in this tournament.
Back in 2013, the tournament was played in Oak Hill – and this led to a pretty claustrophobic event, which was completely alien to its usual mantra of testing through course length. This saw the neat, tidy and precise Jason Dufner winning his first title.
It isn’t just Dufner that has captured this championship as their first-time Majors win. Y.E Yang (2009), Martin Kymer (2010), Keegan Bradley (2011), Jason Day (2015), Jimmy Walker (2016) and Justin Thomas (2017) also won their first Majors here. All of these players can hit the ball a long distance, as can Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, other Championship winners.
Players to Look out for in 2022
All that being said, which are the players we should be looking out for this year’s US PGA?
Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler is one of the favourites and has already got one Major win under his belt – the Masters in 2022.
He has enjoyed an excellent run of form this year and this has seen him replace Rahm as the number one player in the world. The American’s impressive four wins in just 57 days was topped off with his first Majors title when he won the Masters. What’s more, his record in the US PGA Championship is pretty decent in itself. He was tied for fourth when he debuted at Harding Park in 2020 and made it into the top 10 last year at Kiawah Island.
In addition, he also won the Big-12 Championship in 2015 at Southern Hill when playing for the University of Texas.
Jon Rahm
Another bookie favourite is Rahm, who has enjoyed one Majors win after winning the US Open in 2021. The player had long seemed to be a Major winner in waiting – and finally lived up to his promise when he won the 2021 US Open at Torrey Pines, just two weeks after he had to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament because of a positive Covid test.
In the 2021 Majors, Jon Rahm racked up four top-eight finishes, bouncing back from 27th in April’s Masters when he won on his next start in Morocco.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy boasts four Major wins to date – the US Open in 2011, US PGA in 2012 and 2014 and The Open in 2014. His Majors wins may seem to be in the past, but it’s hard to deny that currently he is putting in some great numbers on the PGA Tour and ranks third in strokes gained off the tee, fifth from tee to green and is ranked 17th around the green. A third win here this year would definitely not come as much of a shock.
Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth has won 3 Majors – The Masters in 2015, US Open in 2015 and The Open in 2017. Should The Texan player win the Championships, then he will be only the sixth player to have won all four Major titles.
Tiger Woods
The stats speak for themselves – he has enjoyed 15 Majors wins – the Masters in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019, The US Open in 2000, 2002 and 2008, the US PGA in 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007 and The Open in 2000, 2005 and 2006.
He may have had some time away, but he defied the odds by competing in the Masters. There is no doubt he is a golf superstar, but whether or not he is still a contender is questionable.
There are some big names and an exciting field out there. Golf is never easy to predict, but what we can predict is that there will be plenty of action to enjoy!