The PGA Championship, the second of the 4 males’s Main Championships, takes place at Aronimink Golf Membership in Philadelphia from Might 14-17, the place all eyes will on the battle for supremacy between world numbers 1 and a pair of, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, who’ve received 4 of the final 5 majors between them.
The PGA Championship has usually needed to combat for oxygen within the main calendar, however its transfer again to its Might date in 2019 has remodeled its place within the season’s schedule. Not the main that after arrived on the finish of an extended summer season, it now lands at a second when kind traces are clearly established, the world’s greatest gamers are totally tuned, and anticipation stays excessive after the joy of the Masters.
It additionally stays the strongest subject in main championship golf. With extra high 100 gamers than the Masters, the US Open and The Open Championship, it’s also unquestionably essentially the most aggressive. With no invites, no amateurs and no worldwide qualifiers, it’s very a lot the professional’s main championship.
WHO’S ARRIVING AT ARONIMINK IN FORM?
Scottie Scheffler can be teeing it up because the defending PGA champion, and the world no.1 is of course a short-priced favorite to retain the Wanamaker Trophy he received by a powerful 5 pictures at Quail Hole final yr.
Regardless of solely recording one win to date this season, at January’s American Categorical match, the 29-year-old American is in remarkably constant kind, with six top-five finishes from his 9 begins in 2026, together with runner-up berths in his final three occasions.
Essentially the most enticing a part of Scheffler’s profile this week is how effectively his sport matches a venue like Aronimink. He’s arguably the perfect long-iron participant on the planet, and on a course more likely to demand repeated approaches from 175 to 220 yards, that issues enormously. He additionally possesses the endurance required for a championship that will grow to be extra about survival than fireworks.
Scheffler’s rival in most betting lists is the person he completed second to on the Masters, Rory McIlroy, who arrives in Philadelphia with the cheers of the Augusta crowds not fairly ringing in his ears – because it was over six weeks in the past – however nonetheless very a lot recent in his reminiscence.
The Northern Irishman defended his Augusta crown in beautiful vogue, and the 37-year-old can be keen so as to add a sixth main title to his CV in fast time, having waited over a decade to file his fifth. Rory can be coming in recent, having not performed competitively since successful his second inexperienced jacket, however these considering of investing a couple of kilos on him can ensure that he may have put within the time on the vary and be primed so as to add to his main tally.
At over 7,390 yards and taking part in as a par 70, Aronimink ought to reward high-level driving, particularly for gamers able to carrying fairway bunkers and shortening brutal par fours. Few within the sport can form towering lengthy irons into elevated greens fairly like McIlroy when he’s in rhythm. The query, as ever, is accuracy. The tough at Aronimink is predicted to be thick and punitive. McIlroy can overpower nearly any golf course, but when he turns into too reliant on restoration golf, his path to a serious victory received’t be simple because it was at Augusta, the place tough is a grimy phrase.
LIVE CONTENDERS
Different gamers arriving in scorching kind embody world no.3 Cameron Younger and world no.4 Matt Fitzpatrick. Younger lastly broke his PGA Tour duck at The Gamers Championship in March, completed third within the Masters after which received the Cadillac Championship by 5 pictures simply two weeks in the past. The 28-year-old New Yorker is taking part in with the choke off now and his large drives and correct iron play will serve him effectively at Aronimink.
The identical may be mentioned of Fitzpatrick, who has chalked up a powerful hat-trick of titles this spring, with victories in at Valspar, RBC Heritage and the Zurich Basic in a super-hot six-week stretch, though the latter of this trio of wins earned no world rating factors, because it was a staff occasion, which he received together with his brother, Alex.
There’s additionally a profession Grand Slam on the road, with Jordan Spieth making his tenth try to hitch golf’s most unique membership since his 2017 Open triumph. After dropping his method throughout the 2024-25 seasons, Speith appears to be returning to some form of kind on the proper time, with 5 high 20s this yr pointing to a person who has not but known as time on his successful methods.
HORSES FOR COURSES
Aronimink Golf Membership is internet hosting the PGA Championship for simply the second time and first in 64 years after Gary Participant received his third Main title there in 1962. Designed by Donald Ross and restored by Gil Hanse in 2018, the present course has additionally hosted the Ladies’s and Senior PGA Championships, turning into the primary venue to finish that set.
It has additionally performed host to 3 PGA TOUR occasions – the AT&T Nationwide in 2010 and 2011 and the BMW Championship in 2018, giving lots of the subject’s extra senior gamers a slight benefit with expertise of its quite a few challenges.
A quintessential American parkland course, with tree-lined holes, thick tough, and closely bunkered, Aronimink is exacting in nearly each division. Broad in scale, hilly in terrain, and relentlessly demanding in execution, it should check the perfect to the restrict, presenting a extra US Open-style problem.
The par-70 routing is full of lengthy par fours, which suggests many gamers will face a gentle food plan of mid- and long-irons into agency, elevated targets. There are few real breathers. As a substitute, Aronimink affords a sustained examination of self-discipline. It might be arduous to pick a signature gap, as an alternative there’s a gentle barrage of superb holes with none clear weak choices.
The greens could show the defining characteristic of the championship. Many are perched above their environment and slope subtly however always from again to entrance. They’re crammed with swells, hollows and awkward contours. Approaches touchdown only a fraction offline can repel into tightly mown run-offs or nestle into heavy collar tough, creating uncomfortable up-and-downs. Meaning proximity to the opening could also be much less vital than controlling spin, trajectory and touchdown angles.
Then there are the bunkers. Aronimink has a staggering 180 of the blighters, many organized in clusters relatively than as singular hazards. That issues as a result of gamers aren’t merely attempting to keep away from sand — they’re attempting to course of layers of visible info. The stacked formations can distort depth notion, making membership choice and goal traces extra difficult than they first seem. And these aren’t at all times simple blast-out bunkers. Their smaller shapes can create awkward stances and restricted follow-through, which can flip what appears like a manageable miss right into a dropped shot.
Whoever manages to barter these many and diverse challenges the perfect – and enjoys a spot of luck alongside the best way – will come out the deserved winner of the Wanamaker Trophy.
LATEST OUTRIGHT US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS – VIA BETWAY
Scottie Scheffler 7/2Rory McIlroy 7/1B DeChambeau 12/1Cameron Younger 12/1Jon Rahm 14/1Xander Schauffele 16/1Ludvig Aberg 22/1Matt Fitzpatrick 20/1Collin Morikawa 25/1Tommy Fleetwood 25/1Justin Rose 33/1Justin Thomas 40/1Viktor Hovland 40/1Brooks Koepka 40/1Chris Gotterup 50/1Tyrrell Hatton 40/1Jordan Speith 50/1Patrick Reed 50/1Robert MacIntyre 50/1
Others 50/1 or extra (1/4 odds high 5 locations)
The PGA Champiosnhip will air on Sky Sports activities Golf from Might 14-17. For the complete schedule of stay protection, go to skysports.com. For all the most recent US PGA Championship betting odds, go to Betway.
