PGA Charles Schwab Challenge Preview
Pamela Maldonado gives her top picks for the Charles Schwab Challenge from Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
Video Transcript
PAMELA MALDONADO: The PGA Championship was a huge success last week, but I'm looking forward to this week as the tour moves a little further south to Fort Worth, Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club. The course is a par 70, over 7,200 yards, and a Perry Maxwell design, which is the same architect as last week's PGA Championship.
The course has Bermuda grass fairways, bentgrass greens, and rough that is thicker than last week's event. There are only two par 5s on the course. One is a 550 yard dogleg, and the other is whole number 11, a 630-yard beast. Just to give you an idea of how difficult these par 5s actually are, neither produced an eagle in last year's event. This is a less-than-driver course. Instead, I am looking for positional golf players.
Jason Kokrak was the winner in last year's event, scoring 14 under. He won twice last year. Both events were in Texas-- the Charles Schwab in May, and the Hewlett-Packard in Houston in November. So potentially, Kokrak could very well be and under the radar player this year. Odds entering the Charles Schwab-- Jordan Spieth is a 12 to 1 favorite, followed by PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas; Scottie Scheffler, who missed the cut, but does still have four wins this year; followed by Collin s and Viktor Hovland rounding out the top five, both of which are looking to rebound from last week's 8 over and 5 over par scores.
Stats that I'm using for this week's event-- since it is positional golf, I'm looking at strokes gained on the approach, scrambling, and bentgrass putting. The first player that I'm looking at is-- don't judge-- Mito Pereira. You're getting really great odds that are entirely way too enticing-- 2 to 1 for a top 20, 55 to 1 for a win, despite coming off an emotional loss last week at the PGA Championship.
Entering the 18th hole, he had a one-stroke lead to only fall to third after dumping it into the water. However, Pereira-- his stats they fit the bill for doing well at this course-- seventh in strokes gained off the tee and approach, third in scrambling, and third in par 4 scoring. An emotional loss, yes, but looking at his last six event on bentgrass courses, his four top six finishes, including third at the PGA Championship-- and he does pretty well in Texas. Pereira has a T13 at Valero and a T17 at the Byron Nelson. 2 to 1 for a top 20-- entirely doable.
The second player that I like to contend is [INAUDIBLE] in Jordan Spieth-- minus 140 for a top 20, plus 155 for a top 10, 12 to 1 for a win. But Spieth absolutely crushes in Texas with five top tens in his last six events in the big state, winning the Valero Texas Open just last April. He took second at the Schwab last May, and he took second at the Byron Nelson just two weeks ago.
In the field, Spieth has been absolutely phenomenal-- second in strokes gained off the tee, 12th in strokes gained on the approach, second in strokes gained around the green, first in strokes gained tee to green. His ball strike and is absolutely there. The problem area has been his putting, which typically is his best part of his game. However, in 12 events this year in 2022, Spieth has lost strokes putting in nine-- but one of the three events where he actually gained strokes, 1 and 1/2 was at Byron Nelson in Texas. Spieth definitely has a chance here would come out with the win.
So these are the two players that I like to contend, if not win this event. You're looking at Mito Pereira or Jordan Spieth. You can find odds for both players and more at the Yahoo Sportsbook. Bet $10 and win $200 in free bets by signing up at BetMGM.com/YahooVIP. New customers only-- must be 21 or older, and terms do apply.
