2020 PGA Championship: Odds to Win and Betting Preview

It's moving day for the 2020 PGA Championship as we are one day away from the final round. The cut line was set at +1 leaving notable names like Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings, Sungjae Im, on the outside looking in.

Pre-tournament favorite Brooks Koepka remains in the hunt to collect his first victory in over a year as he sits two shots back at -6 in a log-jammed six-way tie for second place. 

Heading into Round 3 the man everyone is chasing is Haotong Li who holds a two-stroke lead and is eight-under through the first two days coming off shooting a 65 on Friday. 

Online sportsbook Bovada has listed Koepka as the favorite to win the 2020 PGA Championship, followed closely by Tommy Fleetwood (+800), Daniel Berger (+900), Jason Day (+1000) and Justin Rose (+1200) to round out the top five players on the oddsboard.

How will moving day shake up the leaderboard? Here’s a look at the odds for the main contenders heading into the third round:

2020 PGA Championship Odds

Can Woods Make a Charge?

After a respectable two-under 68 in the first round, Tiger Woods stumbled on cut day dropping two strokes down to EVEN and sits eight back heading into Round 3. We saw a similar situation occur at the Memorial when Tiger shot one-under on Thursday followed by +4 on Friday only to rebound with another -1 on the Saturday. Could we see a similar pattern this weekend?

For the first time in PGA Tour history, the PGA Championship will be the first major of the season. That’s because the Open Championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the U.S. Open and the Masters received new dates in September and November, respectively.

With the action at TPC Harding Park kicking off on August 6, Brooks Koepka is the +950 favorite at Bovada. Koepka cemented his place in PGA Championship history in 2019, posting a wire-to-wire victory to win the major for the second year in a row.

Koepka Seeking Third Straight PGA Championship Win

Battling raging winds at Bethpage Black a year ago, Koepka had a seven-shot lead entering Sunday – a PGA Championship record – before finding himself up by only a single stroke over the second-place Dustin Johnson down the stretch. Koepka held on to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the tournament since Hal Sutton accomplished the feat in 1983.

Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, at +1100 and +1200 on the oddsboard respectively, are also former PGA Championship winners. McIlroy claimed the Wanamaker Trophy in 2012 and 2014, while Thomas notched a victory at the major in 2017.

Thomas withdrew from the 2019 PGA Championship after suffering a wrist injury, so expect the American to enter this year’s tournament with plenty to prove. McIlroy fared well at Bethpage, finishing T-8.

Can Woods Win His Fifth PGA Championship?

Tiger Woods, who’s +3000 entering the first round, has seen a major shift in his odds ahead of the 2020 PGA Championship. Just last week, Woods’ odds were in the range of +1600 at some books. The four-time winner of the PGA Championship will be looking to repeat the success he found at Augusta National last year when he snapped an 11-year major drought at the Masters.

The talk of the golfing world of late is undoubtedly Bryson DeChambeau, and “The Scientist” is certainly someone to keep an eye on in San Francisco. DeChambeau was the early star of the PGA Tour’s Return to Golf plan after the COVID-19 hiatus, winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic and placing T-3 at the Charles Schwab Challenge. DeChambeau has +1600 odds this week to win his first major.

For more information on how to get some money down on the links, head over to our How to Bet on Golf article. To find out the best places to bet on golf, check out our Best Golf Sites page. 

When and Where is the 2020 PGA Championship?

2020 PGA Championship Odds

Past 10 PGA Championship Winners

PGA Championship Gets a New Date

The 2020 PGA Championship was initially slated for May 14-17, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGA Tour was forced to bump the tournament to its current August date. While the time frame of the event has changed, TPC Harding Park remains the setting for the action.

Similar to the PGA Championship, the Masters (November 12-15) and the U.S. Open (September 17-20) have all been rescheduled to later in the year – an unprecedented move in the history of the tour.

TPC Harding Park Makes its Major Debut

TPC Harding Park, commonly known as Harding Park, is unique for a number of reasons. It’s owned by the city and county of San Francisco, making it a municipal course. The venue became part of the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club (TPC) network of courses in 2010. Golfweek Magazine has named it the No. 13 municipal golf course in the United States.

TPC Harding Park underwent a major renovation in 2002-03 to make it fit to host high-profile tournaments. The 2005 WGC-American Express Championship was played here, along with the 2009 Presidents Cup and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013. The 2020 PGA Championship marks the first time a TPC property has hosted a major tournament.

The PGA Championship is unique for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is the number of players who come out of nowhere to claim the Wannamaker Trophy. Unlike the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship, the PGA Championship has produced the most surprise winners over the years – and it’s not even close.

Ahead of the 2020 PGA Championship, golf bettors can expect to see some unexpected results. That means the number of alternative betting specials will be particularly attractive at TPC Harding Park.

Below, we are going to explain some different betting options for the PGA Championship to help you decide which wagers are best for you.

Nationality Props

Sportsbooks tend to go all-out for major tournaments, and the PGA Championship is no different. Among the most popular betting props for majors are nationality bets.

Nationality props can come in different forms, both for specific countries and continents. For example, let’s use England, a country that’s produced a significant number of high-level golfers over the years.

Justin Rose is widely viewed as the top English golfer on the PGA Tour, so he will likely find himself as the favorite to be the top English player in the PGA Championship.

If you bet Rose on this prop, all he has to do is have the lowest score among the other Englishmen in the field after the tournament is complete. If another English player outshines Rose and finishes with a better score, you would lose your bet.

It’s the same format for continental props. Let’s say you’re planning on betting on McIlroy to be the top European at the PGA Championship.

He’ll have his work cut out for him to place better than the rest of the Euros duelling it out in California, but his odds would be much better than Rose’s for the aforementioned prop due to the vast number of Europeans at the tournament if he can finish with the lowest score.

Head-to-Head Bets

Head-to-head bets, or tournament matchup props, are one of the most profitable ways to make money betting on golf. That’s true for both standard weekly tournaments and majors alike, as these bets pit two players against each other, with the goal being to select the golfer who will end the tournament with the best score.

Head-to-head wagers won’t give you the same type of value as other golf bets, but your chances of winning are much higher. It’s a good way to catch the sportsbooks off guard if you’re doing your due diligence when researching tournaments.

Let’s say Player A and Player B are both EVEN odds in a tournament matchup prop. Player A has been lights-out of late, finishing in the top 20 in each of his last four tournaments. On the flip side, Player B has been struggling, missing the cut in each of his past four events. Betting on Player A to have a better tournament score than Player B looks like an attractive wager, but remember – this is golf, and anything can happen.

These pages will help you handicap your golf bets: