Outside tips to win 2024 PGA Championship: LIV Golf big-hitter, top English star and local Kentucky boy among potential winners
Scottie Scheffler is once again the favourite for major glory at the upcoming PGA Championship but a host of other names are eager to challenge him for the title.
Scheffler romped to victory at The Masters last month. He arrived at Augusta with overwhelmingly one-sided odds but backed it up with a superb performance.
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All you need to know about 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla
But the World No.1 is yet to confirm that he will be at Valhalla Golf Club for the second major of the year as he awaits the birth of his first child.
Several top players will be eager to pounce if he doesn’t tee it up or even if the new addition to the Scheffler household just means he has a rare quiet week.
Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and defending champion Brooks Koepka are among the fellow favourites but there are some prominent names further down the bookies’ lists.
Collin Morikawa
Despite still only being 27 years old, Morikawa is a two-time major winner and claimed the Wanamaker Trophy at Harding Park in 2020.
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He followed that up by claiming glory at the 2021 Open but hasn’t had his best at the biggest tournaments since.
Morikawa had struggled for form this season but hit back in style at The Masters, finishing T3 and had a chance to win it on Sunday.
His prodigious iron game is returning to its best and that is always a key weapon at tough courses like Valhalla.
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Bryson DeChambeau
Another player who performed well at The Masters last month was big-hitting LIV Golf star DeChambeau.
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He shot an opening 65 at Augusta before eventually finishing T6 and proved he is still more than capable of mixing it at the majors.
DeChambeau blasted his way to glory at the 2020 US Open but now has a more rounded game, with better touch on and around the greens to supplement his power.
He hasn’t won on LIV this season and has struggled in his two tournaments since The Masters.
But his game perfectly suits a test like the PGA Championship and he’ll be eager to fly the LIV flag once more.
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Tommy Fleetwood
One man knocking firmly at the major winners’ door is England’s top player Fleetwood.
Now ranked 11th in the world, Fleetwood is edging ever closer to claiming his first win on the PGA Tour.
He has five top ten finishes in his last eight major tournaments including T3 at The Masters last month.
He performed well at the Genesis and Valero Texas Open earlier this year and also won the Dubai Invitational.
Fleetwood now needs to perform at his best for all four days and hope that is enough for him to finally join the winner’s circle in the USA.
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Wyndham Clark
Clark is arguably the second best player in the world right now behind Scheffler.
Last year’s US Open champion won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February before coming second to Scheffler at the Arnold Palmer AND The Players.
He also performed well at the RBC Heritage and will be hoping his next win is just around the corner.
Clark is among a batch of current, quality players with one major title to their name – DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman etc.
He will want to break out of that pack as soon as possible and prove that his win at LA Country Club last June was not a one-off.
However, he is heading to Valhalla out of form having finished a lowly T47 at the Wells Fargo Championship last weekend.
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Justin Thomas
Thomas has had a tough couple of years but this tournament will mean more to him than anyone else in the field.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, just a stone’s throw from Valhalla, the local boy will be desperate to perform well.
JT has already won the PGA Champisnhip twice – in 2017 at Quail Hollow and in 2022 at Southern Hills.
However, that win in Tulsa was his last and he hasn’t performed well at a major since, missing the cut at four of the last five.
But he knows Valhalla as well as anybody and the home support should inspire him to his best again.
Old footage shows Tiger Woods producing his iconic ‘Putt and Point’ celebration at Valhalla in his 2000 PGA Championship win
Talor Gooch
He couldn’t, could he?
Gooch has spent much of the past two years rubbing his old PGA Tour rivals up the wrong way.
The outspoken American is now on the LIV tour and has taken plenty of shots at his former employers and colleagues.
Gooch, who has said he won’t bother trying to qualify for the US Open or The Open, was handed a special invitation to Valhalla.
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He won three times on LIV last year and has been in good form for some time.
Now, he’ll have the chance to prove how good he really is on the biggest stage.
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