Where: Colonial Country Club
Watch: Golf Channel CBS
When: May 25-28
Following a great PGA Championship up in New York last week, the PGA Tour heads back to Texas this week for the Charles Schwab Challenge – formerly known as “The Colonial” – at Colonial Country Club – AKA Hogan’s Alley – in Fort Worth.
A field of 120 that includes eight of the World Golf Rankings’ top 20 players will tee it up for shares of $8.7 million in prize money, including $1.5 million and a sharp Scottish tartan blazer to the winner.
Last week Brooks Koepka outplayed Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler down the stretch to win the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in New York. In winning his fifth career Major title, Koepka also provided his financial backers with a payout of +1800.
Hovland and Scheffler tied for second, two shots back of Koepka; Bryson DeChambeau, Kurt Kitayama, and Cam Davis tied for fourth; Rory McIlroy and Sepp Straka tied for seventh; and Justin Rose, Patrick Cantlay, and Cam Smith tied for ninth.
We swung and missed with our free golf betting picks last week. Top choice Cam Young, with “help” from a two-stroke penalty for forgetting to put his ball back in the right place on a green during the second round, shot 74-75 and missed the cut; second choice Keith Mitchell played within striking distance of a top-five finish through the first two rounds, then ballooned to 73-77 on the weekend and finished T-58; and third choice Harris English missed the cut, too.
Oh, well. Next.
As for this week, the Colonial Country Club, home to this event since its inception in 1946, plays to a par-70 at around 7,210 yards. Accuracy off the tee, hitting into tree-lined fairways, is probably the biggest key to success here.
Last year former LSU Tiger Sam Burns shot a final-round 65. He then birdied the first hole of a playoff with Scheffler to win this event. Brendon Todd showed third; Davis Riley, Tony Finau, and Scott Stallings tied for fourth; Davis, Kevin Na, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, and Mito Pereira tied for seventh.
Each week we take a look at the online betting sites and highlight what we believe to be some of the best golf betting values on the board, with a few free picks to click. Odds to win and pairings for this week can be found at Bovada. Here’s our take on some of the field at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.
Local hero Scheffler tops the betting on Bovada’s Charles Schwab Challenge board at +450. Fellow Texan Spieth, who owns a win and six other top-10 finishes over his last eight appearances in this event, comes next at +1200, followed by Finau and Hovland at +1400 and Collin Morikawa at +1600. Everybody else is getting at least +2000.
Brendon Todd (+6000 to win/+1000 top-five/+425 top-10
Todd took a T-8 here at Colonial two years ago and a solo third last year. This year he owns four top-10s, including a T-2 at Pebble Beach back in February and a T-8 at Quail Hollow three weeks ago. He made six cuts in a row, then missed the cut last week; Perfect. We love betting guys who look ripe for bounce-back performances, like Day a couple of weeks ago at the Byron Nelson And 60/1? We’re going across the board with this guy this week.
Sungjae Im (+2000 to win)
Of course, we could be all wet about Todd. Just in case – we better make a few more bets. Im took a T-10 here back in 2020, with four rounds in the 60’s and a T-15 last year. This season, even missing several tournaments, he owns eight top-10s, including three straight going into last week. Then he shot 80 on Thursday and missed the cut. Great. Again, we’re betting on this guy based on the rebound theory.
Chris Kirk (+650 to finish top-five)
Kirk got hot in January with a win at the Honda Classic and two other top-3s, and he’s made five cuts in a row, taking a T-29 last week at the PGA despite a second-round 75. And he ranks 18th on the Tour in putting. Last year Kirk was right in it here at Colonial, going into Sunday at -7, then shot 74 to finish T-15. Here’s to four good rounds this weekend.
Elsewhere among Bovada’s Charles Schwab wager offerings, the boring pairing of Scheffler and Spieth is actually getting +3000 on the quinella board, and the threesome of Im, defending champion Burns, and Morikowa is getting +1800 on the “all top-10” board.
The first groups for this Charles Schwab Challenge tee off Thursday morning at 8:20 ET, 7:20 am local time. Did you know that you can bet the tournament AFTER it starts? Find this awesome feature at Bovada Sportsbook!
