It’s PGA Championship week and another major event in Louisville following the Kentucky Derby. Some of the top players had press interviews today, and their comments along with adjusted odds to win, tee times, expert picks and props are provided as you shoot for birdies and profit in the 2024 PGA Championship.

The 156 player field will shoot to make the cut and contend for the Wannamaker Trophy on the 7,609 yard Valhalla Golf Club – designed by Jack Nicklaus and the longest Par 71 on the PGA Tour schedule. Power rankings and player profiles and performances included along with adjusted player odds to win since last week.

Weather update: Scattered rain and thunderstorms hit Valhalla and Louisville Tuesday cutting short some players practice rounds. More to continue Wed. and a smaller chance for Thursday’s opening round. But Friday weather shows a 70% chance of rain showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. The near 80 degree temperatures will continue into the weekend with Saturday morning rain less than 40% and intermittent in the afternoon and Sunday’s final round with a slight change (20%) of rain showers and light and variable winds 5-10 mph all four rounds.

PGA Championship Odds To Win

PGA Championship and golf odds from FanDuel Sportsbook refresh periodically and are subject to change, including on props and live betting.

+400: Scottie Scheffler
+750: Rory McIlroy
+1400: Xander Schauffel
+1600: Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm
+2000: Ludvig Aberg
+2800: Bryson DeChambeau
+3300: Collin Morikawa
+3500: Max Homa, Joaquin Niemann
+4500: Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Cam Smith
+4500: Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay
+5000: Justin Thomas
+5500: Tyrrell Hatton
+6000: Cameron Young, Byeong Hun An
+7000: Sam Burns, Hideki Matsuyama, Sahith Theegala
+7500: Jordan Spieth, Jason Day
+8000: Matt Fitzpatrick
+9000: Sungjae Im, Dustin Johnson, Si Woo Kim
+9000: Tony Finau, Will Zalatoris
+10000: Corey Conners, Sepp Straka

Market moves and odds to win adjustments on major contenders since May 6 include McIlroy and Schauffele downward after they finished 1st and 2nd in the Wells Fargo Championship last weekend:

McIlroy from +1100 to +750
Schauffele from +2100 to +1400
Zalatoris +2900 to +9000
Cam Smith +2900 to +4500
Cantlay +2900 to +4500
Homa +2900 to +3500
Morikawa +2900 to +3300
Young +3400 to +6000
Fleetwood +3400 to +4500
Matsuyama +3600 to +7000
Clark +3600 to +4500
Spieth +4100 to +7500
Fitzpatrick +4600 to +8000
Hatton +4600 to +5500
D. Johnson & Finau +5500 to +9000
Tiger Woods +16000 to +40000
Top 10/20 Finish
-270 top 10, -650 top 20: Scheffler
-155/-350: McIlroy
+105/-220: Schauffele
+125/-185: Rahm, Koepka
+160/-145: Aberg
+210/-115: Morikawa, DeChambeau
+240/+100: Niemann
+270/+110: Fleetwood
+280/+115: Cantlay
+290/+125: Clark, Smith
+320/+144: Hovland, Hatton, Thomas
+1300/+500: Tiger Woods
+1500/+600: Phil Mickelson

LIV Golfers in PGA Championship

The 156-player field includes 16 players from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League led by 3-time PGA Championship winner and defending champion Brooks Koepka. Special invites to LIV golfers Dean Burmester, Talor Gooch, Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk, Joaquin Niemann, David Puig and Patrick Reed. Of the 16 LIV players, eight have won major championships – Bryson DeChambeau, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith

Leading golf analysts and contributors picks to win and top finishing position include:

SportingLife: Rahm, Homa, Niemann, Cantlay, Burns
Golf Bet: McIlroy, Morikawa, Aberg with top 10 Day, McCarthy, Morikawa, Koepka and longshots Day, Straka, Zalatoris, Matsuyama
FanDuel: Schauffele, Niemann, Sahith Theegala, Si Woo Kim

Tournament Matchups

Tournament matchups from leading online sportsbooks vary, and updated round-by-round player matchups are provided ahead of each round.

