The PGA Tour will travel to Fort Worth, Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge. You would think that the field would be pretty weak after playing one of the toughest majors in recent history. That is not the case. 24 of the top-50 golfers in the World Golf Rankings are scheduled to tee it up this week. You need to watch out for withdrawals though. The Charles Schwab Challenge is not an elevated event, so that means the golfers are not required to play. The tournament next week (The Memorial Tournament) is an elevated event, so the top golfers are required to show up. Some golfers may choose not to play the PGA Championship, the Charles Schwab and The Memorial in three consecutive weeks.
Here is the recent form and course history for each golfer this week: History and Form
COURSE BREAKDOWN
Colonial Country Club will be the host course this week. It is a par 70 which plays 7,206 yards in length. The only course that has been on the PGA Tour longer than Colonial Country Club is Augusta National (Home of the Masters). Most of the field knows this course well.
Accuracy off the tee is more important than distance at Colonial Country Club. We need to focus our picks on golfers who can hit it straight this week because the trees that line the fairways will cause the golfers a lot of trouble if they cannot find the fairways. This is a second shot course, so strokes gained approach will be an important state this week.
Click here to see the course: Colonial Country Club
KEY STATS FOR CHARLES SCHWAB
– Shots Gained Tee-to-Green
-Accuracy Off-the-Tee
– Strokes Gained Approach
– Shots Gained Putting (Bentgrass)
TOP 30 GOLFERS
* I know a lot of you will want to play Michael Block, but just enjoy the story from last week and last other people chase his one-week success. He was awful at the American Express and Torrey Pines earlier this year (two courses he knows well). I will be watching him and cheering for Block, but I am not playing him in DFS this week.
CHARLES SCHWAB STRATEGY
There will be 120 golfers in the field this week and the top-65 and ties will make the cut. That means more than half of the field will play all four rounds this week. It should be easier to get 6/6 golfers through the cut this weekend.
I will be building some balanced lineups using a lot of golfers from the $9K and $8K price ranges for the Cash Contests lineups, but I do not mind building some Cash Contest lineups around Scottie Scheffler too. There are some cheap golfers who have made a lot of cuts in a row. I will be pairing Scheffler will golfers like Eric Cole,Ryan Palmer, Hayden Buckley, Beau Hossler, Thomas Detry, and Matthew NeSmith.
I will be using two strategies for my Tournament Contests this week. I really like Scottie Scheffler at his favorite course so I will try to have double the ownership than the field this week (about 40%). I also like some of the golfers who played poorly last week in the PGA Championship since some people may be afraid to go back to them this week. There is a big difference from Oak Hills Country Club (last week) and Colonial Country Club (this week).
CORE GOLFERS FOR CHARLES SCHWAB
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER ($11,500): I will pay up from Scheffler in my Cash Contests and make people try to beat me without him in their lineup. The dude has been on fire this year. Scheffler has finished every tournament since last October in the top-12. He finished second in this tournament last year and Scheffler ranks No. 1 in the key stats. He is my easy pick to win Sunday.
CAMERON DAVIS ($8,600): I wanted to pair Scottie Scheffler with Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose or Chris Kirk in my Cash Contests, but I could not do it without sacrificing too much in the bottom of the lineup. Instead, I will play Davis at $8,600. David finished 4th last week in the PGA Championship and 7th last month on a similar type course at Harbor Town. Davis ranks No. 9 in the keys stats and he finished 7th in this tournament last year. Davis should be a good play for all types of contests this week.
STEPHAN JAEGER ($8,100): I like Taylor Moore and Jaeger for this spot, but I will go with the more experienced golfer this week. Jaeger has been playing really well recently. He ranks No. 4 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green No. 15 in Shots Gained Approach, No. 5 in Ball-Striking, No. 14 in Scrambling and No. 12 overall in the key stats. Jaeger finished 11th two weeks ago in Texas (AT&T Byron Nelson). He should have a good chance to finish in the top-15 at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
BEAU HOSSLER ($7,300): Hossler is in great form right now. He has made five cuts in a row and now he gets to tee it up in the tournament where he finished 21st at last year. Hossler has only been average from tee-to-green (He ranks 35th), but his short game and putting is fantastic. Hossler ranks No. 23 in the key stats, No. 15 in comparable courses and No. 22 in recent form. That should be good enough to make the cut with top-20 upside.
HAYDEN BUCKLEY ($7,300): Buckley is one of the better young golfers on tour right now. He has made four cuts in a row, including a 5th-place finish at the RBC Heritage (similar type of course) and a 10th-place finish at the Valero Texas Open. Buckley ranks No. 10 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, No. 6 in Shots Gained Approach, No. 3 in Ball-Striking and No. 6 overall in the key stats. Those numbers are too good to fade at $7,300 this week.
