The 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club features top golfers trending well. Seven players are highlighted as key picks to help you win your pool.
Key points
2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club
Top golfers trending well for the event
Seven key players recommended for pool picks
Various pool formats available for customization
Game theory involved in unique golfer selections
Mentioned in this story
Aronimink Golf ClubRory McIlroy
PGA Championship
There are so many ways to leverage your opinion of what will go down at Aronimink Golf Club for the 2026 PGA Championship. This year's event is fascinating because the world's best are all trending well as we head to a Donald Ross design that we haven't seen since 2018. I love betting on outright winners, but I'm also always on the lookout for new pool formats to dive into. Whether you like the one-and-done formats, tiered pools, salary caps or Calcuttas, each option lets you cater to your group's needs depending on how serious they are. After all, there’s nothing better than being right, especially when you can prove it against friends, family, or even some deep-pocketed stranger.
Regardless of what style of pool you're looking to enter, there are a few golfers in this week’s field who deserve your attention as you're filling it out. There is some game theory at play here as well. In most pools, your peers can roster the same golfers as you, so there’s an advantage to finding ways to be unique without sacrificing upside and win equity. Now, to the picks!
7 players who will help you win your 2026 PGA Championship pool.
I know most expected Rory to finish better than T-19 at Quail Hollow last week considering his insane course history. But when you drill down a bit, there was a lot to be encouraged about as we head to Aronimink. McIlroy's driver was absolutely dialed all week, outside of an ill-timed hook on 14 that found the water on Sunday. That single shot cost him nearly 1.5 shots in his strokes gained/off the tee stats for the week, but all in all, his ball-striking numbers (+1.77) were right in line with Nicolai Hojgaard (+1.66) and eventual winner Kristoffer Reitan (+1.8).
Q&A
Who are the top players to pick for the 2026 PGA Championship pool?
Seven players are recommended as key picks for the 2026 PGA Championship pool, focusing on their potential to win.
What are the different pool formats for the 2026 PGA Championship?
Popular pool formats include one-and-done, tiered pools, salary caps, and Calcuttas, allowing customization based on group preferences.
Why is the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club significant?
The 2026 PGA Championship is notable as it returns to Aronimink Golf Club, a Donald Ross design not seen since 2018, attracting top players.
How can I gain an advantage in my PGA Championship pool?
To gain an advantage, consider unique golfer selections that differ from your peers while maintaining high win equity.
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We can't measure vibes, and we can't measure SG/bounce-in-his-step, but you can make the case that these body language signs with Rory are more of a signal with him than anyone else in the professional game. Some expected him to play with more freedom after winning the career Grand Slam last year, but it didn't play out that way last summer. He's articulated that freedom is real right now, and I think he's locked in to a degree that we were hoping to see last year post-Masters, but didn't. There's also the added element of game theory here, since picking Rory means you're not picking Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, and a lot of the other top-tier guys who'll be more popular than the year's most recent major champion.
What a difference a few months can make. It feels like a lifetime ago, but Collin Morikawa headed to TPC Sawgrass in early March as one of the favorites, riding high off a win at Pebble Beach, followed up by a T-7 at Riviera and a solo fifth at Bay Hill. One bad practice swing later, and here we are. He didn't skip a beat in a lot of ways, finishing T-7 at Augusta and T-4 at Harbour Town in his next two starts, but the aesthetics were bad. He said it was mostly mental, but my 95-year-old grandmother moves around with more fluidity than Morikawa has of late.
Those visuals are creeping into your opponent's heads as well. He's plummeting down the odds board after a poor showing at Doral (a bad setup for his game) and a WD at Quail Hollow (another course that doesn't suit him well), but don't let that cloud your judgment. He's nearly double the price of Tommy Fleetwood or Ludvig Aberg on the odds board, but he's already won this season and has two major trophies sitting on his mantle, and those are two things that Fleetwood and Aberg can't say.
