When Scottie Scheffler stood on the 18th green at Augusta National and helped Rory McIlroy into his first green jacket at the 2025 Masters, it appeared as though McIlroy had fully closed the gap on Scheffler at the top of the golf world — with Bryson DeChambeau right alongside the duo.
McIlroy’s Masters win to complete the career grand slam was his third victory of the young PGA Tour season, while Scheffler had yet to step into the winner’s circle. DeChambeau, meanwhile, had won a major more recently than Scheffler at the 2024 U.S. Open and was in the midst of an incredible run of major performances himself. That feeling that the top three in the world were closer than ever bore out in the pre-tournament odds for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow as Scheffler and McIlroy were on equal footing at 5-1, while DeChambeau was close behind at 8-1.
However, after Scheffler won the PGA in dominant fashion for his third major title and tacked on another win at the Memorial two weeks ago (his third victory in four starts), he has once again separated himself from the other two on the odds sheet.
Scheffler is heavily atop the 2025 U.S. Open odds at Oakmont at 11/4, per BetMGM, which makes him the most substantial pre-tournament favorite in a major since Tiger Woods was 7/4 at the 2009 PGA Championship.
It is a staggering pre-tournament price, especially when considering how well DeChambeau, in particular, has performed in majors over the last two years. DeChambeau has finished in the top six in five of the last six majors, including a win and a pair of runner-ups. And yet, he’s still back at 15/2 as his struggles closing out majors on Sunday this year at the Masters and PGA have oddsmakers putting him solidly in a tier below Scheffler.
McIlroy (11-1) has slipped all the way back into a tie for third on the U.S. Open odds sheet with Jon Rahm (12-1) in fourth. Rory has dropped considerably over the past week as he was ahead of DeChambeau coming into the RBC Canadian Open, but after a disastrous week in Toronto that saw him miss the cut and almost finish dead last, he’s now dropped into that third tier by oddsmakers. Bettors seem disinterested in buying his chances at Oakmont.
Scheffler has always shrugged off the Tiger comparisons, but he is once again finding himself in rare air only occupied by Woods. It seemed impossible for someone to separate themselves this much in the current era of golf given the level of talent in the sport, but Scheffler has made it impossible not to put him in a class of his own at the top.
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