PGA Major Championship 1st Round: Predictions, Odds & Best Bets

Fast starters at the PGA Major Championship have a happy recent knack of staying the pace which should focus the minds of every member of the field as they stand on the first tee at Aronimink on Thursday.

Wire-to-wire winners have bolted up three times in the past decade at this event, Jimmy Walker in 2016, Brooks Koepka three years later and then, in 2024, Xander Schauffele, who broke the course record at Valhalla with a day-one 62 en route to glory.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy head the 1st Round leader betting arriving on the tee at a 7,394-yard par 70 layout which has not staged a Major in over 50 years.

Defending champion Scheffler is a +1400 shot with Masters champion McIlroy +1800, the Northern Irishman having gone wire-to-wire at Augusta last month.

PGA Major Championship 1st Round: Predictions, Odds & Best Bets

Cam Young 1st Round Leader (+2200)

The names of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are an intimidating sight on any start list but it's the name just behind them in the betting who has perhaps been garnering more attention going to Aronimink.

Cameron Young is third favourite at +1100 to land his first major in Pennsylvania this week and his form figures certainly suggest he can upstage the two big dogs and everyone else for that matter.

And it follows that Young can get off to a fast start - because he has already proved it this season.

The American World No.3 is a two-time winner this season, fending off Matt Fitzpatrick down the stretch to win the Players Championship at Sawgrass, and then two weeks ago romping to a six-shot success at the Cadillac Championship.

Young led from the front at Doral, topping the leaderboard on day one with a 64 and never looking back.

The 29-year-old has had three wins on Tour since August and, to demonstrate his mettle in the biggest events, has had seven top-10s in his last 16 Majors. The breakthrough is surely just around the corner.

He has a history of leading a Major after round one - he did just that at the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews where he would ultimately finish runner-up to Cam Smith by a stroke.

His first-round scoring average this season is 69.4, well below the Tour average of 70.5, and he looks a massive threat both on day one and over the course of the week.

Tyrrell Hatton 1st Round Leader (+5500)

Say whatever you want about LIV Golf and its place in the game, but we all know there are Major winners and Major winners-to-be in amongst their number.

One of the latter category is surely Tyrrell Hatton, who looks ideally suited to Aronimink and has the form figures to fly out of the blocks.

Hatton has played all seven events on the LIV circuit in 2026 and has carded rounds in the 60s on day one of each of them.

For the record, his opening 18s read as thus - 67-69-64-68-69-69-66. That's an opening-round average of 67.4.

Admittedly, he started slowly at Augusta where he began with a 74, although he still finished in a tie for third.

The fiery Englishman has career top-10s at places like Sedgefield, Detroit and East Lake, all courses, like Aronimink, designed by Donald Ross, so he has to be happy with this week's venue and can make an instant impact.

Russell Henley 1st Round Leader (+5500)

It's hard to ever identify the ideal profile of a player to flourish on certain tracks, but the player who wins on Sunday will unquestionably have to be a good scrambler.

Penal rough and really well-placed fairway bunkers mean there will be plenty of greens missed in regulation, so getting up and down will be a weapon.

And no one is doing that better - statistically at least - on the PGA Tour this year than Russell Henley.

The US Ryder Cup star is running at 72.7 percent in scrambling, meaning he converts to par or better after missing the dance floor in pretty much three times out of four. And that's serious.

Henley isn't having quite the year he would have hoped for but three top 10s, latterly a T3 at Augusta, emphasise he is a player you can never dismiss.

He is the world No.9 and is more than capable of setting a pace.

PGA Major Championship 1st Round odds

Scottie Scheffler	+1400
Rory McIlroy	+1800
Cameron Young	+2200
Jon Rahm	+2500
Xander Schauffele	+2800
Ludvig Aberg	+2800
Bryson DeChambeau	+3300
Matt Fitzpatrick	+3300
Tommy Fleetwood	+3500
Brooks Koepka	+4000

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.