Rory just won Augusta. Again.
Three weeks ago Rory McIlroy slipped into his second straight green jacket. Back-to-back at Augusta. Six majors and counting. The career Grand Slam he finally completed last year is now ancient history — what he's chasing this week is leg two of a calendar Grand Slam. Win at Aronimink and the conversation changes from "great career" to "greatest year in modern golf."
Thursday morning at a venue where he's already a two-time PGA champion (Kiawah '12, Valhalla '14), he tees it up with the next major already on the line. So we're running it back. PGA Championship 2026 contest is live now at sportsblock.app/contests/pga-championship-2026.
5,000 MEDALS prize pool. Free entry. 126 golfers. One call.
How it works
Same engine that powered the Masters contest in April. Same trapdoor.
- Pick 3 golfers from the Aronimink field.
- Combined odds must total at least 90/1. No stacking Scheffler, McIlroy and Schauffele — that adds to 27. You need a longshot in there.
- Lowest combined score wins. Add up your three players' strokes relative to par across all four rounds. Whoever finishes lowest takes the pool.
- Miss the cut? +5 strokes per missed round added to your card. A cut golfer eats +10 (two missed rounds). A withdrawal at the turn on Sunday eats +5. It's a penalty, not an automatic exit — but it'll torch a leaderboard.
- Tiebreaker: predict the winning score relative to par. Closest call wins the split.
Three picks. One combined-odds rule. One brutal cut penalty. Done.
Why this is harder than it looks
The combined-odds rule is the whole game. It looks like a free-entry fantasy. It plays like a real bet.
Take three favourites — Scheffler, McIlroy, Schauffele — and you're at 27/1 combined. Not legal. You must pick at least one mid-tier or longer name. Which means at least one of your three is a coin-flip to make the cut.
And the cut penalty is brutal. +10 strokes added to your card for every player who misses Friday's cut line. Doesn't matter that Scheffler shot -12 — if your longshot eats a +10 you're sliding down the board fast. Pick two cut casualties and you're staring at +20 before the weekend even starts.
So the contest forces a real decision: how much risk are you stomaching for how much upside? Three favourites is illegal. Three longshots is suicide. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle — and that's the whole sport.
The board
The favourites (under 25/1):
- Scottie Scheffler 5/1 — world #1, ball-striker, made for this kind of tree-lined parkland.
- Rory McIlroy 8/1 — back-to-back Masters champion, 2× past PGA winner (Kiawah '12, Valhalla '14), now hunting leg two of the calendar slam.
- Xander Schauffele 14/1 — defending PGA champion from Valhalla 2024.
- Ludvig Aberg 14/1 — youngest gun on tour, iron play elite.
- Bryson DeChambeau 15/1 — but Aronimink doesn't reward raw distance like Augusta did.
- Jon Rahm 15/1 — Masters was a write-off; he won't be missing two in a row.
- Cameron Young 18/1 — 6th at Augusta, ball-strikers' course suits.
The contenders (28/1–50/1): Hovland, Koepka, Rose, Justin Thomas, Reed, Spieth, Matsuyama, MacIntyre, Bhatia, Henley.
The longshots: Phil Mickelson at 200/1. Dustin Johnson 150/1. Keegan Bradley (past PGA champ) 150/1. Jason Day 80/1.
The wildcards: 20 PGA Club Professionals in the field — actual teaching pros who punched their tickets at the PGA Professional Championship. Michael Block, who became a folk hero at Oak Hill in 2023, is back at 1500/1. If you want to be the guy who picked the club pro that finished T15, this is your moment.
The course
Aronimink Golf Club. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Par 70, 7,267 yards.
A Donald Ross design from 1928. Tree-lined, classic American parkland. Penalises wayward driving. Rewards iron play. The kind of track that quietly gets in your head before it loudly gets in your scorecard.
Last time the PGA Championship visited Aronimink? 1962. Gary Player won it. Sixty-four years ago. Nobody in the field has played a major here before.
That matters. There's no recent-history edge. No "horses for courses" data. Just 126 players staring at a Ross masterpiece for the first time, all on the same page.
How to enter
Registration closes at first tee on Thursday — 11:00 UTC (07:00 ET, 12:00 BST). Once Round 1 starts, the door slams shut.
- Sign in at sportsblock.app with Hive Keychain or Google.
- Hit /contests/pga-championship-2026.
- Pick your 3 golfers — combined odds ≥ 90/1.
- Drop your tiebreaker — predicted winning score relative to par.
- Submit. You're in.
Free entry. No buy-in. 5,000 MEDALS to the winner (60% / 25% / 15% split, top 3).
The pitch
Rory is one win from leg two of a calendar Grand Slam. Schauffele is defending. Scheffler is Scheffler. There are 20 club pros in the field who'd retire on the spot if they finished top-20.
You've got two days to call it. Three picks. One combined-odds threshold. One cut rule.
Bring your read.
Pure sports. Real rewards.
