Sepp Straka Is A Certified Dog, Being Wrong About Philly Cricket Club, And The Actual Favorite For The PGA

Sepp Straka had already earned tons of respect among the golf world given how well he's played over the last two years or so, but his win at the Truist Championship on Sunday puts him into an entirely different category, and an elite one at that.

Meanwhile, Shane Lowry, who Straka outdueled on Sunday in Philadelphia, has continued to show his inability to get it across the line for quite some time now, and he cost himself a smooth $400,000 with his three-putt on the 72nd hole on Sunday.

The year's second major championship is upon us with the PGA Championship being contested at the all-too familiar Quail Hollow this week. It feels like it's lacking a bit of juice, which we'll get into below, as well as trying to decide if the books have the favorites in the proper order.

As always, feel free to reach out to me at mark.harris@outkick.com with thoughts, concerns, questions, and of course disagreements. Find me on X at @itismarkharris.

Sepp Straka Deserves All The Respect

Sepp Straka entered Truist Championship week as the No. 17 player in the world and less than five months removed from winning The American Express for what was his third win on the PGA Tour. He was also a member of Europe's winning Ryder Cup team in 2023, so by no means was he some sort of under-the-radar player, but he also wasn't in the conversation of the best players in the world.

He's now firmly in that conversation after winning the signature event in Philadelphia.

From a pure numbers perspective, Straka's four wins since February 2022 speak for themselves, as does his updated world ranking of nine, but it's the collection of wins that is worth emphasizing even more.l

Straka has wins at The Honda Classic (Florida), the John Deere Classic (Iowa), The American Express (California), and now at the Truist Championship (Pennsylvania). Outside of the simple fact that all four of those events are, in fact, golf tournaments, they couldn't be any more different from one another.

The Austrian has proved that he can win anywhere, on different surfaces, and on courses that require different styles of play. Straka has also held off Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas for two of his four wins, which is a more than formidable duo trying to spoil the party.

As for Straka's style of play, it's actually quite refreshing because he simply gets the job done with all-world ball striking and hitting more fairways than most while not sending it 330 yards off the tee. He gives himself plenty of birdie opportunities, and when the putter is hot like it was in Philadelphia, as he finished third in the field in feet of putts made, he's proven to be a tough man to beat.

Rounds of 63-67-66-68 on a course plenty in the field could overpower while he was left to get the job done as more of a plotter was impressive stuff, and good enough for a two-shot victory and a $3.6 million payday.

Upon Further Review, Philly Cricket Club Was Fantastic

I was among the large contingent of folks who were very skeptical of Philadelphia Cricket Club entering the week, even as a historical golf course lover. I figured that while Philly Cricket would look incredible on television, the charm would wear off by the weekend with the world's best players going driver-wedge into most of the holes.

While plenty of players in the field did hit flip wedges into a lot of the Par 4s, specifically on the front nine, I was wrong about the charm and magic wearing off, because it remained awesome from Thursday all the way through Sunday. Sure, the grounds crew had to get very creative with pin locations thanks to technology long passing this place up when it comes to the best players in the world, but it was entertaining as hell to watch so many razor-thin shots and bad misses really eat up players from inside 100 yards or so.

I think the greatest representation of the course was the comparison between the Par 3 14th and the Par 3 16th. 

The 14th hole played just 95 yards on Sunday, making it one of the shortest holes we've seen in PGA Tour history, yet the landing spot for players to knock it close was about the size of the laptop I'm currently typing this on. The scoring average on the hole was just a tick below 2.9.

Two holes later, players arrived at the 16th hole that was playing 222 yards on Sunday. It played as the fourth-hardest hole on the course for the week, and was the sixth most difficult hole on Sunday.

I'm also happy to admit that I was wrong about the winning score this week. OutKick's Geoff Clark can attest that I said the winning score would be well below 20-under on Thursday, making Straka's 16-under good enough to win the event a pleasant surprise.

Who Are The Actual Favorites For The PGA Championship? 

Just about every sportsbook you can get your hands on has the Top 7 favorites for this week's PGA Championship listed as follows. Odds are, of course, subject to change throughout the week:

Scottie Scheffler +400, Rory McIlroy +450, Bryson DeChambeau +1000, Jon Rahm +1600, Xander Schauffele +2000, Ludvig Aberg +2200, and Justin Thomas +2200.

Scottie, Rory, Bryson 'Big 3' In Betting Odds For 2025 PGA Championship Monday

It's a game of splitting hairs when it comes to circling either Scheffler or McIlroy as the top favorite anytime the two tee it up in the same event, but it's odd that McIlroy isn't in the top spot this week given that he's won four times at Quail Hollow in his career while Scheffler has never played an event at Quail Hollow outside of the 2022 Presidents Cup. Yes, Scheffler is just two weeks removed from blitzing the field at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, but the way McIlroy has been playing in 2025 coupled with course history makes him the favorite, at least in my book.

Beyond that, Aberg is getting a ton of respect entering the week, given that he hasn't shown any real signs of life over his last six starts outside of his Top 10 at the Masters. Rahm is a ginormous question mark as well and doesn't have a rep at Quail Hollow since 2021. Schauffele, meanwhile, has gone back-to-back runner-up finishes in his two most recent starts at Quail Hollow and is rounding into form after missing some time due to an injury.

Schauffele flying under the radar is a very scary proposition.