2026 PGA Championship Preview: Odds, Favorites, LIV Drama & Aronimink Betting Storylines
Philadelphia smells like rain on hot asphalt and grilled onions this week. Aronimink Golf Club sits twenty miles outside the city, its fairways pinched and green, and the air around the clubhouse carries that nervous hum you only get before a major. The Wanamaker Trophy is back here for the first time since 1962. Gary Player won it then by one shot. Kennedy was in the White House. The Beatles weren’t a band yet.
2026 PGA Championship Betting Preview: Odds, Favorites & Betting Tips
Sixty-four years later, the trophy lands in the most loaded week of golf any of us have lived through. The PGA Championship opens Thursday at Donald Ross’s old killing field, and the men teeing it up are not the same men they were a month ago, some showing up to compete, some showing up to audition for whatever’s left of their careers in a sport that has spent three years pulling itself in half. The Saudi money is gone. The LIV experiment is in hospice. Rory McIlroy is hunting a piece of history nobody has touched since Jack Nicklaus did it in 1975. Pull up a stool. This one’s going to leave a mark.
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2026 PGA Championship odds
Here are the current odds to win the 2026 PGA Championship available at the top offshore sportsbooks.
| Golfer | Moneyline | Fractional Odds | Win Probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | +480 | 24/5 | 17.24% |
| Rory McIlroy | +850 | 17/2 | 10.53% |
| Cameron Young | +1200 | 12/1 | 7.69% |
| Jon Rahm | +1500 | 15/1 | 6.25% |
| Xander Schauffele | +1600 | 16/1 | 5.88% |
| Ludvig Åberg | +1800 | 18/1 | 5.26% |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | +2200 | 22/1 | 4.35% |
| Bryson DeChambeau | +2200 | 22/1 | 4.35% |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +2700 | 27/1 | 3.57% |
| Brooks Koepka | +3300 | 33/1 | 2.94% |
| Patrick Cantlay | +3500 | 35/1 | 2.78% |
| Collin Morikawa | +4000 | 40/1 | 2.44% |
| Min Woo Lee | +5000 | 50/1 | 1.96% |
| Nicolai Højgaard | +5000 | 50/1 | 1.96% |
| Justin Thomas | +5000 | 50/1 | 1.96% |
| Justin Rose | +5500 | 55/1 | 1.79% |
| Russell Henley | +5500 | 55/1 | 1.79% |
| Rickie Fowler | +5500 | 55/1 | 1.79% |
| Tyrrell Hatton | +5500 | 55/1 | 1.79% |
| Adam Scott | +6000 | 60/1 | 1.64% |
| Viktor Hovland | +6000 | 60/1 | 1.64% |
| Si Woo Kim | +6000 | 60/1 | 1.64% |
| Sam Burns | +6000 | 60/1 | 1.64% |
| Chris Gotterup | +6000 | 60/1 | 1.64% |
| J.J. Spaun | +6500 | 65/1 | 1.52% |
| Robert MacIntyre | +6500 | 65/1 | 1.52% |
| Patrick Reed | +7000 | 70/1 | 1.41% |
| Maverick McNealy | +7000 | 70/1 | 1.41% |
| Joaquin Niemann | +8000 | 80/1 | 1.23% |
| Kurt Kitayama | +8000 | 80/1 | 1.23% |
| Jordan Spieth | +8000 | 80/1 | 1.23% |
| Shane Lowry | +8000 | 80/1 | 1.23% |
| Sepp Straka | +8000 | 80/1 | 1.23% |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Kristoffer Reitan | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Harris English | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Akshay Bhatia | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Gary Woodland | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Ben Griffin | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| David Puig | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Thomas Detry | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Alex Fitzpatrick | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Keegan Bradley | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Jacob Bridgeman | +10000 | 100/1 | 0.99% |
| Alex Noren | +12500 | 125/1 | 0.79% |
| Jason Day | +12500 | 125/1 | 0.79% |
| Alex Smalley | +12500 | 125/1 | 0.79% |
| Harry Hall | +12500 | 125/1 | 0.79% |
| Pierceson Coody | +15000 | 150/1 | 0.66% |
| Matt McCarty | +15000 | 150/1 | 0.66% |
| Sungjae Im | +15000 | 150/1 | 0.66% |
| Corey Conners | +15000 | 150/1 | 0.66% |
| Sahith Theegala | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Michael Thorbjornsen | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Ryan Gerard | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Wyndham Clark | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Rasmus Højgaard | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Brian Harman | +17500 | 175/1 | 0.57% |
| Ryan Fox | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Samuel Stevens | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Ryo Hisatsune | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Keith Mitchell | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Aaron Rai | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Nick Taylor | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Marco Penge | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Daniel Berger | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Sudarshan Yellamaraju | +22500 | 225/1 | 0.44% |
| Taylor Pendrith | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Tom McKibbin | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Ricky Castillo | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Jordan Smith | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Michael Brennan | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Angel Ayora | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Max Homa | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Bud Cauley | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Michael Kim | +25000 | 250/1 | 0.40% |
| Jayden Schaper | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Haotong Li | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Daniel Hillier | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Dustin Johnson | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Aldrich Potgieter | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Andrew Novak | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Max Greyserman | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| J.T. Poston | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Matt Wallace | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Cameron Smith | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Nico Echavarria | +35000 | 350/1 | 0.28% |
| Andrew Putnam | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Sami Valimaki | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Bernd Wiesberger | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Denny McCarthy | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Stephan Jaeger | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Richard Hoey | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Lucas Glover | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Stewart Cink | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Billy Horschel | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Patrick Rodgers | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Max McGreevy | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Ian Holt | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Austin Smotherman | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Mikael Lindberg | +50000 | 500/1 | 0.20% |
