Charles Schwab Challenge Betting Picks and Guide (2021)
The PGA Tour makes its annual stop at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. There’s a quality field in attendance following the 2021 PGA Championship, but it doesn’t quite measure up to the loaded 2020 field when Daniel Berger was victorious in the PGA Tour’s mid-June return. Berger is back this week to defend his plaid jacket against Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and more. Below, we preview the course and offer our top picks to win the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge.
Check out the Best Prop Bets for the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge >>
Spieth comes in as the betting favorite at most of the top US sportsbooks. He dropped a couple of spots to No. 28 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) with a T30 finish last week. Mickelson looks to keep his strong play going at a course where he has won twice before. He vaulted from No. 115 to No. 32 in the OWGR with his win last week.
Previous Winners of the Charles Schwab Challenge
- 2020: Daniel Berger
- 2019: Kevin Na
- 2018: Justin Rose
- 2017: Kevin Kisner
- 2016: Jordan Spieth
Course Preview (Colonial Country Club)
Colonial CC has hosted the PGA Tour all but one year since 1946. The 7,209-yard, par-70 venue will be a welcome site for shorter hitters who battled the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island last week. Tee shots are squeezed by tight tree lines and narrow landing areas. Water is in play on three holes, and sand bunkers guard most of the Bentgrass greens.
Most of the Tour's longer hitters typically skip this event because of the ill-fitting course. Accurate drivers, iron players, and shot shapers generally have the most success here. Course history is also more closely tied to success than most PGA Tour venues.
Relevant Betting Stats
- Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee
- Driving Accuracy
- SG: Tee-to-Green
- Par 4 Efficiency: 400-450 Yards
- SG: Approach
- SG: Around-the-Green
Outright PGA Betting Picks
Corey Conners (+2300 on FanDuel Sportsbook)
Conners tied for 17th last week after grabbing the 18-hole lead with a round of 67. His seventh top-20 finish through 12 events this year was enough to push him to a career-best 36th in the OWGR. An excellent iron player, Conners tied for eighth at the Masters the week after a T14 showing at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
The Canadian is 10th on Tour in driving accuracy and ninth in par 4 efficiency from our key distance. He's fifth on Tour this season in SG: Approach. He tied for 19th against the stronger field last year.
Will Zalatoris (+2800 on BetMGM Sportsbook)
Zalatoris is one of just 10 players in the field making his debut at Colonial this week, but lack of experience has rarely been an issue for him. He secured his fourth top-10 finish through 13 events this year with a Sunday round of 2-under-par 70 last week; the result moved him up to No. 27 in the OWGR. He was the runner-up in his debut at Augusta National and certainly has the iron play to avoid the tree lines of Colonial.
He's 21st on Tour in Par 4 efficiency: 400-450 yards and second in SG: Approach.
Long-shot Betting Picks
Kevin Na (+7000 on DraftKings Sportsbook)
The 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge champ is getting far too high of odds despite a win already in 2021. Na missed the cut last week but at a much different and longer course. He tied for 12th at the Masters and won the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. His 48 career rounds at Colonial are fourth in this field, and his 1.68 strokes gained on the field per round are fifth.
He's tied for 23rd on Tour in driving accuracy, and he's first among golfers with at least 18 measured rounds in SG: Around-the-Green. He won by four strokes in 2019 but missed the cut last week with a poor putting performance following the month-long layoff.
Peter Uihlein (+14000 on DraftKings Sportsbook)
Uihlein garnered some attention a few weeks ago after winning the Korn Ferry Tour's MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute. He followed it up with a T57 finish at the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship but missed the cut at the AT&T Byron in his most recent PGA Tour start.
However, he had success in this event with a T14 finish in the strong field in 2020. The 31-year-old also tied for 13th at Colonial in 2019. The odds don't match those results.
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Esten McLaren is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Esten, check out his archive and follow him @EstenMclaren.