Welcome to the second major of the 2026 season.
Rory McIlroy already got the majors rolling last month when he captured his second consecutive Masters title. Now, it's time for the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Our golf experts came through with 5 best bets for this week's major, so let's take a look at our PGA Championship best bets and PGA Tour picks.
PGA Championship Outright Pick: Ludvig Aberg (+2100)
After finishing runner-up in each of his last three events, I was going to make Scottie Scheffler my only outright bet of the week. Ultimately, I had to chase some longer odds.
Aberg has won on TOUR, he has contended in majors, and he has won a Ryder Cup. He has the perfect game for major championships, so it's only a matter of time before he wins his first one.
I'm hoping it happens this week at Aronimink.
After a somewhat slow start to the year, Aberg has finished T8 or better in five of his last six events. Over the last three months, he ranks top-20 in this field in all of the Strokes Gained metrics (Off The Tee, Approach, Around The Green and Putting).
His game seems to be peaking at the perfect time.
PGA Championship Outright Pick: Brooks Koepka (+3900)
By Jake Zach
Brooks Koepka is in the best headspace he’s been in for quite some time. Coming off a T11 at the Myrtle Beach Classic — where he gained over nine strokes ball-striking — I absolutely love what I’ve been seeing from him lately.
To be honest, his ball-striking has been elite all year.
I get the woes with the putter, but I’m looking past that this week. Given the difficulty of these greens, I have a feeling the entire field is going to struggle to roll it pure.
This track has a very similar feel to Oak Hill: a par-70 Donald Ross design with bentgrass greens in the Northeast. We all remember what happened there: Brooks hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy in 2023.
Koepka has been vocal about finding his love for the game again, and he seems more excited to compete than he has been in a long, long time.
When you combine that mindset with how clinical he has been off the tee and on approach, this is a number I simply can’t pass up.
He’s also set to debut a new flatstick — the TaylorMade Spider Tour V — after breaking his putter. If the putting burns me this week, I can live with it, because the ball-striking upside is too high to ignore.
PGA Championship Outright Pick: Bryson DeChambeau (+2500)
I've given this answer multiple times throughout the week, but there's a certain "stink" that LIV players have after their individual failures at the Masters.
I could talk about the groupthink mentality in many ways, but for the sake of this article, bad performances at that event have turned names like DeChambeau and Jon Rahm into afterthoughts compared to where the industry viewed them just a month ago.
Look, the floor is low for DeChambeau. If the putter and irons don't cooperate, this could be a long week (or a short one).
However, outright bets are about upside, and I don't believe many players on any Tour possess the ceiling we get from DeChambeau's spike nature with his driver and putter combination.
My math ranked DeChambeau as the best projected driver in the field for Aronimink.
That doesn't necessarily stem from pure distance, even though it might seem that way. Instead, it highlights his ability to dominate similar courses, including very standard Donald Ross designs.
I wouldn't touch DeChambeau in any of the safety markets, but I'll take a swing for the fence on him at 25-1 to win a golf tournament — especially one where the blueprint for success is more open to interpretation than the public may lead you to believe.
That's usually how you can find value drift in your favor.
1st-Round Leader Pick: Cameron Young (+2700)
By Tony Sartori
When Donald Ross completed Aronimink in the early 20th century, he considered the course one of his masterpieces. One of Ross’ preferred design elements was its emphasis on accuracy and shot-making rather than raw power.
With that in mind, finding fairways is essential off the tee this week due to the penal rough and numerous bunkers lining the course.
That profile benefits Cameron Young, who's one of the hottest golfers in the world.
Young has won three of his past 16 tournaments while adding eight top-10 finishes during that stretch. He has relied on a well-rounded game throughout this run, with improved accuracy off the tee compared with previous seasons.
This is the first season since 2022 that Young has hit fairways at a higher rate than the PGA Tour average. Combined with his distance, he ranks in the 97th percentile on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee.
Young has also been a strong starter, ranking above the PGA Tour average in first-round scoring.
Matchup Pick: Sam Burns (-110) Over Hideki Matsuyama
The biggest knock in Burns' profile had always been his lack of a major championship pedigree.
Sixteen tournaments leading up to the 2024 U.S. Open yielded nothing inside the top 15, but we've seen massive shifts in his production since that moment.
Four top-20s over his last seven major starts, including a near-miss at the Masters, should present a feeling of optimism that the American has found something during the biggest events of the year.
Of course, my main reasoning doesn't hinge on a small sample size of data across seven events. However, it does help to propel a profile that placed Burns as a top-10 target on the slate.
Meanwhile, Hideki Matsuyama has struggled off the tee and with his putter. I'm hoping his iron play and around-the-green build that typically propels him sees a slight decrease as well.
That may be optimistic given that Matsuyama still ranks inside the top 10 for projected approach play at Aronimink, but it reflects my model being lower on Hideki than the market.
Plus, there's a high-end uptick for Burns that's popping at all turns of the sheet.
When is the PGA Championship?
The 2026 PGA Championship tees off on Thursday, May 14, 2026.
- What: 2026 PGA Championship
- When: May 14-17, 2026
- Where: Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
- Par: 70
- Length: 7,394
PGA Championship TV Channel, Time, Schedule
Round 1: Thursday, May 14
- Live stream: ESPN+ (6:45 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET)
- TV coverage: ESPN (12 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET)
Round 2: Friday, May 15
- Live stream: ESPN+ (6:45 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET)
- TV coverage: ESPN (12 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET)
Round 3: Saturday, May 16
- Live stream: ESPN+ (8 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET)
- TV coverage: ESPN (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET) · CBS/Paramount+ (1 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET)
Round 4: Sunday, May 17
- Live stream: ESPN+ (8 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET)
- TV coverage: ESPN (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET) · CBS/Paramount+ (1 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET)
