US PGA Championship Longshots 2025

Although I tend to reserve these longshot articles for players in the 3-figure bracket, I made an exception at The Masters with Patrick Reed – who finished 3^rd – and I make no excuse for backing Sungjae Im at a similar price here at Quail Hollow.

Throughout my analysis for this year’s PGA Championship the South Korean’s name kept popping up, and he was strong enough statistically to sit inside the top 6 of our final predictor model output.

A Bermudagrass green winner at PGA National at the 2020 Honda Classic, the 27 year-old has produced enough good performances on this particular Champion Bermuda strain to suggest that he enjoys the putting surface. More than 2 strokes were gained on the greens on his TPC Southwind debut in 2020 on such surfaces, having lost out in a play-off the year before at the Sanderson Farms Championship on the Jackson track that shares the same agronomy.

Quail Hollow course form of 31/MC/8/4 is positive for this week, as is the fact that he’s putted at 7^th and 4^th on those two most recent efforts from a Strokes Gained perspective, suggesting that he can improve on an otherwise relatively poor PGA Championship record at this year’s venue.

Sungjae’s wider Majors form is more positive though with 2^nd and 8^th at Augusta in 2020 and 2022 respectively, before finishing 7^th at last year’s Open and 5^th at the Masters a month ago to reinforce the fact that he’s comfortable competing against the world’s elite.

23^rd last week at the Truist Championship saw him continue his strong 2025 form with the driver which sees him rank 20^th for SG Off the Tee and 9^th for Driving Accuracy, and although he doesn’t have the power to take the lines off the tee that Bryson and Rory will be using, his more measured game and a putter that warmed up again last week could see him reward each-way backers at a healthy price.

Of the 4 Majors, the PGA Championship is the one most likely to appeal to a young, aggressive type and to that end David Puig appeals.

At the age of 23 and having begun his professional career on the LIV circuit, opportunities for him to shine on the global stage have been limited thus far and of course he hasn’t had the opportunity to play Quail Hollow competitively, however I think the dimensions of this track will suit and he could hit the ground running on course debut this week.

At an average 326.8 yards from off the tee so far in 2025, the Spaniard sits 4^th behind Bryson DeChambeau, Dean Burmester and Joaquin Niemann on the LIV Driving Distance rankings and that effortless power will allow him to take different lines to many others in this field, cutting dog-legs and flying bunkers that otherwise make Quail Hollow all the more difficult. We’ve seen evidence of this on the DP World Tour this season where 3^rd and 4^th place finishes in Ras al Khaimah and Bahrain more than hinted at the promise of a player who’s already won twice on the Asian Tour in his short career.

Three top-6 finishes from his 7 LIV starts in 2025 is a decent return and he impressed again in South Korea on his last start, gaining a shot per round from Off the Tee whilst ranking 2^nd for Total Driving in old money, fuelled by hitting 83% of fairways whilst averaging 332 from off the tee. Put simply, that combination would work here at Quail.

To top it all, Puig can putt – he’s truly one of the modern era of players who hits it a mile and can be devastating on the dancefloors. If he combines that with a solid week with his irons this week then a Major personal best is very much a possibility.

I’ve been talking about the long game improvement this season from Mackenzie Hughes on recent podcasts and there’s enough evidence for me to take a chance on him this week at Quail Hollow.

10^th at the Houston Open, 3^rd at the RBC Heritage and 2^nd last week at Myrtle Beach are three impressive performance in his last four outings, and last week could have been even better for the Canadian had he not bogeyed the 72^nd hole before Ryan Fox chipped in to take the title in the eventual play-off.

Of course there’s the argument that Hughes will be disappointed and won’t perform this week; the counter-argument is that he’ll know that he was playing well enough to have a golden chance of winning a third PGA Tour title and could carry that form through to this week.

His Majors form is patchy with 6^th at the 2021 Open Championship his best career result to date, and his US PGA Championship form is the worst of all 4 of the events, however a return to Quail Hollow may offer some cause for optimism. After a few false starts here in North Carolina over the years, the 34 year-old finally got to grips with the course here last year, eventually finishing 6^th with progressive rounds of 73/71/69/66.

More renowned for his performance on and around the greens, 4^th for SG Off the Tee and 5^th for SG Tee to Green in Houston followed up by 5^th for SG Tee to Green at the RBC Heritage suggests a level of control in his long that could just see him feature this week at a long, long price.