The USPGA Championship gets underway in Charlotte on Thursday but before the first tee ball is hit we have enough time to peruse over the many side markets which have been priced up for what should be a very good week of golf.
As ever in the major championships we have a variety of markets to get stuck into and there is a fair bit of value in the field this year it has to be said, helped by the tournament stopping off at a familiar course for PGA Tour followers.
Top South African Player
The first market we are going to take a look at is the select Top South African Player one where just six runners go to post and a couple of those are pretty inexperienced at major level and are probably worth bypassing just on that. That gets rid of Daniel van Tonder and Thriston Lawrence and leaves us with four to choose from. I’ll take Christiaan Bezuidenhout out of the mix as there is no way he is long enough for this place and that gets us to Garrick Higgo, Erik van Rooyen and Dean Burmester.
Van Rooyen is the highest ranked in terms of world rankings of that trio. He was second at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson event a couple of years ago which would be encouraging but his major record puts me off. He hasn’t cracked the top 50 in any of his nine majors and missed the cut in seven of them. Higgo is actually a winner on the PGA Tour this season having landed the Corales Puntacana Championship so he could go well but the length that Burmester has not to mention his touch on the greens makes him the bet for me here. Burmester has cracked the top 20 in three of his last five majors and that might be all he needs here. Already this year on the LIV Tour, Burmester has been second in Hong Hong and fourth in Riyadh and with the course set to suit him I like him to come home in front of his South African rivals here.
Top Scandinavian Player
We have two extra players in the field for the Top Scandinavian Player this week where the big two of Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland are very much the frontrunners in the betting market. Aberg won the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines earlier in the year and is a genuine contender off the back of that level alone with his length as well but he faded fast at The Masters and it is easy to forget that he still relatively inexperienced. Hovland has the opening two days in the Bryson DeChambeau circus so that negates my attention in him.
Cases can be made for most of the other six in truth but Nicolai Hojgaard gets my interest here at 14/1. Admittedly I’d have likes some each way terms that paid three places so we could chase the main two home and get paid out in some form but 14/1 is decent enough even with them in the market. Hojgaard was second at Torrey Pines last year and has some pretty good form on some tough cracks. He won the Italian Open at the Ryder Cup course and has won the DP World Tour Championship. The longer the course the better he seems to be and at the prices I’ll pay to see how hot he can run here.
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Top Great British & Irish Player
As you would expect, there is a much deeper field for the Great Britain and Ireland Player market where Rory McIlroy is an odds on favourite. That is understandable because he is going to be extremely hard to beat on a course that he loves and has such a good record on but I wonder if there is some real value much deeper in the market. The cases for the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and particularly Justin Rose given his run at The Masters are obvious but someone towards the bottom of the betting has caught my eye.
Tom McKibbin is a good pal of McIlroy so you wonder if he will have picked up any tips for the week from his friend or at least played a practice round or two with him around here and if he has, while he might not topple McIlroy, he might go well enough to land some place money at a big price. McKibbin is no mug. He has already finished in the top seven in Adelaide and Hong Kong on the LIV Tour and was third in Singapore on the DP World Tour this season too. He is someone who could be a sleeper for the European Ryder Cup team if he can find a way to earn enough points to be a live wildcard and this is a great chance for that. He is a long shot because there are some great golfers in this field but he might not be a 40/1 shot.
Top 20 Finish
I’ll finish off the side markets preview with a couple of top finish bets. The first market I am going to look to attack is the top 20 finish one. There are some obvious contenders for this market but it is one that I like to use for my outsiders who didn’t quite make the outright staking plan but who can still go well and delivered a payout via this method. A couple of those who I was close to taking but didn’t quite include Min Woo Lee and Tyrrell Hatton but at a shade over 4/1 I like Wyndham Clark.
The immediate thing to like about Clark is he has won around here in the past having landed the Wells Fargo Championship a couple of years ago and we know he can compete in majors and get over the line in them because he won the US Open in 2023 as well. This hasn’t been the best season for Clark so far but a course where his length can be important and elevate him above a decent portion of the field and where he has good memories can get him back in the swing. This week might have come at the right time and rather than risk he is in the top 10 for an outright payout, I’ll give him double the places to land a top 20.
Top 10 Finish Treble
I’ll conclude the write up with a star studded top 10 finish treble. Rory McIlroy looks an obvious pick for the top 10 given that he has won here on four previous occasions and has already won The Players Championship and The Masters this season. Even if he finds one or two too good for him it is unlikely many will be so he can be the first selection and then I like the two men who won this tournament and the US Open last year to complete the treble.
Xander Schauffele is the defending champion this week and while the extra attention on him and his time might deny him completing a successful title defence, he has been second here in each of the last two seasons so he knows his way around the place and that can see him go well, even if it is only to come off the pace to land a top 10 finish. Schauffele has 16 top 10 finishes in majors including seven of his last nine so he has the makings of a top 10 contender here and then with his length a massive factor in this tournament, Bryson DeChambeau can complete the treble. DeChambeau was the runner-up to Schauffele in this last year then won the US Open and he was in the final group at The Masters. Unless he has a mare on or around the greens his length will have him in and around the top 10, a place he occupied on his last visit to this course. The treble pays just over 9/1 and looks good to me.
Tips
Back D.Burmester Top South African Player for a 2/10 stake at 3.25 with BetVictor
Back N.Hojgaard Top Scandinavian Player for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Unibet
Back T.McKibbin Top Great British and Ireland Player (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/4 1-3)
Back him here:
Back W.Clark Top 20 Finish for a 2/10 stake at 5.25 with Spreadex
Back R.McIlroy, X.Schauffele & B.DeChambeau to finish in the top 10 for a 1/10 stake at 10.40 with Bet365
