PGA Championship 2022 picks, predictions, field, favorites, odds: Golf expert says back Scottie Scheffler

by 24USATVMay 17, 2022, midnight 41
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The year's second golf major will tee off Thursday at a course quite familiar to hosting majors. The 2022 PGA Championship will be held at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, one of just four courses in the world that has hosted at least three PGA Championships and three U.S. Opens. The PGA Championship 2022 will mark the fifth event of its kind to be contested there. Defending champion Phil Mickelson will not be a part of the 2022 PGA Championship field, but 14 other past champions will be in attendance, including three multi-winners: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka.

Two golfers who have never won the tournament before top the 2022 PGA Championship odds at Caesars Sportsbook. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 2 Jon Rahm are both 11-1 among the top 2022 PGA Championship golfers. McIlroy and Justin Thomas each come in at 14-1, while Dustin Johnson is 18-1 and Jordan Spieth is 20-1. Before you make any 2022 PGA Championship picks, you need to see what proven golf insider Sal Johnson has to say.

The esteemed golf insider has been around the game for many years and knows what it takes to win on the PGA Tour, and he is tuned in to the major championships.

In his last set of predictions for SportsLine, he nailed the Masters for the third time in four years. Johnson backed Scheffler, who has just been playing too well to be ignored. "Scheffler is on a run where he has been hard to beat, and I see it rolling on at Augusta National," he said before the 25-year-old got his fourth victory of the season. He also called Woods' unlikely victory at Augusta in 2019 and Dustin Johnson's 2020 win, when he shot a tournament-record 20-under 268.

At the PGA Championship, the past two winners were surprises, with 50-year-old Mickelson winning last year and Collin Morikawa taking the 2020 title in his second major start. But Johnson backed the winner the previous two years, as Koepka won in 2018 then joined Woods as the only back-to-back PGA winners the following year. "This is a course he can attack and play well on," Johnson said of Koepka before the 2019 event. Koepka took a seven-shot lead into the final round and held on in the raging wind at Bethpage for his fourth major title.

Now, Johnson, the first producer of "Inside the PGA Tour" and longtime ABC Sports golf producer who worked with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, has released his highly confident 2022 PGA Championship picks. The picks from the founder of GOLFstats, the world's top golf statistics database, will surprise you. You can see them here.

One shocking choice from Johnson: The expert is fading Cameron Smith, even though he has two victories this season and was in contention at the Masters. The 28-year-old hasn't been quite the same since his triple-bogey on the 12th hole at Augusta that took him out of contention. He missed the cut in his last stroke play event, the RBC Heritage, and tied for 21st at the Zurich Classic along with Marc Leishman. Southern Hills is a ball-striker's course, and Smith hasn't fared well at venues like it. "I just don't think Southern Hills will suit his eye," Johnson told SportsLine.

On the other hand, Johnson isn't backing away from Scheffler, even at his low odds. Scheffler picked up his first major championship his last time out, winning the Masters, and that continued a string of solid finishes in major tournaments. Scheffler has finished in the top eight in his past four majors, starting with last year's PGA Championship. Apart from leaderboards, Scheffler's name also appears near the top of many statistical rankings. He ranks third in greens in regulation percentage (72 percent), third in birdie average (5.10) and sixth in scoring average (69.719).

Johnson is also interested to see what Rahm can do at the PGA Championship 2022. The Spaniard will step onto Southern Hills with momentum since he won his last tournament, his first victory in 11 months. But he's been inconsistent both on the PGA Tour this year and in his career at the PGA Championship. He has two top-10s at this event, but also has two finishes outside the top 50, including missing the cut in 2019.

Johnson also is high on a massive long shot at Southern Hills who comes in around 100-1. His excellent tee-to-green game should fit Southern Hills like a glove. You can only see who it is at SportsLine.

Who wins the PGA Championship 2022 at Southern Hills? And which epic long shot is a must-back? Visit SportsLine now to see Sal Johnson's full leaderboard, picks and analysis for the 2022 PGA Championship, all from the insider who is tuned in to what it takes to win a major championship.

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