2022 PGA Championship First Round Betting: McIlroy, Morikawa, Koepka Provide Value

Golf’s second major tournament of the year is quickly approaching as the 2022 PGA Championship is set to take place at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning on Thursday, May 19.

Any golfer hoping to win this year’s title must be ready to give it their all in each of the tournament’s four rounds. However, it’s also important to get off to a hot start, which is why Round 1 is so important.

There’s no telling who the first-round leader will be until Thursday is over, but the latest odds from BetOnline Sportsbook help shed some light on the likeliest scenarios.

PGA Championship Round 1 Trends

Before looking at this year’s betting options, some might be wondering just how often the first-round leader has gone on to win the PGA Championship.

When it comes to the last five years, Brooks Koepka is the only PGA Championship first-round leader to go on and win the entire event. He ended Round 1 with a seriously impressive score of 63 before finishing the tournament with a 272 overall.

If you extend the time period to 10 years, Jimmy Walker is the only other Round 1 leader to win the PGA Championship, which he accomplished in 2016. He shot 65 in the first round and stayed 68 or below in the following three to finish at 266.

Needless, it’s clear that the first-round leader rarely goes on to win the PGA Championship. Is that to say it’s impossible to happen this year? No, but whoever is in the lead after Thursday will have a lot of work to do to stay up there.

2022 PGA Championship First Round Odds

• Rory McIlroy (+2000)
• Jordan Spieth (+2700)
• Cameron Smith (+2700)
• Jon Rahm (+2900)
• Scottie Scheffler (+2900)
• Viktor Hovland (+2900)
• Hideki Matsuyama (+2900)
• Justin Thomas (+3100)
• Collin Morikawa (+3300)
• Patrick Cantlay (+3300)
• Will Zalatoris (+3300)
• Xander Schauffele (+3300)
• Shane Lowry (+3300)
• Alex Noren (+3300)

The complete odds can be found on BetOnline Sportsbook.

2022 PGA Championship First Round Best Bets

Below is a look at some of the more promising first-round betting options to put money on ahead of the 2022 PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy (+2000)

When looking at the Round 1 PGA Championship betting options, it’s hard not to be attracted to the favorite, Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy has been extremely consistent on the 2022 PGA TOUR, finishing the first round with a score of 69 or better in four of the seven official events that he’s competed in. Those are exactly the type of numbers one wants from a first-round leader.

Furthermore, McIlroy also has momentum on his side after placing second and fifth at the Masters and Wells Fargo Championship in his last two outings, respectively. After all, the golfers who catch fire at the right time are the most dangerous.

McIlroy has finished the first round of the PGA Championship with a 70 in two of his last four entries and could be posed to play even better due to his recent success.

Collin Morikawa (+3300)

Collin Morikawa will be one of the handful of former PGA Championship winners in attendance this week, having won the tournament back in 2020.

Morikawa performed well in the first round that year, ending the day with a 69. He actually went on to record a 69 or better in each of the four rounds that year, finishing with 65 and 64 in the final two frames, respectively.

The 2021 edition of the tournament was the only other time he entered the PGA Championship, finishing with a 70 in Round 1. It’s a small sample size, but Morikawa has proven that he’s usually ready to compete right out of the gate.

Additionally, he’s finished with a score of below 70 in six of the 10 events he’s competed in on the 2022 PGA TOUR. With Morikawa’s knack to start things off on the right foot, he’s worth considering as a betting option this week.

Brooks Koepka (+5000)

Brooks Koepka can be a hard golfer to predict at times. Sometimes plays like one of the sport’s top golfers, while leaving much to be desired other times. Having said that, he can provide bettors with some solid value this week.

Koepka tends to take things to another level when the PGA Championship is involved in recent years. He won the tournament in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019 while just tying Louis Oosthuizen for second place at last year’s event.

As mentioned before, Koepka won the entire tournament after being the Round 1 leader in 2018 and it wouldn’t be a shock if he did it again. In fact, the 32-year-old has an average first-round score of 67.2 in his last six PGA Championship appearances.

In other words, taking Koepka as the Round 1 leader at +5000 odds provides some promising value for someone who’s performed well historically at the major tournament.

Will There Be a Wire-to-Wire Winner at the 2022 PGA Championship?

Being the Round 1 leader at the 2022 PGA Championship is one thing, but being the wire-to-wire winner is even more difficult.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a wire-to-wire winner is when a golfer is in the lead after Round 1 and doesn’t lose that spot at all throughout the tournament. Yes, it’s just as tough as it sounds.

BetOnline Sportsbook doesn’t see that happening at Southern Hills this week. The sportsbook is favoring that there won’t be a wire-to-wire winner at -3000 odds, with the possibility of there being one listed at +850.

Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm are BetOnline Sportsbook’s +1200 co-favorites to win the PGA Championship this week. However, both Rahm and Scheffler only have +2900 odds (T-No. 4) to be the first-round leader after Thursday.

For reference, +2900 odds translate into an implied probability percentage of only 3.33%.

On the flip side, Rory McIlroy is favored at +2000 to be the Round 1 leader and has +1600 odds T-No 3) to win the PGA Championship. A wire-to-wire winner is fairly unlikely, but it seems like McIlroy has the best shot of doing so judging by his odds.

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