Back at the start of April, it was Japanese ace Hideki Matsuyama who came through a quality field at Augusta National to claim the first golf Major of the year, The Masters. Matsuyama will be one of a number of top players in the world heading to the famous Ocean Course at the golfing resort of Kiawah Island to compete in the 103rd USPGA Championship.
$11 million in prize money is on offer for the stellar field of professional golf’s elite to compete for across the four days of action at the famous South Carolina links course. Defending champion, Collin Morikawa will be amongst those seeking to land one of the most covered prizes in golf.
If you would like to have a bet either on the rounds taking place across each of the four days of the
tournament (from Thursday through to Sunday), or you would like a bet on the outright tournament winner, then bet365 Sport is a great choice as not only does it offer great golf betting markets, both pre-event and In Play, but also its Live Golf Tracker is a fantastic way to keep up to date with all the action.
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Let’s now take a closer look at the USPGA Championship and its new place in the golfing calendar.
USPGA Championship 2021 Preview
For many years, the USPGA Championship was the last Major of the year, played in September after the British Open. However, a couple of years ago, a change to the calendar saw the USPGA moved to May, with the The Players Championship moved back in the calendar to March.
This means that we now have all four Majors played in successive months, April (The Masters), May (USPGA), June (US Open) and July (British Open).
The tournament is played at different courses each year and last year at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, it was Collin Morikawa that landed the victory, beating Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson by two strokes.
Bethpage Black and Bellerive are just two of the other courses to have held the tournament in the past few years.
The 2021 tournament will feature arguably the strongest field of any event on the golfing calendar. 16 past winners of this event have confirmed they would participate. It would have been 17 had Tiger Woods been fit to compete.
Kiawah Island – Ocean Course
Starting Thursday, this years tournament takes place at Kiawah Island’s famous Ocean Course. It
is one of five courses at the famous resort and it opened in 1991 by hosting the Ryder Cup, which was won by the United States.
It has held the tournament once prior to this event, in 2012 when Rory McIlroy won the first of his two USPGA Championship titles.
The par 72 course is 7,849 yards in length and was designed by Pete and Alice Dye. It is consistently ranked by many golf publications as one of the best courses in the world today. It sits alongside the Atlantic Ocean, with the water playing a key role in many of its most iconic holes.
Strong winds can play a key role in the tournament on many holes and as such, this course tends to play more like a traditional British links, rather than an American parkland course.
PGA Championship History
Players first competed for the PGA Championship in 1916, when Jim Barnes was the very first winner. He was presented with $500 and a gold medal donated by Rodman Wanamaker, the man whose name adorns the trophy that the winning player is presented with to this day.
In its history, the PGA Championship has been moved at various points in time to different times in the calendar, but in 2019 was shifted to May to give the season more definition and to stop the season ending FedEx Cup Playoffs clashing with the start of the NFL season.
An American player has won the trophy 84 times, with Australian players winning five.
The most decorated players in the history of the tournament are Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus, who have both won the event five times. Tiger Woods has won the tournament on four occasions with Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead both landing three wins apieces.
There is a long list of players that have landed two victories that includes Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd, Nick Price, Vijay Singh, Rory McIlroy and the most recent addition to the list, Brooks Koepka who win in both 2018 and 2019.
Current World Golf Rankings – Top 10
- Dustin Johnson (US)
- Justin Thomas (US)
- Jon Rahm (Spa)
- Bryson DeChambeau (US)
- Xander Schauffele (US)
- Collin Morikawa (US)
- Rory McIlroy (N.Ir)
- Patrick Reed (US)
- Tyrell Hatton (Eng)
- Webb Simpson (US)
Who Should Be In With A Chance Of Winning This Week?
Picking the winner of the USPGA Championship can be somewhat tricky as it is the one Major that
has produced more than its fair share of unusual winners in the past. While it is possible someone could come through from the middle rankings or even the lower end of the rankings in the tournament, it does seem more likely that it will be a top 30 ranked player that lands the victory.
One player that seems to have come back into form at the right time is Rory McIlroy. After changing his coach to try and end a long run of poor form, McIlroy was the winner of the Wells Fargo Championship, which was his first win in a good while and at a course where he has won this trophy in the past, he should be considered a real contender.
Another you cannot overlook is the current world number 1 Dustin Johnson, who has been in excellent and consistent form for a lengthy period now. Justin Thomas too, is another player that has a real chance of adding his name to the trophy for a second time. Justin Spieth is another that seems to have recovered his form after a period where he struggled.
With seven players inside the world’s top ten, the challenge from the United States to win this trophy will be strong and given the country’s excellent record in this championship, the odds would tend to favour a US-winner this week.
Who Are Our Tips To Back?
Rory McIlroy is the 12/1 favourite with the bookmakers to win the USPGA this week, but as much as I admire the Irishman’s return to form, I think having two wins in three weeks in two big championships is not that likely.
Length at the Ocean Course can be key and as such, Bryson DeChambeau is an interesting option at 14/1, but if I was a betting man, the consistent Dustin Johnson at 16/1 would be my pick to win the event in a Win Outright bet.
For an each way, longer odds value punt, I’d be looking at Shane Lowry at 90/1. The British Open champion won’t be fazed by the links-nature of the course and he has one of the best short-games in the field, which can be key on this long course. With each way pay outs for the top eight players, I think Lowry is a good bet at those odds.
