golf

Brooks Koepka’s odds shorten on eve of PGA Championship

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Brooks Koepka is healthy and entering the PGA Championship in good form — and the public has taken notice.

After opening at +3300 to win at BetMGM, Koepka’s odds have shortened to +2000 on the eve of the PGA Championship. He’s the sportsbook’s biggest liability ahead of the year’s second major and is second to Jon Rahm in both total bets (7.5 percent) and money (9.7 percent) wagered on the 156-player field.

Koepka is also being offered at +2000 at DraftKings and BetRivers, where he is third in the field with 4.6 and 6.4 percent of the action, respectively.

The most recent of Koepka’s four major titles came at the 2019 PGA Championship, which made him the most recent player to successfully defend at the PGA. He has four majors in all on his resume, but Koepka struggled with injuries in recent years before bolting for LIV Golf in 2022.

His last win on the PGA Tour came at the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open, and Koepka slid all the way to 118th in the Official World Golf Ranking by March with LIV players not accumulating rankings points. Then came a win at the LIV event in Orlando that spring-boarded Koepka to a second-place finish at the Masters.

Koepka has kept the momentum going since Augusta, posting a T11, solo third and T5 in the past three LIV events.

The 33-year-old also has a reputation for rising to the occasion on majors week — despite letting a Sunday lead slip away at the Masters.

Koepka’s first PGA Championship win came at Bellerive in Missouri while his second came at the extremely difficult Bethpage Black in New York.

Oak Hill is a par 70 that will play very long at 7,394 yards. Koepka has conquered many similar challenges in the past, and the public clearly believes he’s a strong candidate to do so again this week.

Koepka is the only LIV player in the top 10 of the total bets or money wagered at DraftKings, where he is also third with 6.5 and 7.3 percent, respectively. BetRivers did report that Talor Gooch’s odds shortened from +10000 to +7000 at the sportsbook, with “several wagers of at least $250” placed on the two-time LIV event winner.

–Field Level Media

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