Diane Knox Balas' best PGA Championship prop bets: Can Tiger Woods contend?

Tiger Woods hits a shot at the Genesis Invitational.

Diane Knox Balas

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Diane Knox Balas loves golf (she’s Scottish, so of course she does) but let’s just say she’s much better at analyzing golf than playing! The same cannot be said for her brother, Russell Knox, who’s a 2-time winner on the PGA Tour and fueled Diane’s initial passion for the sport. A seasoned TV and radio host, Diane has given out 8 outright winners since joining the Pickswise team in April 2022. Her general rule is she has to have three stand-out reasons for each pick and spends her time studying stats, playing form and little nuggets of information from golfers’ lives on Tour. Diane lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Garrett, son Greyson and two English Bulldogs Bowser & Barkley. You can follow her antics on Twitter @KnoxyDiane and Instagram @dianeknoxbalas. For Diane Knox Balas media enquiries, please email contact@pickswise.com.

@KnoxyDiane

Updated: 8:25 AM ET May 17, 2022

It’s the best time of year to be a golf fan, with four majors in the span of four months. Following Scottie Scheffler’s triumph at the Masters, the second of the major championships takes place this week. The 104th PGA Championship will be played at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Arguably the best and deepest field in all of golf may not include defending champion Phil Mickelson, but Tiger Woods is good to go on the heels of an encouraging performance at Augusta National.

Here are my best prop bets for the PGA Championship and also be sure to check out my course insights and best outright bets for the PGA Championship.

PGA Championship prop bets

Brooks Koepka top-5 finish (+850 at FD Sportsbook)

“Mr. PGA Championship” has won two of them and he finished runner-up last year behind Mickelson. Last week Koepka withdrew from the AT&T Byron Nelson before play began, but he went straight to Tulsa to work on his game and get help with whatever issue forced him to WD. Let’s hope he’s fit and healthy, but Koepka seems to find a new gear when it comes to the PGA and at 8/1 I’d put some money on him finishing in the top 5.

Brooks Koepka hits from the sixteenth tee during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament.

Tiger Woods top-10 finish (+600 at DK Sportsbook)

Tiger is teeing it up for the second time this year and going for his fifth PGA Championship title. What did we take from Tiger’s appearance at the Masters? Well, he was able to walk a very hilly course for four days and we saw some brilliant golf, especially on Thursday and Friday. He was striking the ball well and, bizarrely enough, his putter was the club that let him down. You better believe he’s been working on that! We know he played all 18 at Southern Hills a few weeks ago and arrived on site nice and early last week. He also has said he’s feeling “a lot stronger” than he did last month and caddy Joe LaCava says he sees “more endurance.” He won the PGA here in ’07, albeit before the course renovations, and wouldn’t it be incredible to see him up on that leaderboard come Sunday? I’m all in on a Tiger top 10.

Robert MacIntyre top-10 finish (+1100 at FD Sportsbook)

I’m backing a fellow Scot this week, and I’m going to highlight MacIntyre for you. He is a big hitter, loves playing in the wind and already has three top-12 finishes in majors. Odds of 8/1 seem favorable for a top-10 bet.

Russell Knox top-10 finish (+2500 at DK Sportsbook)

Ok, so this is my “heart” bet for the week. Russell Knox, my younger brother, got into the field on Sunday morning when Paul Casey withdrew. We have a family group text and we were all updating each other as soon as anyone withdrew and Russell moved up the alternate list! He’s so excited to be part of the field, his first major since the 2019 Open Championship, and when he saw that windy forecast he was delighted! He has picked up a lot of distance over the past year and his greens in regulation stat has always been a strong point of his game.

Pickswise is the home of free expert Golf Picks and Golf Predictions. Our PGA expert picks go live every Monday or Tuesday, so check out our latest golf picks, best bets, and analysis for this week’s PGA tournament now.