After a historic PGA Championship, the PGA Tour heads back to Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The tournament is an invitational with a smaller field of 120 players, including last week’s winner Phil Mickelson and defending champion Daniel Berger.
The 2020 version of the event was the first tournament to be played after suspension of play due to Covid-19 and was won by Berger in a playoff over Collin Morikawa. Usually, the Charles Schwab is played in the week prior to or immediately following the AT&T Byron Nelson that also takes place in the Dallas Metroplex, but the schedule had the PGA Championship in between this year.
Despite following a major championship, there is a strong field expected to be in Fort Worth this weekend, with local favorites Jordan Spieth and last year’s runner up Morikawa teeing it up on par 70, 7,209-yard layout known as Hogan’s Alley in honor of his two-time back to back victories in 1946-47 and 1952-53, Colonial Country Club has hosted the event for the duration of its 75-year history.
The tight layout at Colonial Country Club sets up well for Collin Morikawa.
Betting Odds at Colonial
Jordan Spieth leads the futures odds list at +1000, followed by Morikawa with odds of +1200. Both players made the cut in the PGA, but neither one was in the hunt on the weekend. Justin Thomas, number two in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), is next at +1300 after missing the cut by a shot last week.
The defending champion (Berger) is at +1900, and Abraham Ancer, who plays under the Mexico flag but has Texas roots, is at +2100. A number of players are at +2300, including Texas residents Patrick Reed, Scottie Scheffler, and Will Zalatoris.
Phil Mickelson, who is coming off his thrilling, history-making win in the PGA Championship, is at +4300 to win his third Charles Schwab challenge. New everyman’s favorite Harry Higgs, another Dallas resident, finished in a tie for second last week at Kiawah Island and is at odds of +10000 to pick up his first PGA Tour victory.
Wagering Pick Favorites
The top four players in the odds list have all won tournaments since the start of 2021, but the tight layout at Colonial Country Club sets up well for Collin Morikawa, the 2020 PGA Championship victor, and the winner of the WGC – Workday Championship at The Concession. His ball striking ability should enable him to be near the top of the leaderboard for the second year in a row.
Tony Finau is still trying to get his second PGA Tour win at a place where he finished in a tie for 23rd last year. He is one of the big group at odds of +2300 this week to break his six year winless drought and is just too good of a player not to close out a tournament in the near future.
Rookie Will Zalatoris is a favorite of many analysts to pick up a win sometime soon, and the second place finisher to Hideki Matsuyama in the Masters finished in a tie for eighth at the PGA Championship. The Wake Forest grad still isn’t a member of the PGA Tour, playing this season as a special temporary member.
