PGA Championship 2017: Field Odds, Favorites and Tournament Preview

The 2017 PGA Championship will begin on Thursday at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Normally, Quail Hollow is the home of the Wells Fargo Championship every May, but this year, it will have the honor of hosting its first-ever major.

We will see a slightly different Quail Hollow this year. Michael Graff of Charlotte Magazine highlighted some notable changes to the course, including the implementation of Champion Ultradwarf Bermudagrass on the greens, and some new holes (notably, the first and second holes were combined into one first hole, and the fifth hole was split into two).

Still, much of the course remains the same, which means that Rory McIlroy should feel right at home. The 28-year-old has won the Wells Fargo Championship two times and shot a course-record 61 in 2015. He's the favorite to win this year, although there are plenty of solid contenders looking to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

Here's a look each golfer with 50/1 odds or better to win outright (via Stephen Campbell of OddsShark), alongside a quick tournament preview.

Odds

Rory McIlroy: 7/1

Jordan Spieth: 7/1

Dustin Johnson: 9/1

Jason Day: 16/1

Hideki Matsuyama: 18/1

Jon Rahm: 18/1

Rickie Fowler: 20/1

Henrik Stenson: 22/1

Justin Rose: 25/1

Sergio Garcia: 25/1

Brooks Koepka: 28/1

Justin Thomas: 28/1

Adam Scott: 33/1

Phil Mickelson: 40/1

Tommy Fleetwood: 45/1

Branden Grace: 45/1

Matt Kuchar: 45/1

Thomas Pieters: 50/1

Patrick Reed: 50/1

Tournament Preview

If you take a look at the hole-by-hole guide on The PGA of America website, you'll notice that players need to be long and accurate off the tee and stick their approach shots in order to succeed.

At the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, golfers had some wiggle room as the fairways were a bit wider. At the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, bombers didn't have an advantage since the course layout took drivers out of many players' hands.

However, Quail Hollow will be a test of golfers' length and accuracy. 

Take a look at the infamous Green Mile (the final three holes at Quail Hollow) for example. 

The 16th is a 506-yard par-four hole with a lake on the left and bunkers on the right side of the fairway and green. The par-three 17th hole is surrounded by water on the entire left of the green, in addition to yet another bunker on the right side. And the 18th hole has a narrow fairway, a creek and, you guessed it, more bunkers.

And that's just one-sixth of the course. Pretty much all of Quail Hollow should provide a stiff test.

Complicating matters is the fact that rain is currently in the forecast. Per the National Weather Service, there is a 30 to 40 percent chance of thunderstorms for the weekend. That could easily change over the next few days, but rain will only make this course more difficult.

Going back to McIlroy for a minute, however, he's shown a unique inclination to dominate this course.

Since 2009, every Quail Hollow champion not named Rory McIlroy has won in a playoff or by a single stroke.

In the two years McIlroy won, he won by four strokes (over Phil Mickelson in 2010) and seven strokes (over Patrick Rodgers and Webb Simpson in 2015).

McIlroy has also been in good form of late, finishing in the top five of the Open Championship and the WGC-Bridgestone in his past two outings. He's the clear front-runner here, and a repeat performance of 2010 or 2015 isn't out of the question.