The US PGA Championship is not only the last major of the season; it is also last in terms of importance. A major is a major and that’s not to decry any golfer who has won it in the past. I’m sure that Lee Westwood or Luke Donald would happily put their name to it right now! The Masters has its own special brand of golf on the manicured greens with the flowery backdrop, the British Open is the oldest and best and the Americans are entitled to their own US Open…but the PGA?
If I were to ask anyone but a complete golfing anorak who won the PGA in 2002 and 2009 I very much doubt many of you would know? The answers are Rich Beem and YE Yang. Enough said.
Of course, such scepticism carries little weight with the bookmakers who have all the usual suspects priced up at the top of the market. Tiger Woods is entrenched in his role as automatic favourite and is even shorter after strolling around Firestone at the weekend. Phil Mickelson is second favourite after scooping the Scottish and British Opens on a profitable little stopover in the UK. By the way, his tax bill was a cool £900,000 for that weekend alone!
I have already previewed the event in some depth at golfbettingtip.com and have selected five against the field. With the bookies paying ¼ the odds down to sixth place and Woods very short at 4-1 there could still be some each-way value in the long shots.
The last winner at this year’s venue of Oak Hill was Shaun Micheel in 2003. He was 169th in the rankings at the time. That victory elevated him into the top 50 but where is he ten years on? Well, think of a number and double it…337! With that in mind, I’m going to have a bit of fun with some long shots and hope that one of them can sneak into the frame.
First up is last year’ Open champion Ernie Els. He didn’t do too badly defending his title but 26th place never really raised any hopes of victory. The reason he is worth a flutter here is that he finished 5th at Oak Hill in 2003 so he knows better than most what to expect this week. He is surely overpriced at 90-1.
My second choice is AT & T winner Bill Haas. He played well at Firestone last week to finish tied for seventh place. His form is slightly erratic with a mixture of top ten finishes and missed cuts but it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to see his name on the leaderboard at some stage.
My third selection is less of a long shot having put together a sequence of tied 2nd, tied 6th (Open) and tied 4th. Zach Johnson had his moments at Muirfield and is clearly in fine form. He is playing like one of the top six golfers in the world and 55-1 is surely on the generous side.
Finally, Australian Jason Day has yet to win this year but has hauled in $2.7million! Nice work if you can get it! At the Masters he was trying some kind of weird brain gadget but I’m not sure what his state of mind is at the moment. If he’s tuned it into the most valuable tournaments of the year he’s not doing a bad job.
Ernie Els 90-1 Paddy Power, 112-1 Betfair
Bill Haas 66-1 Paddy Power
Zach Johnson 55-1 Youwin
Jason Day 50-1 Paddy Power, 55-1 Betfair
