2022 PGA Championship: predictions, tee-times and groups to watch

Everything you need to know about the men’s golf major at Southern Hills

The winner of the US PGA Championship lifts the Wanamaker Trophy
The winner of the US PGA Championship lifts the Wanamaker Trophy
(Image credit: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

Golf’s second men’s major of the year, the US PGA Championship, will get under way on Thursday at the Southern Hills Country Club – and without defending champion Phil Mickelson.

The six-time major winner has been taking a break from the sport since the “fall-out from his explosive comments” about the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series, said Sky Sports. He also missed the Masters Tournament for the first time in 28 years and has not played since February.

With his exile from golf continuing, Mickelson’s absence “looms large” over the 104th PGA Championship, said Tom Kershaw in The Independent. It has been the “major talking point” as players prepared for Southern Hills, “even more so than the appearance of Tiger Woods”.

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Tiger: I believe in legacies

It was “inevitable” that Woods would be asked about the breakaway LIV Golf Series and his long-time rival Mickelson, said Matt Cooper on PlanetSport. And when it happened “he did not pull any punches”.

“I understand different viewpoints”, Woods said, but “I believe in legacies, I believe in major championships and big events, comparisons to historical figures of the past”. When asked about Mickelson he added that it’s “always disappointing when the defending champion is not here”, but “Phil has said some things that I think a lot of us who are committed to the Tour and the legacy of the Tour have pushed back against”.

1. Groups to watch and TV details

One of the groups to watch in the first and second rounds will be Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth – who between them have won 22 major championships. Another “marquee” group is Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa, “the top three in the world”, said the BBC. In the rest of the field, high-profile groups include Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry and Adam Scott, and the all-US trio of Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas.

The 2022 PGA Championship will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports Golf, all times BST:

  • Thursday 19 May: first round live (1pm to 1am)
  • Friday 20 May: second round live (1pm to 1am)
  • Saturday 21 May: third round live (2pm to 12am)
  • Sunday 22 May: final round live (2pm to 12am)

2. Pundit predictions: who will win?

American golfer Scottie Scheffler poses with the Masters trophy and Green Jacket

Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is one of the favourites
(Image credit: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Staff at PGATour.com have been selecting their picks for the winner of the PGA Championship. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion, is backed by Sean Martin to lift the Wanamaker Trophy. Scheffler has already won a Big 12 title at Southern Hills, so winning a major here “should be a piece of cake”, Martin said. Rory McIlroy won his fourth, and last, major at the PGA Championship in 2014. The “drought ends, fittingly”, said Cameron Morfit, it’s the major that’s been “the absolute best fit” for the Northern Irishman.

Jordan Spieth has had to wait “a long time to earn another major”, said Ash Wheldon on The Stats Zone. But the 28-year-old’s form over the past year “suggests that he could be in contention to complete a career grand slam” this weekend. Another top tip is Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters winner. The Japanese star “appears to have put his injury issues behind him” and a fourth Tour win in just over a year “would not be a shock”.

The Analyst’s AI-powered FRACAS modelling projects “who’s most likely to win the title, who’s in great shape to finish in the top 10 and which golfers are suited to the course to make the cut”. And according to the stats, Jon Rahm is favourite with a 7.4% win probability, followed by Justin Thomas (5.9%), Rory McIlroy (4.8%) and Patrick Cantlay (4.7%).

It would appear that we’re in for a “wild” PGA Championship week, “full of unexpected twists and turns but also a lot of familiar names atop the leaderboard”, said CBS Sport. Kyle Porter, the network’s senior golf writer, has tipped Irishman Shane Lowry to win this weekend. Lowry is “not often talked about as a star or superstar of the sport”, Porter said. “This week might change that.”

There’s a “Viktor Hovland debate” happening on GolfDigest. The 24-year-old Norwegian is yet to win a major, but is highly fancied by the magazine’s experts. “Everything’s lining up for Hovland’s first major”, said the Anonymous Caddie. “His only weakness is his pitching and chipping, which won’t be as much a factor this week.” Hovland has “somehow become the forgotten man among the elites”, said Pat Mayo. “Yes, it’s going to be devastating when he chips himself out of contention late noon Sunday afternoon, but his ball striking is so good that he’s not going to be scrambling nearly as much as the field.”

3. Betting odds

Scottie Scheffler is the bookies’ favourite to win at Southern Hills, according to Oddschecker. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are all highly fancied.