ERIC COLE ($7,200): Cole was at the top of the leaderboard in the first round of the PGA Championship last week and then he faded over the weekend. He finished 15th last week, 23rd two weeks ago in Texas at the AT&T Byron Nelson and 5th last month in the Mexico Open. Cole ranks No. 12 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, No. 24 in Ball-Striking, No. 2 in Scrambling and No. 15 overall in the key stats. I like what I saw from Cole last week, so I will roll the dice with him in my Cash Contest lineup.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
TONY FINAU ($10,700): I will have a lot of lineups with Scottie Scheffler in my “Tournament Contest Download” posted below. I will post a lineup here without Scheffler that should score well Sunday. Finau went toe-to-toe with Jon Rahm in Mexico and beat him. Can he do the same with Scheffler? Finau has the game and the course history to win this week. His ownership will be significantly less than Scheffler, so I like Finau as a pivot at the top of the Tournament Contest lineup.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD ($9,200): Scottie Scheffler leads almost every stat category this week, but Fleetowood is not far behind him. Fleetwood ranks No. 3 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, No. 6 in Shots Gained Approach, No. 4 in Ball-Striking, No. 14 in Shots Gained Putting and No. 2 overall in the key stats. Fleetwood has made 8 cuts in a row on tour. He has the upside to finish in the top-five Sunday.
DENNY MCCARTHY ($8,700): The Charles Schwab Challenge has a history of turning into a putting contest. If that is the case this week, I want McCarthy in my lineup. He is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. He recent form is good too. McCarthy has made 5 cuts in a row, including a 29th-place finish last week at the PGA Championship and an 8th-place finish earlier this month at the Wells Fargo. McCarthy finished 27th in this tournament last year. His form is a lot better in 2023, so he should have the upside to finish in the top-10 Sunday.
EMILIANO GRILLO ($7,700): Grillo has had success at Colonial Country Club when he enters the tournament in good form. He finished 3rd in 2018 and 8th in 2021. Grillo missed the cut last week, but Oak Hills Country Club is not the type of course Grillo plays well. He is much better at these courses where length off-the-tee does not matter, but ball-placement does. Grillo finished 5th last month at the Mexico Open and 7th at the RBC Heritage. He ranks No. 13 in the key stats, so Grillo gets a spot in the Tournament Contest lineup.
RYAN PALMER ($7,200): Palmer is member of Colonial Country Club and he knows this course better than any golfer in the field. He plays this tournament every year and Palmer has had a lot of success. He has made 9 of his last 12 cuts in the Charles Schwab Challenge. I was worried about his form, but then Palmer went out and finished 8th at another one of his favorite course at the AT&T Byron Nelson two weeks ago. Palmer should be a good play for Tournament Contest lineups at his home course.
NICK NOVAK ($6,400): What if I told you that you could get a golfer who has made 8 cuts in a row on the PGA Tour and has only missed one cut in 2023 for $6,400? You would take it, right? I would take it too. Novak picks and chooses his tournaments wisely. He knows he is not long off-the-tee and he cannot compete at the difficult courses. He does excel on the plotter courses where length off-the-tee is not an advantage. Novak is a great “punt play” this week.
Here are my lineups for Multi-Entry Tournament Contest: (FantasyRacingTips)
FANDUEL CASH CONTEST LINEUP
FANDUEL TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
PGATOUR.COM FANTASY PICKS
* This is the 10th tournament of Segment 3. We have the tournament this week and The Memorial next week before we get our allocations back. The tournament next week is an elevated event, so there will be plenty of good golfers to choose from.
FANTASY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP ONE & DONE PICK: TOMMY FLEETWOOD (CHARLES SCHWAB)
Players in Fantasy Golf Championship One & Done so far: Jon Rahm (50th), Adam Scott (8th), Viktor Hovland (43rd), Tony Finau (Win), Sungjae Im (7TH), Jordan Spieth (4th), Si Woo Kim (39th), Tyrrell Hatton (60th), Adam Hadwin (MC), Rory McIlroy (MC), Will Zalatoris (53rd), Matt Kuchar (MC), Tony Finau (20), Xander Schauffele (10th), Seamus Power (15th), Max Homa (1st), Brian Harman (MC), and Corey Conners (12th)
SEASON LONG ONE & DONE PICK: TOMMY FLEETWOOD (CHARLES SCHWAB)
Players Used This Season in One & Done: Brooks Koepka (Win), K-H Lee (50th), Cameron Young (59th), Tony Finau (Win), Keith Mitchell (6th), Tom Kim (MC), Brooks Koepka (2nd), Matt Kuchar (3rd), Wyndham Clark (6th), Adam Hadwin (MC), Rory McIlroy (MC), Will Zallatoris (53rd), Sungjae Im (42nd), Max Homa (2), Xander Schauffele (10th), Jordan Spieth (63rd), Jon Rahm (7th), Taylor Montgomery (5th), Russell Henley (32nd), Seamus Power (25th), Brian Harman (2nd), Maverick McNealy (27th), Emiliano Grillo (42nd), Nick Hardy (28th), Terrell Hatton (13TH) Christian Bezuidenhout (29th), Cameron Davis (37th), Denny McCarthy (39th), Brendon Steele (CUT)
BEST BETS FOR CHARLES SCHWAB
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (5-1)
JUSTIN ROSE (30-1)
TOMMY FLEETWOOD (30-1)
DENNY MCCARTHY (50-1)
I usually do not go all in on one golfer in a tournament, but that will be my strategy this week. I usually bet $100 each week. I will bet $50 on Scottie Scheffler, $20 on Justin Rose, $20 on Tommy Fleetwood and $10 on Denny McCarthy.
If you do not want to go all in with Scottie Scheffler, you can bet the three golfers I listed above with Scheffler and take a chance with Russell Henley (35-1), Christian Kirk (35-1) and Stephan Jaegar (60-1).
Good Luck This Week!!!!
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