KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Betting Options: Favorites to Longshots

As we head into the third women’s major championship of the year, I’ve got bad news for the winner of the first two, Nelly Korda, and anyone who wants to see her win the grand slam:

If you’re going to have five majors, then you’ve gotta win ‘em all to achieve this.

That’s not the official stance, of course – just my take.

Winning four – in a single season or for a career – is referred to as the slam, while all five is considered a “super slam,” which has only been accomplished by Karrie Webb.

It’s a weird deal and we certainly can’t blame a player like Korda – she’s not the one who decided to add a fifth major to the official schedule back in 2013. If you’re going to have that many, though, then you should have to win ‘em all in order to have any sort of slam-status attached to your name.

Anyway, it’s relevant this week, as Korda (+300) enters the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with the first two legs of this year’s slam and three legs of it for her career.

She’s the prohibitive favorite at Hazeltine National Golf Club, and it’s not (nor should it be) particularly close. I loved her going into the Chevron Championship and liked her at the U.S. Women’s Open and I’ll reiterate what I wrote about Nelly prior to each of those events: If you’d prefer to simply play the 3/1 odds and stop reading this preview right here, I can’t say I’d necessarily disagree with that strategy.

At 6,807 yards, this one should once again play into the hands of the longer hitters and in Korda, you’re not just getting the best player in the world, you’re getting one who ranks ninth in driving distance on the LPGA this season at just over 278 yards.

With several forced carries around this course, the ability to not just hit the ball a long way, but to launch it way into the air will be paramount and – you’re never gonna believe this – nobody does that combo better than Korda.

Again, there are a ton of neon arrows pointing in her direction this week, but if you’d like to tempt fate and play others in the outright market – or simply take them for finishing position bets – allow me to offer up plenty of different options.

Let’s start with Lottie Woad (+2200), the English wunderkind who this past weekend missed a short putt at the Meijer LPGA Classic to lose to Miyu Yamashita. She’s now the fifth-ranked player in the world, won in Cincinnati last month and early in her career has figured out a few things about playing majors, finishing top-10 in four of her last seven.

Haeran Ryu (+2200) is the one who lost that Kroger Queen City Championship to Woad, but she’s been terrific dating back to last year, with 11 top-15 results in her last 13 starts. But there’s plenty of risk involved here. She recently missed the U.S. Women’s Open due to what was deemed “personal reasons” and hasn’t played since, so there’s more than a little caveat emptor in play here.

There are three players I really like at 50/1, as I admittedly can’t quit Ina Yoon (+5000). At Riviera, she was tied for second place after the opening round, only to miss the cut one day later. That sort of exemplifies her game, as there’s a high ceiling, but a similarly low floor. I don’t mind taking a chance on that ceiling in the outright market, should Nelly falter.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Rio Takeda (+5000), who always seems to play well, but rarely peaks. She’s still just 23, but her two wins have come overseas in Asia, so we’ve yet to see her best stuff here in the United States. Because of that, she’s probably more of a top-20 type of play for me.

Jennifer Kupcho (+5000) was in the mix on Sunday’s back-nine of the U.S. Women’s Open, eventually finishing T-8, which was her first top-10 at a major since winning the Chevron four years ago. That was one of six top-20s in her last seven starts and while it remains to be seen whether she can return to the elite-level status she showed during her three-win campaign in 2022, she’s clearly playing her best golf since then.

I’m not sure when Aki Iwai (+6000) lost the “e” at the end of her first name and I’m also not sure when her twin sister Chizzy Iwai passed her on the odds board, but she does own a ton of talent, despite failing to finish inside the top-25 in her last five starts.

Consider me a massive fan of Patty Tavatanakit (+6600), who has a habit of showing up on major championship leaderboards. She won the Chevron back in 2021 and has a half-dozen top-fives overall, including a share of runner-up honors at this year’s Chevron. This is a very playable price – again, if you don’t fully trust Korda, that is.

Can I interest you in a three-time major champion who just contended for the U.S. Women’s Open a few weeks ago at an 80/1 number? I thought so. In Gee Chun (+8000) owns some big-time value this week. She might not be a week-in, week-out type of player anymore, but as she proved at Riv, she can turn it on for a single tourney.

As we venture into the triple-digit prices, we’ll find a lot more risk to go with the bigger potential reward. Last year, Auston Kim (+10000) finished T-2 at this tourney and while PGA Frisco shouldn’t portend much for Hazeltine, that result should at least offer some optimism that she can come close again.

Look, I get that Brooke Henderson (+12500) appears to be a shell of her former self – the player who’s won two majors and owns 16 career top-10s in these events hasn’t been inside the top-20 in her last 11. Even so, that’s a jarring number for someone who’s still 28th in the Rolex Rankings.

Just a few weeks ago, Yana Wilson (+20000) won the two-player Dow Championship alongside Gina Kim. Just 19 years old, she’s a big hitter who owns a ton of game and it wouldn’t be a shock to see her in the mix at a tourney of this magnitude soon.

If we’re going to stick with the idea that length matters this week, then it’s worth taking a peek at the LPGA’s longest hitter in Julia Lopez Ramirez (+25000), especially at this price. While it feels a bit like taking Cameron Champ, if not Aldrich Potgieter, at a men’s major, I’m at least intrigued by the idea of a big banger overpowering this course.