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PGA Championship odds: Vegas makes Rory McIlroy a slight favorite over Jordan Spieth
Gregory Shamus
Final PGA Championship odds are out and Rory McIlroy will arrive at Quail Hollow as a slight favorite over Jordan Spieth. McIlroy (7/1) gets the edge over Spieth (8/1) from Westgate Las Vegas Superbook on the strength of his two previous victories at this year's PGA Championship venue.
Spieth, however, is the hotter player having won the Travelers Championship and British Open in successive starts before finishing T-13 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational this past weekend. McIlroy, with best friend Harry Diamond caddying for him for the first time, finished T-5 at Firestone.
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational winner Hideki Matsuyama and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson will enter the PGA Championship with the third-lowest odds at 12/1. They are followed by Rickie Fowler (15/1), Jon Rahm (20/1), and Jason Day and Brooks Koepka at 25/1.
Both McIlroy (2010) and Fowler (2012) made the Wells Fargo their first career PGA Tour titles. McIlroy added another victory in the 2015 event, making him the only player with two wins on the Charlotte, N.C., course. Those two will play with Jon Rahm the first two rounds in one of the PGA Championship's marquee pairings. Spieth will play with the other two winners of the year's first two major championships, Koepka and Sergio Garcia (35/1).
Despite never winning at Quail Hollow, Phil Mickelson is the Wells Fargo Championship's all-time leading money winner. The five-time major champ will go off at 40-to-1 odds.
Having won his third different major at Royal Birkdale, Spieth, who recently turned 24, will be attempting to become the youngest player to complete the modern career Grand Slam. McIlroy, who needs a green jacket to join the group of five players (Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen) who have won all four, is 0-for-3 at the Masters since picking up his third different major at the 2014 British Open. And if you don't like either Spieth's or McIlroy's odds this week, you can bet on who finishes the career Grand Slam first. Of course.