The second major championship of the year has arrived. After taking over a month off of betting golf, The Degenerate is back! Baseball season starting up has taken most of our attention since The Masters, along with the NHL and NBA Playoffs. But a major is a major, and we’ll drop everything to get invested.
We’ve got two winners on our resume this year (Scottie 25/1 @ WMPO, Niemann 66/1 @ Genesis) and many other close finishes. It’s a great week to be great - so let’s get after it and find ourselves a winner.
Southern Hills is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The last time the PGA Championship found itself at this course was in 2007. Your winner? None other than Tiger Woods - who will make his second appearance of the year again this weekend, and is currently listed at 60/1 to take it down. On the unfortunate flip side, it should be mentioned that the reigning 2021 PGA Champion, Phil Mickelson, will not be present. He’s currently dealing with a shitstorm PR nightmare.
Apparently the course has been renovated, with more open fairways and green runoffs. It plays more like a US Open than a typical PGA course. Only a par 70, with super tough greens. Experts have said that to succeed at Southern Hills, you have to be a good ball striker. If you can’t hit your irons this week, you’re probably going home early.
One guy we aren’t playing? The undisputed #1 golfer in the world - Scottie Scheffler. We hit Scottie at the WMPO +2500 and sadly haven’t played him since. At this point, we can’t buy this high on Scottie after the Tiger-like run he’s been on. Although, this does scare the hell out of us, and we’d be doing our readers a disservice if we didn’t bring it to your attention…
(GULP)
Last note before we get to our picks- check out some of these group pairings in the first two rounds. They are DREAMY.
HORSES:
COLLIN MORIKAWA +1800 - We’re loading up on one horse and one horse only this week. Ball strikers will thrive, you say? How about the best one on the planet. Yes, you probably know that we are massive Morikawa fans, and it does influence our pick here. How can you not have your favorite golfer on the card in a major championship, at a course that suits his game? Oh, and he’s settling in quite nicely already during his tune up week…
Morikawa had an underwhelming performance with Hovland at The Zurich Classic, but did finish 5th at The Masters. What’s important to remember when betting a major is who shows up for them. Collin is one of those guys.
MIDDLE-MEN
SHANE LOWRY +3000 - Back on the Shane Train. We’ve been on him quite a bit this year, and he’s knocking on the door. The closest we came was 2nd place at The Honda Classic (damn you, Straka!), but Shane LOWry also finished 3rd at the RBC Heritage and 3rd at The Masters. You can’t leave a guy playing this well and this good of a ball striker off your card.
BROOKS KOEPKA +4500 - Some may call this a homer play, but you’re wrong. Brooks WAS one of our favorite golfers, but we are not fans of the blonde hair. Until he moves past this phase, we will not be auto-picking Brooks…except in a major. Why? Because that’s where Brooks shows up.
MAX HOMA +5500 - If Brooks is falling down our favorite golfer list, then Max is a guy who’s climbing up. Very likable, and super dedicated to mastering his craft. Homa just won The Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago. We don’t typically like to bet on guys who just recently won, but that logic also had us miss out on our boy Scottie’s electric run. Along with his first victory of the season, it should also be mentioned that Max has finished T17 or better in 6 of his last 8 tournaments. We are going to ride the hot hand with Homa who’s due for his first major victory.
LONG-SHOTS
COREY CONNERS +6600 - This is the “if he finally wins and I don’t have a ticket I’ll cry” auto play. Do not bet Corey Conners. Seriously, don’t do it. Can this guy play good golf? Yes. Is he a good ball striker? Yes. Does he ever win tournaments? No. We’ve bet Coco at least 5 times this year, and every single time results in pain. If Xander is always a bridesmaid never a bride, then Conners is the wedding photographer who gets paid and sneaks in a plate of food. But we will continue to bet this wedding photographer until he shags a bridesmaid, while bitching and moaning like this random guy on twitter:
TOMMY FLEETWOOD +11000 - One thing we forgot to mention is that the weather is supposed to be cold and windy this weekend. Tommy has shown that he can grind it out in poor weather conditions - especially when windy. He was the first round leader at The Players when it rained and wind gusts were 30-40 mph. Tremendous value at this number.
ALEX NOREN +17500 - An angle we occasionally play is course familiarity, or when the golfer is a “local”. I have no idea how many (if any at all) times Noren has played at Southern Hills. What I do know is that he went to Oklahoma State. Southern Hill is less than 1.5 hours away. Given that, and the fact that Noren has 4 T12 finishes or better this year, we have to throw pizza money at this number.