By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

Tournament & Field 🏆

It was a tense Sunday finish at the PGA Championship but Brooks Koepka was able to claw his way to another Major victory and a third Wanamaker Trophy. Perhaps the biggest star of the week was the 46-year-old tour pro Michael Block who dunked an ace in on No. 15 and went on to finish in 15th place, thus earning him a nice six-figure payday while also qualifying for the next year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.

The PGA Tour now travels back to the Lone Star State to tee it up for the Charles Schwab Challenge which will once again be hosted by Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Despite this being a week following a Major, there is still quite a talented field in play for this event. Ten of the world’s top 25 golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings will be on site, along with 47 of the top 100. The field will be slimmed down to only 120 total players with the top 65 (including ties) making it past the 36-hole cut line. Golfers will be vying for a share of 500 FedEx Cup points and a piece of an $8.7 million purse with the eventual winner cashing a cool $1.566 million.

The Course Preview ⛳

Colonial Country Club

Par 70 | 7,209 Yards

Greens: Bentgrass

Course Difficulty Last 5 Years: 11th, 18th, 13th, 7th, 20th

Cutline Last 5 Years: +1, +1, -2, +2, +2

Comp Courses: Harbour Town, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Southwind

While the tournament has changed names several times over, Colonial Country Club has been played every year on the PGA circuit for the last 77 years dating back to 1946, making it the longest-standing non-Major PGA Tour venue. That will make this a great week to weigh course history heavier than usual.

Colonial CC is a shorter Par 70 which stretches 7,200 yards. This is a traditionally styled course that features tree-lined Bermuda grass fairways and small bentgrass greens which will run moderately fast (around 12 on the stimpmeter). Despite being one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour schedule, Colonial CC can often play inside the top 20 in terms of course difficulty year in and year out. The 36-hole cut line fell to 2-under here in 2020 when the field was absolutely loaded – some may recall that this event marked the “return to golf” following a three-month-long break from play due to the COVID pandemic, so nearly every top golfer in the world showed up to compete. But in four of the last five years, the cutline has landed at either a +1 or +2 score.

With only two Par 5s in play, efficient scoring on the twelve Par 4s will be imperative. The fairways here tend to narrow further down on most holes so this is a track where precision overrules power. Due to the course design, bombers won’t necessarily have an advantage and a large portion of the field will opt to go “less than driver” off the tee – not everyone, but many. Pinpoint accuracy and crafty shot shaping are the skill sets that tend to reign supreme here and an old-school well-rounded “fairways and greens” type of play style is generally rewarded. The narrow fairways and loaded with doglegs so golfers will look to target specific landing zones to give themselves a clearer view of the greens on their approach shots. There are a total of 84 bunkers to contend with and water comes into play on a few holes as well. A sharp mid-iron game is a must as about 45-50% of approach shots will come in the 125-175 yard range. The rough here isn’t a death sentence but it is wiry and can often “snatch” golf balls, causing them to sink to the bottom and produce menacing lies. Combine that with the fact that the greens at Colonial CC are some of the smallest on the PGA Tour and feature some moderate undulation, and you’ll see that efficient around-the-green play can be quite important as well! Let’s shake the PGA Championship hangover and continue to crush it this week! Best of luck!

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

(Click the image above to view the most up-to-date forecast)

⚖️Weather Verdict: The conditions will be extremely similar for all four rounds of this tournament so there’s no need to delve too deep into the weather this week. Sustained winds will top out around 10 mph with gusts being at their strongest (15-20 mph) in the mornings across the first three rounds. It does look as if it will be pretty overcast this week but, currently, no significant rain is expected. No wave advantage.

Charles Schwab Challenge Tee Times

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Approach | 25%

2. Par 4 Average | 25%

3. Birdie or Better % | 25%

4. Strokes Gained: Around the Green | 15%

5. Mid-Iron Accuracy: Proximity from 125-175 Yards | 10%

PGA Tour Stats Page

Charles Schwab Challenge Model Standouts 🏅

Below are the top 20 ranked golfers in both my overall model and my key stats model. Below that are the top 20 leaders in average fantasy points over the last five and last ten starts. The players ranked on these lists do not necessarily mean they are the top golfers I’m targeting for this week's event, but many of these guys should no doubt be favorable DFS options.

Overall Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal DFS model, which weighs all of the key stats listed above in this newsletter, as well as things like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (in relation to the field) in my "key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed above in this newsletter with the specified percentage weights allocated towards each statistic.

Charles Schwab Challenge DFS Cheat Sheet 📑

Click the Cheat Sheet above for the higher quality direct image link

Alternative Cheat Sheet Direct Image Link

Cheat Sheet QR Code:

That will do it for our PGA preview! Best of luck this week and, once again, feel free to hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries with any questions.