Major breakthrough: 10 players most likely to win their first major in 2025

It’s almost like clockwork. Every year we get a new major championship winner – more often than not, we get two. In only four seasons since 1946, the year after the conclusion of World War II, have we not seen a new member join the club.

Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama are among the names who have joined the major winners’ club over the last four years.

The four outliers were 1972, when legends Jack Nicklaus (x2), Gary Player and Lee Trevino scooped the major hardware; 1980, when it was Nicklaus (x2), Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros; 2000, when Tiger Woods won three and Vijay Singh the other; and most recently 2014, when Rory McIlroy claimed two majors and Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer each won their second.

So how do we use this to our advantage in the betting realm? Well, the first step might be to peruse the list that oddsmakers at DraftKings have put forward ahead of the big championships of 2025. They’ve framed markets for select players when it comes to winning ANY of the four majors.

It should come as no surprise that Scottie Scheffler is at the top of the pile at -165 to win one or more of the Masters at Augusta National (Apr. 10-13), the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (May 15-18), the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club (June 12-15) or The Open Championship at Royal Portrush (July 17-20).

Schauffele, who kept the trend going last year by winning his first two majors, joins Rory McIlroy next on the boards at +200. But those guys are already in the club. Who is going to be the newest member? Last year, Schauffele was No. 2 on my list. Who has moved? Who are new additions? Who have slid out of the most likely?

Let’s find out.

10. Si Woo Kim

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +2500
Previous Rank: NR

If I’m honest, this is the most controversial of the inclusions on this list, but sometimes you just have a feeling. Kim is one of the great riddles of professional golf. He won THE PLAYERS Championship as a youngster, in fact, the youngest ever, and has four total PGA TOUR wins. But he does not yet own a single major championship top 10! For eight seasons he’s routinely missed at least one major cut and not contended otherwise. However, the steel I saw from him at the Presidents Cup, coupled with the fact he improved to 26th in Strokes Gained: Total last season and the fact he’s added consistency (missing just two cuts), gives me hope.

9. Tommy Fleetwood

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +650
Previous Ranking: 6

Fleetwood remains in the top 10, albeit having slid down this list from sixth, on the strength of a T3 in the 2024 Masters and a career body of work that sees him with seven top-fives in his last 32 major starts. The slide is because with every close miss, is more belief that he might never take the final step. He does, however, have a decent U.S. Open resume and was runner-up to Shane Lowry when The Open Championship was last at Royal Portrush in 2019.

8. Tom Kim

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +1800
Previous Rank: 7

This is an interesting year for Kim and the majors. After three top-16 results in the big ones, including a runner-up at The Open Championship in 2023, I had higher hopes for the South Korean in 2024. But he missed the cut in the U.K. and was T26, T26 and T30 in the other three majors. His core Strokes Gained stats also slipped leaving him to hold his spot on the list based on potential and ability as much as anything else. To stay here another year, he needs to perform.

7. Robert MacIntyre

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +1800
Previous Rank: NR

Another newcomer to the list this season was a two-time PGA TOUR winner in 2024, both at national opens. MacIntyre claimed the RBC Canadian Open before snatching his home country Genesis Scottish Open in a breakout season. With winning belief now in his system, and a sneaky T6 to his name last time out at Royal Portrush, Bobby Mac should be on the radar. Was T8 at the PGA Championship in 2024 and has two top 25s at the Masters from his two starts.

6. Akshay Bhatia

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +2500
Previous Rank: NR

A third new addition to the ranks, and possibly a controversial one given his youth and limited major experience, Bhatia earned TOUR wins in each of the last two seasons, and could have easily had one more trophy if not for an unfortunate 72nd-hole stumble in Detroit. A T16 was his best result in the four majors in 2024, but this is a player on the rise.

5. Sungjae Im

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +800
Previous Rank: 5

Come on, Im! Seriously. I cannot keep adding you to this list on gut feel over and over. Thankfully a T7 at this year’s The Open came after missing the cut in the previous three majors of the year, because without it you’d be off the list for sure. His record at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship is candidly not good, but hope still remains with three top-16 finishes at the Masters. There is great ability within Im, who has made six straight TOUR Championships since joining the TOUR.

4. Patrick Cantlay

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +700
Previous Rank: 3

For a long time, Cantlay was seen by many as the best player without a major – and some may still slot him in that spot. But to be honest with you, if not for a T3 at this year’s U.S Open, he’d have drifted further down my list. He is an eight-time PGA TOUR winner who also claimed the 2021 FedExCup, but his major return has been less than stellar. He’s now at five career top 10s in majors from 31 starts, only two of which were top fives. The talent is there, he just needs the execution when it matters.

3. Sahith Theegala

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +1400
Previous Rank: 8

Perhaps I’m drinking Kool-Aid here, but I’m bullish on Theegala being a future major champion. One of my main reasons is now that he’s a proven TOUR winner, and after tasting success with the U.S. Presidents Cup team in Montreal, his confidence will continue to soar. He was third in the FedExCup in 2024 and importantly 16th in SG: Total. Watch for his swashbuckling play to contend at Augusta National.

2. Viktor Hovland

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +500
Previous Rank: 1

Call it a leap of faith, but I’m prepared to say 2024 was an anomaly for Hovland, who failed to back up his scintillating finish to 2023 where he was the FedExCup champion in a three-win season. Without a win since, he’s dropped from my top spot, but he was still able to finish third at the PGA last season amid his ‘slump.’ He’s finished inside the top 12 of all four majors in his career and at his best is clearly a major winner in waiting. It’s time for his smile to return to the TOUR.

1. Ludvig Åberg

Odds to win a Major in 2025: +350
Previous Rank: 10

A new man atop the rankings, with the Swede jumping all the way from 10th to first on the back of a great 2024. Åberg was runner-up on debut at the Masters and contended at the U.S. Open (T12) where a couple of big errors derailed an otherwise great week. It’s true he missed the cut at the other two majors, but he did all of this with a knee issue that required surgery. And it his recovery from that, not his limitless talent, that remains the only possible stumbling block to him being a huge factor in 2025.

Others of note

Here are others who have had some previous moments contending in majors and who might pique your interest in this unique futures market:

• +900: Tony Finau (career major top-10s: 11)
• +2000: Cameron Young (career major top-10s: 5)
• +1200: Corey Conners (career major top-10s: 4)
• +1200: Russell Henley (career major top-10s: 3)
• +2800: Max Homa (career major top-10s: 2)
• +900: Sam Burns (career major top-10s: 1)
• +2000: Min Woo Lee (career major top-10s: 1)
• +4000: Denny McCarthy (career major top-10s: 1)

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