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Way-Too-Early 2025 Golf Majors Picks & Predictions

by Jake Parry

The 2025 PGA Tour season is underway, and we’ve seen some interesting results early. From a record-setting performance by Hideki Matsuyama to lesser names like Nick Taylor and Sepp Straka taking wins away from favorites, it’s been a start to watch. Looking forward to 2025 golf Majors’ odds, let’s take a crack at trying to be one of the first to predict each winner!

(Odds and salaries courtesy of DraftKings)

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Way-Too-Early 2025 Golf Majors Picks & Predictions

The Masters

The Masters is considered by most to be the most exciting Major in professional golf. Played at the prestigious Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., the season’s first Major is often considered much-see TV for golf fans. This 7,555-yard course features many iconic holes and has been home to some of the most historic moments in golf.

Let’s take a look at this course and try to predict the winner!

Augusta National Breakdown

Augusta National is a track that puts heavy significance into course history, as it is the single most predictive metric in terms of future success. To put it simply, players who play well here usually continue to play well here unless they see a major degradation of skill.

There will also not be a bad player in the field, as the requirements to be invited to play in this event are high. You need to be either a top-50 player in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), have won the Masters or another Major in the last five years, have won an event on the PGA Tour since the previous year’s installment of The Masters or receive a special invite, which is typically reserved for legacy players like Tiger Woods or top international players/amateurs. While we do not know the official field for this event (or any of the Majors), we can make educated guesses based on this information.

My Prediction: Ludvig Aberg (+1400)

Luvdvig Aberg, currently ranked second in the OWGR, is my way-too-early prediction to take the Green Jacket home. Aberg played his first Masters tournament in 2024 and finished as the runner-up. He led the field in Strokes Gained Putting, was fifth in Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee and ranked in the top 13 in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Tee-to-Green.

His play around the green is what ultimately held him back, as he ranked 51st in this metric, compared to eventual winner Scottie Scheffler, who paced the event in this metric. If Aberg can perform better in this metric ever so slightly, he can run away with the first of four 2025 golf Majors.

PGA Championship

The second 2025 Major takes place in May on the weekend before Labor Day. Unlike The Masters, this event features a different course each season. This event will take place at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

Quail Hollow Breakdown

This venue has previously been featured on the PGA Tour, as it has hosted the Wells Fargo Championship since 2003, save for the 2017 season, where it hosted the PGA Championship, and 2022, when it hosted the Presidents Cup.

The last time we saw Quail Hollow in Major conditions was in 2017 when it rated as one of the five hardest courses on Tour in terms of overall yardage, Par-4/5 yardage, Par-3 yardage, average score to par on par-3s and 4s, Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. As a result, the most important metrics to success that year were Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.

My Prediction: Bryson DeChambeau (+1600)

Two-time U.S. Open Winner Bryson DeChambeau is my early pick to take the 2025 PGA Championship trophy home. Last year’s runner-up at Valhalla Golf Club has consistently been one of the longest hitters and best putters on Tour. Perhaps most importantly, his wedge game has come a long way.

From his first Major in 2015 to The Masters in 2023, there were only three of the 25 possible events where he gained strokes around the green. From then on, however, he has recorded five events out of seven Major starts where he finished with strokes gained around the green. His improvement here has correlated with a lot of his success. In those first 25 Major appearances, he recorded only three T10 finishes, including his win at the 2020 U.S. Open. In the seven since, he has four T10 finishes, including his win at the 2024 U.S. Open and runner-up finish at last year’s PGA Championship.

U.S. Open

The annual Open National Championship is our third of four men’s 2025 Major golf championships, which takes place in June. This event also features rotating courses, with the 2025 iteration of this event being hosted at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa.

Oakmont Country Club Breakdown

Oakmont has hosted this event more than any other course, with this year’s iteration coming as its 10th time hosting. It’s a frequently-used venue, as it’s also hosted the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship six times, the Women’s U.S. Open twice, three PGA Championships and three NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.

The U.S. Open traditionally features higher scoring, with the courses often set up longer than most other events, with high-cut rough, undulating greens, tight fairways and multiple holes that would typically be short Par-5s set up as long Par-4s. With a par of 70, it’s not uncommon to see winning scores above par. Four of the last five U.S. Opens have featured winning scores of just six-under-par and were won with an over-par score as recently as 2018, where Brooks Koepka won with a score of +1.

My Prediction: Scottie Scheffler (+500)

Two-time Masters Champion Scottie Scheffler is my pick to take the U.S. Open. While Scheffler has not yet played in 2025 due to an injury sustained to his hand while prepping Christmas dinner, he’s the No. 1-rated golfer in the world for a reason.

With the traditional winners of the U.S. Open being some of the best all-around players in golf, Scheffler is set up for success. He’s historically played well in the U.S. Open, with finishes of T7, T2, third and T41 in his last four starts.

The notable difference in his game from previous seasons is the drastic improvement in putting he showed in 2024 after switching to a Mallet putter from his usual Blade putter. Mallets are typically more forgiving, and this forgiveness showed. In his first qualifying season on Tour, the New Jersey native finished 117th on tour in Strokes Gained: Putting and was very up and down in this metric through 2023, peaking at 58th in 2021 and bottoming out at 162nd in 2023. Last year, however, he jumped up to 77th.

His true improvements show in other metrics, though. He finished first in putting average, 21st in putts per round and 22nd in one-putt percentage. If this improved putting can match up with his historical consistency as an elite driver, it will be hard to stop Scheffler in 2025.

The Open Championship

Our final 2025 golf Major championship is The Open Championship, which is the world’s oldest golf tournament. This event was founded in 1860 and has annually been held in the United Kingdom. This year, the event will take place at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, which last hosted this event in 2019.

Royal Portrush Golf Club Breakdown

This event is always played on a coastal links-style golf course. Links golf, considered by many to be the “purest” form of golf, is a staple of this event. Links golf traditionally features open courses, little to no trees, deep pot bunkers and tall gorge bushes that make up the rough. The weather is almost always a significant factor. Links golf also typically features slower greens than most players are used to due to the course being set up that way to prevent the usually high winds from moving the ball.

Looking back at our last time at Royal Portrush, Shane Lowry took it home by lapping the field with a winning score of -15. His margin of victory by six strokes was impressive in and of itself, as only four other players even broke the -6 threshold.

Given the rotating courses at this event play much differently than rotating courses in the U.S., it’s tough to find any specific statistics to focus on aside from great putters performing well here. This is compounded by the fact that we only have ShotLink data for the last three events. As a result, this one will truly be a shot in the dark.

My Prediction: Rory McIlroy (+1000)

Is it cheeky predicting someone from Ireland to win an event in Ireland? Maybe, but Rory McIlroy gives us some great reasons to believe in him. McIlroy has played in The Open Championship 15 times. He missed the cut just three times, finished outside the T25 just four times and has finished in the T6 a staggering seven times, including his win at The Open Championship in 2014. When you get McIlroy back on his home turf, and you get him on courses he’s familiar with, he’s consistently performed well.

He did miss the cut at this venue in 2019 in large part to a first-round 79, but he also followed that up by tying the second-lowest single-round score of the event with a 65 on the second day. This score has only been matched by just four players in the event, with only the eventual winner, Shane Lowry, besting it.

McIlroy can play really well on this course, and I wouldn’t be betting on him recording a double, triple and quadruple bogey in the same round again.

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Thanks for reading my blog on my predictions of the 2025 Golf Majors! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @Parry_FF for more content. Don’t forget to tell someone that you love them!

*Photo Credit: Katie Goodale – USA TODAY Sports*

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