More notable strokes gained and key stats and player performances in SG: Approach, Off-the-Tee and Around-the-Green.

Schauffele (-165) vs. Rahm (+130)
Scheffler (-170) vs. McIlroy (+150) – Bet McIlroy
Rahm (-125) vs. Koepka (+105)
Scheffler (-200) vs. Schauffele (+170) – Bet Schauffele
Koepka (-120) vs. DeChambeau (+100)
Morikawa (-140) vs. Homa (+120) – Bet Homa
Hovland (-120) vs. Clark (+100)
Niemann (-120) vs. DeChambeau (+100)
Spieth (-110) vs. Finau (-110)
Cantlay (-120) vs. Fleetwood

Wells Fargo Championship final leaderboard

-17 R McIlroy (Nir) -12 Schauffele (US) -9 An (Kor) -6 Day (Aus) Im (Kor)

Selected others: -2 Fleetwood (Eng) -1 Power (Ire)

A stunning final back nine saw Rory McIlroy reel in overnight leader Xander Schauffele and claim a fourth career Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy trailed by two shots after seven holes, but four birdies and two eagles in the next eight saw the 35-year-old surge six shots clear.

The Northern Irishman eventually carded a six-under 65 to beat American Schauffele by five shots at Quail Hollow.

McIlroy has now claimed back-to-back PGA titles after winning the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry a fortnight ago.

The world number two says it feels like the “stars are aligning” as he turns his attention to the coming week’s US PGA Championship at Valhalla – the scene of his most recent major championship victory in 2014.

“I really got some confidence winning in New Orleans with Shane,” said McIlroy.

“Coming into this week, at a golf course I am comfortable with, my golf swing feels more comfortable than it has done.

“Going to a venue next week where I have won, it feels like the stars are aligning a little bit. But I have a lot of golf to play and a lot of great players to try to beat.

“I am going into the next major of the year feeling really good about myself.”

South Korea’s An Byeong-hun finished third after a 66, with Australia’s Jason Day three shots further back after a closing 70.

Meanwhile, American Chris Gotterup won the first PGA Tour title of his career with a six-shot victory at the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic.

The 24-year-old recovered from bogeying the first two holes to shoot a four-under final round of 67 and finish clear of compatriots Alistair Docherty and Davis Thompson on 22 under at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club.

The win earns PGA Tour rookie Gotterup a spot at the US PGA Championship.

The Wells Fargo Championship will feature a limited field of 69 players, but not world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, whose wife is expecting the birth of their first child very soon. Odds and top finishing position betting options and props are provided, and the tournament is one of five Signature Events without a cut. So the golfers will play all four rounds shooting for a top prize of $3.6 million from a $20 million prize pool.

No. 6 in the world Swedish sensation Ludvig Aberg (knee soreness) withdrew Monday. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy is the tournament favorite seeking his fourth Wells Fargo Championship title, and second at Quail Hollow.

The 7,558-yard Par 71 Quail Hollow Club hosts the tournament for the fifth time since 2016, and it was also the host course for the 2022 Presidents Cup. Wyndham Clark (-19) won here in 2023 by four shots over Xander Schauffele. Rory McIlroy (-10) won at Quail Hollow in 2021 and is a three-time winner of the event along with a runner-up here in 2012 in a playoff to winner Rickie Fowler. Max Homa (-15) won by three shots in 2019 for his first PGA Tour win, and Jason Day (-12) captured the 2018 event. Justin Thomas won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Weather update: Players will be grouped in threesomes for the first two rounds because of expected thunderstorms Thursday afternoon with 50% chance of rain and winds up to 20 mph. Mostly sunny and mid-70s with light winds in Charlotte on Saturday and Sunday.

Wells Fargo Golf Odds And Favorites

Leading favorites and contenders golf odds from FanDuel Sportsbook refresh periodically and are subject to change, including on props and live betting.