| Chris Kirk | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Johnny Keefer | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Casey Jarvis | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Steven Fisk | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| John Parry | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Matti Schmid | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Tom Hoge | +75000 | 750/1 | 0.13% |
| Jimmy Walker | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Braden Shattuck | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Bryce Fisher | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Jhonattan Vegas | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Michael Block | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Y.E. Yang | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Luke Donald | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Ben Kern | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Elvis Smylie | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Timothy Wiseman | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Jared Jones | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Paul McClure | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Derek Berg | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Garrett Sapp | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Ryan Vermeer | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Dan Brown | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Adam Schenk | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Francisco Bidé | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Austin Hurt | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Padraig Harrington | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Adrien Saddier | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Emiliano Grillo | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Martin Kaymer | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Kota Kaneko | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Ben Polland | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Brian Campbell | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Shaun Micheel | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Jason Dufner | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Garrick Higgo | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Jordan Gumberg | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| David Lipsky | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| William Mouw | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Michael Kartrude | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Joe Highsmith | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Mark Geddes | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Davis Riley | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Tyler Collet | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Chris Gabriele | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
| Andy Sullivan | +100000 | 1000/1 | 0.10% |
The End of the LIV Experiment
Let’s start with the corpse on the table. On April 30, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would no longer fund the LIV Golf League beyond this season. The press release used words like “strategic realignment.” Translation: the bank is closing, fellas, please return your gold-plated golf bags on the way out.
Eleven LIV players walk into Aronimink, and every one of them knows what time it is. Bryson DeChambeau has won twice on that tour in 2026 and is nursing a sore wrist and a contract with no guaranteed payday behind it anymore. Jon Rahm went on record this week saying he can’t escape his LIV deal short of the league folding outright, which has to be the strangest thing any two-time major champion has ever had to say about his own employer in the middle of a tournament week. Tyrrell Hatton confirmed he’s locked into a multi-year LIV paper, too. These guys are auditioning for survival. The trophy is the cherry.
The whole rival-tour project always smelled like an oil sheikh’s hobby budget. We told you that in 2022, and we’ll say it again now. The talent was real. The competition was a joke. Fifty-four holes, shotgun starts, no cut, music piped over the speakers like a frat party at noon. Now the bill is due, and the men who took the bag are figuring out which PGA Tour locker room will let them hang their visor back up.
Watch Rahm this week. Watch Bryson. Watch the way they play the back nine on Sunday with money on their backs and the Wanamaker in front of them. Call it a job interview, or call it a last dance with the way things used to be. The band is packing up regardless.
Rory’s Resurrection vs. The Scheffler Machine
Rory McIlroy looks different this year. We saw it at Augusta in April, when he closed out his second consecutive green jacket and didn’t sob into the trophy the way he did in 2025. He just smiled. He nodded. He went home.
Six starts are all he’s had in 2026. Six. The man who used to grind every other week is treating his schedule like a heavyweight boxer treats his title defenses, picking the venue, showing up razor sharp, leaving a body on the canvas before flying back to Jupiter. He won the PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2014 and hasn’t won it since. Now he wants the Masters and the PGA in the same calendar year. Nobody has pulled that off since Nicklaus did it in 1975. Tiger never managed it. Jordan Spieth got close and got nothing. Rory finally has the killer instinct to match the swing.
Then there’s Scottie Scheffler. The world number one. Three straight runner-up finishes, the Masters included, the first golfer since Sergio Garcia in 2014 to stack three seconds in a row. He leads the tour in strokes gained total at 2.056, scoring average at 69.37, and birdie average at 5.03. He doesn’t talk much. He doesn’t celebrate much. He shows up on Sunday at 3 p.m. and lets the math do the work. The math, more often than not, hands him the trophy.
So here’s the question we keep kicking around the bar: does Rory finally bury the machine, or does Scheffler do what Scheffler always does and post a 67 when the leaderboard says he can’t? A great major championship is a four-day war of attrition. These two are built for it.
