After watching the world’s best battle it out at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship, a strong field heads down to Fort Worth, Texas, for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. Though not a designated event, the field is still relatively strong, especially considering it’s the week after a major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PGA Tour has been coming to the legendary Colonial Country Club since 1946, and it’s held the test of time despite all the changes in the game. We know what we’re getting this week. Precision is the name of the game, both off the tee and into these small bentgrass greens. Birdies are hard to come by, and historically bombers have been forced to go less-than-driver more than most other tracks due to the many forced layups, doglegs, thick Bermuda rough, and tight tree-lined fairways. We’ve seen an increase in driver usage off the tee over the past few years, a trend that will likely continue this week for some of the 120 golfers in the field. Not everyone has the apex and carry distance required to drive it over the trees to cut off the many doglegs at Colonial, but those who can likely continue to try. Regardless, as is often the case, approach play is paramount this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more course details, check out Ron’s<\/a> course preview<\/a>. It’s the best in the business, bar none. Here’s an important tidbit about Colonial:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colonial is one of the toughest courses to make birdies on Tour. It has stood the test of time, and because it cannot be overpowered, it continues to challenge golfers year after year. It has the third-smallest average landing zones on Tour when combining fairway width (28 yards) and green size (5,000 square feet).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the last five years, it has averaged 0.24 strokes over par, which makes it the 10th toughest course on Tour. Thanks to only two par-5s, it has one of the lowest eagle rates on Tour, along with the third-highest rate of pars. With the lack of many “birdie” holes, boring golf tends to win here. Also, because distance off the tee is a non-factor here, any type of skill set has the opportunity to win.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the heavy volume of trees lining the fairways, along with the unpredictable 3\u2033 Bermuda rough, it becomes a positional-based course where most players will club down off the tee and take less than driver. Distance off the tee is seven yards lower here than the average course. Those who find the rough or try to cut across the doglegs and fail will have to deal with plenty of tree-blocked approach shots. Fairway-finders playing “target golf” rule the day here at Colonial.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My goal with this piece is to touch on the golfers I’m targeting this week. There are millions of ways to bet on this beautiful game, so I’ll share my opinion on the best way to bet on each golfer in my player pool at this week’s event. When pricing out finishing position bets (T5, T10, T20s, etc.), I’ll often lean towards BetMGM<\/a> even if there’s a better number elsewhere because of MGM’s advantageous dead-heat rules. So know the rules of the books that you’re betting on! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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