+650: Rory McIlroy
+900: Xander Schauffele
+1600: Wyndham Clark
+2000: Patrick Cantlay
+2200: Max Homa
+2500: Colin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young
+2800: Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland
+3500: Tony Finau, Sam Burns, Si Woo Kim
+3500: Hideki Matsuyama, Matt Fitzpatrick
+4000: Will Zalatoris, Adam Scott, Byeong Hun An
+4500: Jordan Spieth, Alex Noren, Akshay Bhatia
+5000: Jason Day
+5500: Stephan Jaeger, Sepp Straka, Brian Harman
+6000: Billy Horschel, Harris English, Russell Henley
+6000: Sungjae Im, Lucas Glover, Adam Schenk, Corey Conners
+6500: Denny McCarthy, Chris Kirk, J.T. Poston, Rickie Fowler
+7000: Shane Lowry, Kurt Kitayama, Tom Hoge
+9000: Austin Eckroat, Keegan Bradley, Tom Kim
+9000: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Mackenzie Hughes
+10000: Taylor Moore
+11000: Patrick Rodgers, Eric Cole
+12000: Adam Hadwin, Nick Taylor, Matthieu Pavon
+12000: Andrew Putnam, Cam Davis, Jake Knapp
Taylor Pendrith (+12000) is in the field after winning his first PGA Tour event last week at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at odds of +8000 or greater.

Wells Fargo Championship Golf Picks

Leading golf analysts and contributors picks to win and top finishing position include:

SportingLife: Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young, Will Zalatoris and longshots Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley
Golf Bet: Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Cameron Young, Stephen Jaeger with top 10 Harman, Schauffele, Morikawa, Fleetwood
FanDuel: Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau

Stats, golf betting and DFS from RotoBaller

Xander Schauffele leads the field this week in total strokes gained and ranks inside the top five in every strokes gained category. Schauffele tops the Tour in 3-putt avoidance (< 25 feet) and is top 10 in Par 5 Birdie or Better rate (58%). Xander has seven top-10s and four top-5s in 11 starts this season. He fired a 64 in the third round last year, and better odds (+1800) are available for Schauffele to be the Round 1 leader.

RotoBaller notes that only 24.5% of approach shots last year at Quail Hollow came from inside of 150 yards—nearly 15 percentage points lower than the Tour Average. By contrast, over 55% of approach shots last year came from 175 yards and out.

LIV Golf will stage its 2024 Individual Championship event in Chicago on September 13-15, the Saudi-backed series announced on Tuesday.

The 54-hole tournament, the 13th event of the LIV Golf campaign, will be played at 7,104-yards Bolingbrook Golf Club.

In addition to deciding the final placings for the individual crown, the event will determine seedings for the LIV Team Championship.

“It will be an incredible setting for a high-stakes event as players battle it out for the individual title and a roster spot for 2025,” said LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman.

Players who finish in the top 24 of the season standings will secure spots for the 2025 season while those with expiring contracts in the 25-48 positions will become free agents. Those lower would be relegated out and forced into a promotion tournament to regain a LIV Golf berth in 2025.

There is already uncertainty around LIV Golf’s 2025 campaign with its Saudi financiers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), in merger talks with the PGA Tour, negotiations that have stretched well beyond a deadline at the end of 2023.

Thus far, the upstart circuit that lured away several top PGA Tour players has awaited news following last June’s framework agreement merger plan between the PGA Tour and PIF, one that shocked PGA Tour players after months of feuding between the rival tours.

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, with wins in Mexico and Jeddah this season, leads the LIV points race with world number five Jon Rahm of Spain, last year’s Masters champion, second and South African Dean Burmester third.

American Talor Gooch won last year’s LIV Golf season title.

LIV Golf’s seventh event of the season will be next weekend at Singapore. It’s the circuit’s final tune-up before LIV’s Brooks Koepka from the United States seeks to defend his title at the PGA Championship on May 16-19 at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry held a share of the lead on 11-under-par after the first round of the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event on Thursday.