  • Scottie Scheffler: 14/1
  • Jon Rahm: 16/1
  • Rory McIlroy: 18/1
  • Justin Thomas: 18/1
  • Jordan Spieth: 20/1
  • Collin Morikawa: 22/1
  • Hideki Matsuyama: 25/1
  • Cameron Smith: 25/1
  • Patrick Cantlay: 25/1
  • Xander Schauffele: 28/1
  • Viktor Hovland: 28/1
  • Dustin Johnson: 33/1
  • Shane Lowry: 40/1
  • Will Zalatoris: 40/1
  • See the full list at Oddschecker.com

4. Round one tee-times: Thursday 19 May

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at The Memorial Tournament in 2020 (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are grouped with Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds
(Image credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Starting at hole one (all times BST)

  • 13:00 John Daly (US), Shaun Micheel (US), Yong-Eun Yang (Kor)
  • 13:11 Matthew Borchert (US), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Troy Merritt (US)
  • 13:22 Dean Burmester (SA), Chris Kirk (US), Kyle Mendoza (US)
  • 13:33 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Nic Ishee (US), Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi),
  • 13:44 Shaun Norris (SA), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Kevin Streelman (US)
  • 13:55 Cameron Davis (Aus), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Matt Kuchar (US)
  • 14:06 Stewart Cink (US), Jason Dufner (US, Padraig Harrington (Ire
  • 14:17 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Thomas Pieters (Bel), Kramer Hickok (US)
  • 14:28 Richard Bland (Eng), Garrick Higgo (SA), Matt Jones (Aus)
  • 14:39 Tom Hoge (US), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Beau Hossler (US)
  • 14:50 Ryan Fox (NZ), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Shawn Warren (US)
  • 15:01 Yuki Inamori (Jpn), Sebastian Munoz (Col), Zac Oakley (US)
  • 15:12 Bio Kim (Kor), Casey Pyne (US), Brendan Steele (US)
  • 18:30 Ryan Brehm (US), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Wyatt Worthington II (US)
  • 18:41 Justin Harding (SA), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Sean McCarty (US)
  • 18:52 Adam Hadwin (Can), Hudson Swafford (US, Cameron Tringale (US)
  • 19:03 Brooks Koepka (US), Shane Lowry (Ire), Adam Scott (Aus)
  • 19:14 Patrick Cantlay (US), Dustin Johnson (US), Justin Thomas (US)
  • 19:25 Jason Day (Aus), Rickie Fowler (US), Harold Varner III (US)
  • 19:36 Collin Morikawa (US), Jon Rahm (Spa), Scottie Scheffler (US)
  • 19:47 Daniel Berger (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Ian Poulter (Eng)
  • 19:58 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Billy Horschel (US), Kevin Kisner (US)
  • 20:09 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
  • 20:20 Harry Higgs (US), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Erik van Rooyen (SA)
  • 20:31 Alex Beach (US), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
  • 20:42 Jared Jones (US), Aaron Wise (US), Joel Dahmen (US)

Starting at hole ten

  • 13:05 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Alexander Noren (Swe), Ryan Palmer (US)
  • 13:16 Adria Arnaus (Spa), Colin Inglis (US), Jinichiro Kozuma (Jpn)
  • 13:27 Michael Block (US), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha)
  • 13:38 Tony Finau (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Xander Schauffele (US)
  • 13:49 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Max Homa (US)
  • 14:00 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Cameron Smith (Aus), Will Zalatoris (US)
  • 14:11 Rory McIlroy (NI), Jordan Spieth (US), Tiger Woods (US)
  • 14:22 Patrick Reed (US), Justin Rose (Eng), Bubba Watson (US)
  • 14:33 Lucas Glover (US), Kevin Na (US), Daniel van Tonder (SA)
  • 14:44 Sam Burns (US), Davis Riley (US), Cameron Young (US)
  • 14:55 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Lee Westwood (Eng), Gary Woodland (US)
  • 15:06 Oliver Bekker (SA), Brian Harman (US), Ryan Vermeer (US)
  • 15:17 Laurie Canter (Eng), Lanto Griffin (US), Dylan Newman (US)
  • 18:25 Brandon Bingaman (US), Talor Gooch (US), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn)
  • 18:36 Tim Feenstra (US), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor)
  • 18:47 Rich Beem (US), Alex Cejka (Ger), Jesse Mueller (US)
  • 18:58 Seamus Power (Ire), Russell Knox (Sco), Scott Stallings (US)
  • 19:09 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Corey Conners (Can), Jason Kokrak (US)
  • 19:20 Keegan Bradley (US), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Marc Leishman (Aus)
  • 19:31 Cameron Champ (US), Russell Henley (US), Zach Johnson (US)
  • 19:42 Branden Grace (SA), Webb Simpson (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
  • 19:53 JJ Spaun (US), Sepp Straka (Aut), Adam Schenk (US)
  • 20:04 Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Keith Mitchell (US), Matthew Wolff (US)
  • 20:15 Lucas Herbert (Aus), Austin Hurt (US), Chad Ramey (US)
  • 20:26 Tyler Collet (US), Chan Kim (US), Maverick McNealy (US)
  • 20:37 Paul Dickinson (US), Patton Kizzire (US), Luke List (US)

5. Round two tee-times: Friday 20 May

Starting at hole one (all times BST)

