Now that Rory McIlroy’s major championship drought of nearly 11 years is behind him, it seems to sportsbooks that anything’s possible.
While Scottie Scheffler has been the de facto betting favorite to win any given major over the past few years, McIlroy’s stock has risen to the point that he’s a co-favorite with Scheffler to win the PGA Championship next month.
At BetMGM, Scheffler opened as the +450 favorite to win the second major of the season, while McIlroy was not too far behind at +900. As of Monday — one day after McIlroy’s historic victory at the Masters — McIlroy moved to co-favorite status with Scheffler at +500.
It was a similar story at DraftKings, where both players were listed at +500. The Canadian platform theScore Bet went a step further, posting McIlroy as the overall favorite at +450, with Scheffler at +475.
FanDuel Sportsbook didn’t go quite that far, keeping Scheffler as the +500 favorite while moving McIlroy to +550. But the consensus works out to a two-man race.
The Masters victory, which made McIlroy the sixth golfer to complete the modern career Grand Slam, is only part of the equation.
The PGA Championship will be held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., where McIlroy has won the PGA Tour event formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship a whopping four times in his career.
There’s also the matter of form. The Masters was McIlroy’s third victory of the season, following wins against tough fields at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship.
Scheffler, meanwhile, isn’t winning at the same torrid pace he did in 2024 (seven official tour events, plus the Olympics). He has three top-fives and hasn’t finished worse than T25, but the World No. 1 has yet to break through for a victory this season.
BetMGM also reported that McIlroy is its biggest liability at the PGA Championship (May 15-18). The Northern Irishman has accrued the greatest percentage of the handle (23.2 percent) and total tickets (16.6 percent) of any golfer in the field.
–Field Level Media