A birdie on the 18th hole saw the pair, who both represented Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, join three other pairings at the top of the leaderboard.

The tournament features fourball formats in the first and third rounds with alternate shot for the second and final rounds.

Also on 11-under were American pair Ben Kohles and Patton Kizzire, England’s Aaron Rai and American David Lipsky and Americans Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard.

With a field lacking many of the tour’s biggest names, world number one Scottie Scheffler is among the top players missing, the two major winners and Ryder Cup Europe players added some much needed star power on the opening day.

McIlroy said that seeing some low scores from the early pairs had put a little pressure on him and Lowry.

“You know that you sort of need to get off to a good start, and thankfully we did. We were 4-under through four, which was really nice to see, and from there you’ve got some momentum and you’re just trying to keep it going,” said the world number two.

“But for the most part today, we kept both balls in play. We were having two looks basically on every hole at birdie, and that’s the way you need to play better ball. Everyone thinks it’s maybe a bit more gung ho than that, but as long as you have two balls in play off the tee, two balls on the green, I think you’re always going to do pretty well in this format,” he added.

McIlroy is making his debut in the tournament and said he is relishing the chance to make a push for a win with a team-mate he knows well.

“I don’t know if I knew what to expect. I’ve watched this tournament a little bit over the years on TV, heard some good things from some of the players. It’s nice to come here, team up with a really good friend, and if we play a good round tomorrow, it’ll be awesome to be in contention for the weekend and try to get a win on the PGA TOUR with a friend beside me. Looking forward to it,” he said.

Lowry, the 2019 British Open champion, said he felt a benefit to his game playing alongside McIlroy.

“I definitely felt today I was less hard on myself than I’ve been in the last few weeks when I hit a couple of bad shots. It’s nice to know you’ve got Rory McIlroy backing you up.

“There’s a nice vibe out there with the two of us,” he added.

There was an unusual delay to play on the 17th hole at TPC Louisiana when an alligator strolled across the tee.

The groups of Bronson Burgoon and Jhonattan Vegas, along with Paul Barjon and Samuel Stevens, had to wait until the reptile had finished his journey before they could tee off the par-3 hole.

A trio of teams were a shot behind the leading quartet after shooting 10-under rounds of 62.

American duo Davis Thompson and Andrew Novak, Belgian Thomas Detry and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre and American Cameron Champ and South African MJ Daffue were all tied for second.

Eric Cole made an ace on the 207-yard par-3 14th, playing in a pairing with Russ Cochran. The 65-year-old Cochran was making his 600th PGA Tour appearance after Cole invited him to get off the 599 mark he had been sat on since his last tour event in 2013.

Scottie Scheffler spent an extra night in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, which typically wouldn’t be such a drag if not for his wife Meredith being pregnant back home in Dallas and awaiting the couple’s first child later this month.

But Mother Nature had other plans, forcing Scheffler to return to Harbour Town Golf Links on Monday morning to play his final three holes of the 2024 RBC Heritage and wrap up his fourth PGA Tour title in his past five starts.

One week and one day after Scheffler slipped into the famed Green Jacket awarded to the Masters champ for the second time in three years, the 27-year-old Texan added another colorful jacket – this time the trademark Tartan Jacket – to his closet and became the first reigning Masters champion to win the RBC Heritage since Bernhard Langer in 1985.

Scheffler, who was 4-under through 15 holes in the final round and 20-under overall when play was suspended due to darkness on Sunday, made two pars and a finishing bogey and signed for a 3-under 68 on Monday, four shots better than Sahith Theegala (68) and five better than reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (65) and past FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay (68). He banked another $3.6 million to surpass more than $18 million this season – and it’s still April.

