PGA Championship preview

Odds

Hunter Mahan: 25-1
Rickie Fowler: 80-1
Bo Van Pelt: 150-1
Charles Howell III: 150-1
Peter Uihlein: 300-1
Alex Noren: 350-1

Pairings

Thursday tee times in parentheses, tournament is on TNT from noon to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and CBS on Saturday and Sunday.

Fowler, Sergio, Kuchar (7:55 a.m. ET)
Uihlein, Furyk, Bjorn (8:45 a.m. ET)
Mahan, Casey, Horschel (12:45 p.m. ET)
Howell III, Martin, Ernst (12:45 p.m. ET)
Van Pelt, Siem, Thompson (1:00 pm. ET)
Noren, Moore, Donaldson (1:20 p.m. ET)

Preview

The PGA Championship is at Oak Hill (Rochester, NY) this year for the first time since 2003. The winner that year was Shaun Micheel (I know, WTF) and the only other time it’s been played there Nicklaus won in 1980.

The course is long — not Augusta long but long enough — and the greens are playing really fast right now. Of the 300+ golfers who have teed it up in the two past PGAs here only four (!) have finished the week under par (two of them won: Nicklaus at -6 and Micheel at -4). I think anything around -2 or -3 is going to be in play on Sunday.

Pick

I’m taking Henrik Stenson to get his first major but I have Mahan as the top Poke. He’s been terrific at the last two majors and I feel like Oak Hill is better suited to his style than it is Fowler’s. I’m pulling for Van Pelt though (FOR SELFISH REASONS).