A second major of the year is in the rearview mirror for Xander Schauffele as he won the PGA Championship last week.
Let’s take a look at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Since it’s the week after the major, he should be pleased with how the field has improved this week.
Top favorites Scottie Scheffler (+275 to win, BetMGM), Collin Morikawa (+1200), Max Homa and Jordan Spieth (both 22/1) feature prominently.
Colonial Country Club has undergone renovations since it was last seen on the PGA Tour.
It was extended by 89 yards, the green was lowered and many of the bunkers around the green were replaced with grass.
Colonial has always been one of the toughest non-majors on tour, and these changes will solidify it even more.
This course is a par 70 and currently measures just under 7,300 yards.
Considering the number of doglegs and forced layups, this is one of the few courses on Tour where distance from the tee isn’t a huge advantage.
This is more of a second shot and in type of test.
Golfers who excel on their approaches, around greens and putting in bentgrass should rise to the top of the leaderboard this week.
Here are the three best ways to win the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Tony Finau (30/1, bet 365)
Finau has been inconsistent this season, but his iron game has been impressive, as he showed at last week’s PGA Championship when he gained 9.7 strokes on his approach.
He regularly stretches his stroke off the tee (even on short courses) and is an underrated scrambler.
But his turnaround is all about his putting.
He loves the bentgrass greens, although they haven’t been as good this year.
Over the past two years, he has ranked 32nd in the field in strokes gained putting on bentgrass.
He has finished in the top 25 at this tournament in four of the past five years, so he definitely has an affinity for this course.
Denny McCarthy (50/1, BetMGM)
If I could make one outright bet this week, it would be on McCarthy. Because it’s hard to find a better course for his skill set.
He is accurate with his tee shots, has one of the best short games in the world, and professes to love difficult golf courses.
He missed last week’s game against Valhalla, but that was more of a bomber’s course. I’m sure he’ll find Colonial more to his liking.
He doesn’t have the best course history there, but I’m willing to ignore that considering the course changes, most of the field will be seeing these changes for the first time.
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Christian Bezuidenhout (50/1, BetMGM)
If you put C-Bez in the middle of the fairway like everyone else, he’s one of the best golfers in the world.
He’s an elite iron player, a good scrambler and can make it shine on the greens.
Bezuidenhout is still looking for his first PGA Tour win, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to win.
He has seven professional wins on his resume and has fought many times on this side of the pond.
Bezuidenhout enters this week in good form (top-30 in six of his last seven starts) and has very attractive numbers on the outright market.
