Welcome to our PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow him on X at @LasVegasGolferand you can read his early picks below for the PGA Championship, which will begin on May 14 in Newtown Square, Penn.
“I intended to make this lesson my masterpiece, but until today I realized that I created it better than I knew.”
Famous golf course designer, Donald Ross, said of Aronimink in 1948, the site of this year's 108th PGA Championship, 20 years after the golf course opened. Legendary golf historian and restoration master, Gil Hanse, was brought in to Newtown Square, Penn., along with his partner, Jim Wagner, in 2016 to work their magic and transform Aronimink back to the major tournament level Ross had originally intended.
More than 150 players, including 20 PGA club professionals, will enter the Philadelphia area next week for the second major tournament of 2026. What better place to host one of golf's crowning events than at the Birthplace of America in the year of the nation's 250th birthday? Hot dogs, apple pie, and some fireworks if we can get right to the champion and this year's recipient of the Wanamaker Trophy.
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Reaching nearly 7,400 yards, the Aronimink will play a par of 70 in this year's tournament. The fairways were made slightly wider by Hanse, who also removed the tree, and added 100 layers of sand to what is now a total of 174 to pepper the structure. The fairways feature a slight slope, creating uneven lies when negotiating primarily long iron shots into Ross's classic style greens, complete with humps and bumps and shaved fairways.
Today's PGA Championship was a bombshell's paradise. Brooks Koepka has won three of the last 10 years. Bryson DeChambeau finished second in the last two. Difficult driving courses such as Quail Hollow, Valhalla, and Oak Hill have been the norm for this test in recent years. However, I believe that Aronimink may prefer to be more accurate off the tee. Total Driving (distance and accuracy) is a reasonable skill set as I believe finding the right position on the fairways trumps just raw length. Long iron play from uneven lies, hitting the greens not only with control, but also on some of the best greens, and amazing short game skills, all have my first profile on how to best solve Aronimink.
We saw this golf course a few times before it was restored when it hosted the AT&T National. The last time we saw it was after the overhaul at the 2018 BMW Championship when Keegan Bradley beat Justin Rose in the playoffs. For lessons that have some crossover features, look no further than some of the Ross designs we see regularly. Pinehurst No. 2 hosted the US Open in 2014 and 2024. Sedgefield Country Club is the annual host of the Wyndham Championship and Detroit Golf Club has hosted the Rocket Mortgage Classic now for six seasons. Oak Hill hosted the PGA Championship in 2013 and 2023, another Ross design, then East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta where, for several decades now, they have played the Tour Championship.
The Original Bet
Xander Schauffele (18-1)
I currently have three games in the pack. Schauffele is one of the shorter shots, trading as the fifth or sixth favorite on the board at this point. Yes, he is a former PGA champion, who won at Valhalla in 2024. Schauffele is arguably Donald Ross' biggest pro on Tour, a three-time East Lake winner and runner-up. He was third at Aronimink in 2018, seventh at Pinehurst in 2024 and 18th at Oak Hill in 2023. In Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, he ranks 14th on Tour. He ranks 20th from 200 yards or more. Schauffele is third on Tour in Scrambling and 42nd in Strokes Gained: Putting. Off the tee, he is 45th in Driving Distance and 65th in Driving Accuracy. The current form seems to be on par with consecutive finishes of 3-4-9-12 in his last four games.
Russell Henley (56-1)
For so many years, Henley was thought not to be tall enough to compete in some of the sport's biggest courses. Having risen to a Top 10 player in the world in recent years, he won at Bay Hill and finished in the top 5 at Augusta National twice. He checks almost every box that goes into Aronimink for me except that the metal game is a bit off in 2026. But, he just finished third at the Masters last month. It is also worth noting that, since 2019 when the PGA Championship moved to May on the calendar, every winner had finished in the top 10 at the Masters in the previous month, except for Phil Mickelson in 2021. 2020 is not counted because The Masters was played in November that year. As for Ross' other projects, Henley was seventh at Pinehurst in 2024, has finished in the top 10 at Sedgefield, top 10 at Detroit Golf Club, and finished second, third, and fourth at East Lake Golf Club.
Rickie Fowler (100-1)
One long shot before we leave and I'm sticking to the Donald Ross angle. Fowler was runner-up at Pinehurst in 2014, 19th at Oak Hill in 2013, runner-up at East Lake and won in a playoff at Detroit Golf Club in 2023. He also finished eighth here at Aronimink in the 2018 BMW Championship. The 2026 putt is consistent as he ranks 11th on Tour in Scrambling, 20th in Strokes Gained: Putting, eighth in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, and 28th in Total Driving.
I will continue to lean towards the accuracy angle more than just power and as Hanse said about his overhaul and this championship, it will come down to the short game. The ability to study these green plants, undulations, scratches, ups and downs to fit. It is a Ross tradition that winners are always decided and I believe that with Mother Nature's cooperation, that is what we will end up with here in Philadelphia next week. Stay tuned as I'll have my full card of outside news here on Tuesday.