Rickie Fowler
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Ben Jared
I was surprised to see Rickie Fowler at No. 4 when I ran my Rabbit Hole model at Betsperts Golf on Thursday morning. Thursday morning, as in, before the Truist Championship even began. Fowler's strong weekend at Quail Hollow was almost enough to see him find the winner's circle, and he'll likely be more popular now than I was first expecting.
Fowler's T-2 last week was his third straight T-9 or better finish, all of them against signature event fields post-Masters, an event that he didn't even qualify for. His approach play has been the driving force behind the recent strong play, which is always something I like to see because gaining weekly with your irons tends to be more predictive in both long- and short-term samples. He's also posted the third-best three-putt avoidance rate from 25-plus feet (5.1 percent) in the field over the past 12 months, looking only at courses where it's difficult to gain strokes putting. These Donald Ross greens at Aronimink are massive and will likely leave players with many long, undulating putts from distance, so this is a metric I'm weighing in my model this week.
Tyrrell Hatton
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Hector Vivas
Tyrrell Hatton is out of sight/out of mind for most of the year, until he shows at a major championship and finds himself on the first page of the leader board. We're looking at three straight late Sunday afternoon tee times for Hatton in majors, and he's looking to make this the fourth. He finished T-4 at Oakmont, then T-16 at Royal Portrush, though he was T-4 heading into the final round, and finished strong again at Augusta, finishing T-3.
Over the past two years against strong and very strong fields, Hatton ranks fifth in this week's field (past 36 rounds) in SG/ball-striking, per Betsperts Golf. He's also fifth in SG/par 4s and SG/total in "difficult" and "very difficult" scoring conditions. We'll see how the weather impacts the scoring conditions this week, but I expect Tyrrell Hatton to once again be in the mix.
Kurt Kitayama
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Richard Heathcote
If the rain in the forecast makes Aronimink susceptible to a bomb-and-gauge style of play, I think we'll see Kurt Kitayama make a charge up the leader board, and he's definitely someone who could outperform their spot in these types of pool contests. A poor Sunday at Quail Hollow knocked Kitayama out of the top 10 (T-19) after he finished T-9 at Doral and T-8 at Harbour Town in his previous two starts. He also finished T-2 at Riviera back in February, so he's capable of showing up and competing in these elite fields.
Kitayama is a bit of a form golfer who tends to string together strong finishes when he's playing well, and I think we're in the middle of a run right now. His ball-striking numbers are consistently good, though, so he could be working himself out of the "streaky" moniker I'm labeling him with here. He's also an improved putter, ranking seventh in three-putt avoidance (2.51 percent) over the past 12 months.
I'll continue to ride the wave of recent form with these selections, which bring us to Matt McCarty. His T-24 at the Masters turned his season around, because he limped into Augusta in poor form, but he's now strung together three straight T-12 or better finishes in a row in the three signature events that've followed.
McCarty's approach play has been the driver of his recent success, which is why I'm buying him here. He also has elite spiked putting upside, and he's sixth in my putting model this week. He has to be perfect to win an event like this, considering he routinely loses strokes to the field due to his lack of distance, but we don't need him to win—we just need him to outperform his peers at cost.
Alex Smalley
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Orlando Ramirez
If you've noticed a trend, that's not by accident. I think it's incredibly difficult to show up at a major championship and contend when you're not playing well leading into the event, and it's even harder to pinpoint the player or players who'll do that, like Jhonny Vegas or Davis Riley at last year's PGA Championship. Instead, I'm focusing on players who'll likely be off the general public's radar who could exceed expectations.
Do I think Alex Smalley is winning the PGA Championship this week? Absolutely not, but have his recent finishes caught my attention? They most certainly have. Smalley's T-17 at Quail Hollow, including a 66 on Sunday, makes it four straight T-21 or better finishes for Smalley. He finished 12th in my model, and he's improving throughout the bag, which makes me feel more confident that this current run will continue for one more week.
Ryan Noonanis the Betting Content Manager for 4for4 and Betsperts Golf, writing articles and hosting multiple shows under the Betsperts Group umbrella, including Move The Line and our Betsperts Golf Betting Show. Find him on Twitter: @RyNoonan.
