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Horse Racing Early PGA Championship 2024 Best Bet: 34.00 Pick For Next Year’s Action
The PGA Championship Best Bet: Thursday, September 21st
Valhalla Golf Club will once again be the host course for The PGA Championship in 2024. We have analysed the early betting markets to bring you our PGA Championship best bet.
- Selection: Justin Thomas
- Best Odds: 34.00 (bet365)
- Stakes: 1/10
Odds via bet365 as at 21.45 18th September 2023. Odds may now differ.
In this article:
Early 2024 PGA Championship Preview
The PGA Championship returns to Valhalla Golf Club in 2024, having last hosted in 2014.
Valhalla played as a 7,488 yard par 72 when the PGA Championship was last held at the course in 2014 but is set to play 7,765 yards for next year’s event. That extra length didn’t stop PGA club professional Michael Block shooting a nine under par round of 63 earlier this summer but conditions are expected to be tougher next May.
Length off the tee will be an enormous advantage, the top four in 2014 were all above average length off the tee that season on the PGA Tour, and I’m heavily favouring driving distance once again.
Rory McIlroy topped the driving distance statistics when winning at Valhalla in 2014 and he’s certainly worth considering. Priced up at 10/1 with bet365, he’s longer odds to repeat his win from ten years ago than he is to win The Masters or The Open Championship in 2024. I’d rather back him at Valhalla than either of those events and for that reason alone, he was in my thoughts.
Two of the longest hitters, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, have to be discussed given their dominance in this event in recent years. Between them, they have lifted the Wanamaker Trophy in five of the last seven years.
Kopeka simply cannot be dismissed having finished outside the top 15 in this event only twice since 2015. His game is built for the tests presented by the PGA Championship and US Open and I certainly wouldn’t put anyone off bet365’s industry best odds of 17.0 on Koepka defending his title. He won back to back in 2018 and 2019 after all.
Koepka’s price certainly caught my eye but he will play little golf between now and March given his schedule with LIV Golf. We could well see his price drift given others will have the opportunity to impress on the early PGA Tour events in 2024. With that in mind, it is the price of Justin Thomas that stands out.
Odds of 34.0 with bet365 are available at the time of writing given he has been in somewhat of a slump of late. However, he was fifth at last week’s Fortinet Championship and finished twelfth prior to that at the Wyndham Championship. There’s no doubt he’s struggled this year but the signs are that he’s on the way back and taking 34.0 now whilst the perception is he’s struggling may look like a shrewd move come May next year.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that Thomas is no stranger to bouncing back from indifferent form. He was heavily criticised at the start of 2021 for using a homophobic slur at the Tournament of Champions and missed several cuts before bouncing back with a win at The Players Championship. The old adage that form is temporary and class is permanent springs to mind, with JT expected to come out firing in 2024.
Unlike Koepka, Thomas often gets off to a fast start at the beginning of the year. Thomas has won an event between January and March in four of his last seven years on the PGA Tour, with several of the winless years featuring a number of near misses. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him win an event on the PGA Tour early in 2024 and his price subsequently shortening for the PGA Championship.
Early 2024 PGA Championship Best Bet
One potential negative for Thomas is the fact he didn’t play in the 2014 PGA Championship. Still a relative rookie at the time, he was still making his way on the Korn Ferry Tour at that point. However, he won’t be short of course experience given he hails from Louisville and should know the course better than most. He took to Twitter to announce his delight when the course was confirmed as the 2024 venue and he’s sure to play plenty of warm up rounds there in the coming months.
With home support roaring him on, take the industry best price of 34.0 with bet365 on Thomas to win the PGA Championship for a third time.
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