Aronimink: A Ross Design That Demands Blood
Donald Ross built Aronimink in 1928. The man designed Pinehurst No. 2. He designed Oak Hill. He designed Seminole. Bryson DeChambeau won the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, and Xander Schauffele has won at every Ross course he’s looked at sideways. There’s a pattern here. The sharps see it.
Aronimink’s bunkering is cruel, the greens roll off at the edges like soup off a tilted plate, the rough sits at five inches this week, and the fairways pinch hard at the landing zones for tour pros who still think they can muscle a Ross design into submission. The course rewards two things: precise iron play and a magician’s hands around the green.
Look at the scrambling rankings. Schauffele sits third on tour. Cameron Young finally has the short stick figured out. Matt Fitzpatrick has been chipping like a guy who reads greens with an Ouija board. These are the names that fit this property.
Forget bombing it 340. That gets you in the trees and on your knees praying for par. Aronimink demands blood from anyone who tries to muscle it. The smart play is the chess play. Position, position, position.
The Betting Board: Value, Hype, and Heartbreak
Now we get to the part that matters. Where’s the money?
The Favorites: Short Odds, Bigger Doubts
Scheffler and McIlroy both open under 8/1 at most U.S. books. We’re not telling you to fade them. Scottie wins again. He probably wins this week. The price is brutal, though. Sprinkle, don’t splurge. If you’re shopping outright odds, the sharpest PGA Championship outright odds usually sit at DraftKings or BetMGM on a Tuesday morning, before the public money rolls in Wednesday night and tightens everything up.
The Mid-Tier Grinders: Blue-Collar Bets for a Blue-Collar Town
Cameron Young is sitting around 18/1 at most shops. Three wins since August. Wire-to-wire at the Cadillac. The Players Championship on his mantle. The guy finally figured out how to putt, and Philadelphia is exactly the kind of grinder’s town where Young’s game travels. We love this ticket.
Matt Fitzpatrick at 20/1 is the other one to hammer. Three wins on tour this season. Fourth in the world. He’s already played his way to a major once at Brookline. Aronimink fits his game like a custom-cut suit.
The Longshots: Where the Real Edge Lives
- Rickie Fowler at 60/1. Three consecutive top-10 finishes coming in. His last win came at a Ross-designed course in Detroit. The math is there. So is the price.
- Ludvig Aberg at 22/1. Missed the cut in his last two PGA Championship starts, and the market is overreacting. The kid is too talented for that pattern to hold.
- Sepp Straka at 50/1. Posted 68-66 on the weekend at Cadillac, quietly stacked two top-five finishes this season, and shows up in majors when the wind blows.
Responsible Gaming: The House, The Edge, and The Limits
Betting on the 2026 PGA Championship is a test of nerves. Don’t let it turn into a test of survival. The house always has an edge. The only way to beat the game is to gamble responsibly.
Set a number before tee time on Thursday. Write it down. Stick to it.
Never chase a missed putt with a doubled-up matchup bet. That’s how bankrolls die. That’s how Sundays get long and ugly, and the cheesesteak on the way home tastes like ashes in your mouth.
Know the cutoff for your stack. Walk away from the window when you hit it. If the fun stops, the game stops with it. Call 1-800-GAMBLER if it goes sideways. There’s no trophy for the guy who pushes through.
Bet the major. Don’t let the major bet you.
The Verdict
My pick: Cameron Young lifts the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday at 14-under. McIlroy finishes second. Scheffler third. LIV closes the chapter, the PGA Tour takes back the throne, and Philadelphia gets its first PGA Championship winner since Gary Player walked off this turf in 1962.
FAQs
Who is favored to win the 2026 PGA Championship? Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy open as co-favorites at most major sportsbooks, both sitting under 8/1. Cameron Young at 18/1 and Matt Fitzpatrick at 20/1 anchor the second tier of legitimate contenders.
When was the last time Aronimink hosted the PGA Championship? 1962. Gary Player won by one stroke. This week marks the first time the major has returned to Aronimink Golf Club in 64 years.
How many LIV golfers are in the 2026 PGA Championship field? Eleven LIV Golf League players are in the 156-man field, including past major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. Their futures got a lot less certain after Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced on April 30 that it would not fund the league beyond this season.
Can Rory McIlroy win the Masters and PGA Championship in the same year? Yes. He won the Masters on April 12. A PGA Championship win at Aronimink this week would make him the first golfer to take both in the same calendar year since Jack Nicklaus did it in 1975.
What are the best sportsbooks for PGA Championship betting? BetOnline, Bovada, MyBookie are running PGA Championship promo codes, odds boosts, and sign-up bonuses through tournament week. Shop the outright odds across all four to find the best price on your pick.