  • 13:00 Brandon Bingaman (US), Talor Gooch (US, Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn)
  • 13:11 Tim Feenstra (US), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor)
  • 13:22 Rich Beem (US), Alex Cejka (Ger), Jesse Mueller (US)
  • 13:33 Seamus Power (Ire), Russell Knox (Sco), Scott Stallings (US)
  • 13:44 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Corey Conners (Can), Jason Kokrak (US)
  • 13:55 Keegan Bradley (US), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Marc Leishman (Aus)
  • 14:06 Cameron Champ (US), Russell Henley (US), Zach Johnson (US)
  • 14:17 Branden Grace (SA), Webb Simpson (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
  • 14:28 JJ Spaun (US), Sepp Straka (Aut), Adam Schenk (US)
  • 14:39 Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Keith Mitchell (US), Matthew Wolff (US)
  • 14:50 Lucas Herbert (Aus), Austin Hurt (US), Chad Ramey (US)
  • 15:01 Tyler Collet (US), Chan Kim (US), Maverick McNealy (US)
  • 15:12 Paul Dickinson (US), Patton Kizzire (US), Luke List (US),
  • 18:30 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Alexander Noren (Swe), Ryan Palmer (US)
  • 18:41 Adria Arnaus (Spa), Colin Inglis (US), Jinichiro Kozuma (Jpn)
  • 18:52 Michael Block (US), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha)
  • 19:03 Tony Finau (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Xander Schauffele (US)
  • 19:14 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Max Homa (US)
  • 19:25 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Cameron Smith (Aus), Will Zalatoris (US)
  • 19:36 Rory McIlroy (NI), Jordan Spieth (US), Tiger Woods (US)
  • 19:47 Patrick Reed (US), Justin Rose (Eng), Bubba Watson (US)
  • 19:58 Lucas Glover (US), Kevin Na (US), Daniel van Tonder (SA)
  • 20:09 Sam Burns (US), Davis Riley (US), Cameron Young (US)
  • 20:20 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Lee Westwood (Eng), Gary Woodland (US)
  • 20:31 Oliver Bekker (SA), Brian Harman (US), Ryan Vermeer (US)
  • 20:42 Laurie Canter (Eng), Lanto Griffin (US), Dylan Newman (US)

Starting at hole ten

  • 13:05 Ryan Brehm (US), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Wyatt Worthington II (US)
  • 13:16 Justin Harding (SA), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Sean McCarty (US)
  • 13:27 Adam Hadwin (Can), Hudson Swafford (US), Cameron Tringale (US)
  • 13:38 Brooks Koepka (US), Shane Lowry (Ire), Adam Scott (Aus)
  • 13:49 Patrick Cantlay (US), Dustin Johnson (US), Justin Thomas (US)
  • 14:00 Jason Day (Aus), Rickie Fowler (US), Harold Varner III (US)
  • 14:11 Collin Morikawa (US), Jon Rahm (Spa), Scottie Scheffler (US)
  • 14:22 Daniel Berger (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Ian Poulter (Eng)
  • 14:33 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Billy Horschel (US), Kevin Kisner (US)
  • 14:44 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
  • 14:55 Harry Higgs (US), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Erik van Rooyen (SA)
  • 15:06 Alex Beach (US), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
  • 15:17 Jared Jones (US), Aaron Wise (US), Joel Dahmen (US)
  • 18:25 John Daly (US), Shaun Micheel (US), Yong-Eun Yang (Kor)
  • 18:36 Matthew Borchert (US), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Troy Merritt (US)
  • 18:47 Dean Burmester (SA), Chris Kirk (US), Kyle Mendoza (US)
  • 18:58 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Nic Ishee (US), Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi)
  • 19:09 Shaun Norris (SA), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Kevin Streelman (US)
  • 19:20 Cameron Davis (Aus), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Matt Kuchar (US)
  • 19:31 Stewart Cink (US), Jason Dufner (US), Padraig Harrington (Ire)
  • 19:42 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Thomas Pieters (Bel), Kramer Hickok (US)
  • 19:53 Richard Bland (Eng), Garrick Higgo (SA), Matt Jones (Aus)
  • 20:04 Tom Hoge (US), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Beau Hossler (US)
  • 20:15 Ryan Fox (NZ), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Shawn Warren (US)
  • 20:26 Yuki Inamori (Jpn), Sebastian Munoz (Col), Zac Oakley (US)
  • 20:37 Bio Kim (Kor), Casey Pyne (US), Brendan Steele (US)
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Mike Starling is the digital features editor at The Week, where he writes content and edits the Arts & Life and Sport website sections and the Food & Drink and Travel newsletters. He started his career in 2001 in Gloucestershire as a sports reporter and sub-editor and has held various roles as a writer and editor at news, travel and B2B publications. He has spoken at a number of sports business conferences and also worked as a consultant creating sports travel content for tourism boards. International experience includes spells living and working in Dubai, UAE; Brisbane, Australia; and Beirut, Lebanon.