CBS Sports roving reporter Colt Knost, who grew up with Scheffler following him around Dallas’s Royal Oaks Golf Club, already has one of the best nicknames in golf: The Big Gravy. But he may have earned another one – Knost-radamus – for a prediction seemingly as accurate as those of the 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus. In February 2022, when Scheffler won his first Tour title at the WM Phoenix Open, Knost proclaimed him to be “a worldbeater,” and added, “Now that he’s got that first one, I think the floodgates are going to open for him.”

Scheffler’s latest triumph is his 10th career title, the first player to win that many times (or more) in three seasons since Dustin Johnson did so between 2015-16 and 2017-18. There’s no indication that this flood of success for the world No. 1 will stop any time soon. Did Knost imagine Scheffler would dominate on the PGA Tour? “I really did,” he said. “He never plays badly and he’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met. He will never just go through the motions.”

Some observers suggested that Scheffler would skip the RBC Heritage but Scheffler said he never wavered in his commitment to the tournament. After winning the Masters, Scheffler flew home to Dallas to be with Meredith and didn’t show up to Hilton Head until Tuesday. He played only a nine-hole practice round on Wednesday and spotted much of the field a head start, shanking a bunker shot at his third hole in the first round, making double bogey and needing two late birdies to post 69. He trailed by six and complained of fatigue. But after recharging his batteries, he didn’t make a single bogey or worse until the 72nd hole of the tournament. He shot 65 on Friday and was lurking three back before reminding everyone who is boss with a bogey-free 63 to claim a two-stroke lead.

Scheffler laid down the hammer early, chipping in at the par-5 second hole from 53 feet for eagle. His bump-and-run, executed to perfection, marked his 11th hole-out of the season. He tacked on a birdie at the par-5 fifth and strung together six consecutive pars before the horn blew. When play resumed he wedged to 6 feet for another birdie. When he made his lone blunder, pulling a 4-iron into the water at the par-5 15th, he took a penalty drop and carved a beautiful shot to 11 feet. Darkness had fallen and he could’ve wait until Monday to strike the par putt but he opted to play on and sank the putt. That snapped a streak of 53 consecutive holes without recording a score of more than a four on his card, dating to the 15th hole in his first round. But he pumped his fist with glee for keeping a clean card.

“I felt like I was due for one to drop,” said Scheffler, whose closing bogey gave him a winning total 19-under 265. “So I figured might as well hit it now.”

Clark mounted an early charge, making an eagle and six birdies in his first 11 holes to inch within a stroke of the lead. But his effort to run down Scheffler was spoiled at the 12th hole when Clark tried to punch between trees. His ball struck one of them squarely and ricocheted out of bounds. He made double bogey.

“It was kind of fun for a little bit,” Clark said. “Seemed like maybe we had a chance to do something crazy.”

Only Mother Nature could prolong Scheffler’s victory another day. Play was suspended due to inclement weather at 4:28 p.m. ET, for two hours and 32 minutes. The delay meant they ran out of daylight.

But on Monday, Scheffler capped off winning for the fourth time this year, all of them Signature events. He finished second in the only tournament he did not win during his scorching run. For the week, he topped the field of 69 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, SG: Tee to Green, SG: Approach the Green and scrambling.

“We’re watching greatness right now,” CBS’s Jim Nantz said.

Nantz’s NFL broadcast partner, former Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who played in the Invited Celebrity Classic on PGA Tour Champions last week, estimated he’s played around 500 rounds with Scheffler and said he’s never not broken 70.

“Which is insane,” said Romo who played with him the week before the Masters at Brook Hollow, a Dallas club. “I have not seen a guy hit a golf ball like this since Tiger back in the 2000s when I played with him, the way he was striking the ball, the compression, the trajectory, the spin rate. It was impressive, and I was like, ‘He ain’t losing that tournament.’ ”

No one stopped him at the RBC Heritage either as Scheffler keeps raising the bar in what has the makings of a season for the record books. That is if history doesn’t repeat itself — all 10 of his wins have come in the months of February, March and April. So, time will tell if Scheffler can continue his winning ways when the calendar turns to May.