The Charles Schwab Challenge
The Charles Schwab Challenge
May 25, 2026The Charles Schwab Challenge
It was another tough week for us that the Byron Nelson as we failed to bag any returns.
Heading in to Sunday we had three players on the fringes of the places and one of them Johnny Keefer made a bold run to bag us some returns. Sadly though despite a final day 63 he finished one shot shy of the frame in ninth. Symptomatic of how things have been going for us of late.
The event itself was won by Wyndham Clark who put a poor 2026 to date behind him to produce a blistering Sunday 60 with a red hot putter to hunt down 54 hole leader Si Woo Kim.
Poor Si Woo must be wondering what he has to do to bag another win as even a 60 of his own on Friday and shooting a 6- under 65 on Sunday having entered the day with a two shot lead was not enough!
So onwards we go for our second week in the Dallas metropolis area as we head to Colonial Golf & CC in Fort Worth Texas for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
One of the longest standing events on the PGA Tour dating back to 1946 Colonial is closely associated with Ben Hogan who was a long time Fort Worth resident and won the tournament on five occasions.
Having been sponsored by Dean & Deluca in 2016 & 17 the tournament was without a sponsor in 2018, however in 2019 Charles Schwab took up the baton and the event became known as the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Despite the event being sandwiched in a run predominantly featuring Majors or Signature events there is a decent smattering of big names in attendance.
The market is headed up by Ludvig Aberg. Aberg is then followed by Russell Henley, defending champion Ben Griffin, Robert McIntyre, Rickie Fowler & Justin Thomas.
COURSE
Colonial Country Club is a Par 70 measuring at just over 7200 yards.
The greens are Bent Grass.
The course was co designed by Perry Maxwell who was also the main designer of the 2021 PGA Championship host venue Southern Hills.
The course is seen as a classical test which can reward both short game specialists and ball strikers. Distance off the tee here is not an advantage here though with the premium being on finding fairways.
The signature section of the course is holes 3, 4 and 5, which are collectively known as The Horrible Horseshoe.
This section is made up of the Par 4 3rd and 5th holes and the Par 3 4th and year in year out this is the toughest stretch on the course.
The two Par 5s are the 1st and the 11th with the 11th, measuring over 600yds, often playing as a three shot hole to reach the green.
HISTORY
Looking at the winners over the past ten years and it is clear to see that two specific types of player seem to triumph here. Either the out and out short game wizards or the clinical ball strikers, with the former on balance historically getting most joy.
To back this up Let’s take a look at the winners since 2012;
2025 Ben Griffin
2024 Davis Riley
2023 Emiliano Grillo
2022 Sam Burns
2021 Jason Kokrak
2020 Daniel Berger
2019 Kevin Na
2018 Justin Rose
2017 Kevin Kisner
2016 Jordan Spieth
2015 Chris Kirk
2014 Adam Scott
2013 Boo Weekley
2012 Zach Johnson
As we can see from this list we have Zach Johnson, Toms, Spieth, Kisner, Kirk and Kevin Na falling in the former category, while Grillo, Rose, Scott, Weekley, Berger, Kokrak and last years winner Burns were very much ones for the ‘ball strikers’ camp.
Furthermore you have the likes of Morikawa, Bradley, O’Hair, English, Dufner, Glover, Grillo & Conners popping up in the frame over the years for the ball strikers camp, while Harry Hall, Sneds, Freddie Jacobsen, Jonas Blixt and Ben Crane have placed for the short game specialists.
The message therefore seems to be loud and clear, to get the job done historically at Colonial you either need to be a short game magician or an elite ball striker. A jack of all trades isn’t what you’re looking for here.
One other thing that can be seen from this list of winners is that historically Colonial CC was not as a rule a venue that tended to see players bagging their first tour title at. Indeed prior to 2024 of the winners noted only one of them, Kisner was posting their second tour win while all the others were multiple winners on the PGA Tour prior to their success here. The last two years though has seen an interesting trend, all be it probably coincidental of course in that the winners Davis Riley and Ben Griffin were bagging their maiden solo titles having both won the Zurich pairs!
Past course form here also appears to be significant as looking at the winners since 2012 eight of them had previously recorded at least one top ten here, with the exceptions being Daniel Berger, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Burns and Griffin.
If we then take a look at recent form coming in and this also throws up another interesting trend. 2020 winner Daniel Berger had been in fine form just prior to the shutdown and if we take a look at the previous nine winners here to Berger eight of them had posted a top fifteen finish in their previous three starts. Furthermore the odd one out, the 2013 champion Boo Weekley had finished sixth at the Zurich Classic four starts prior to his win here. This trend was continued in 2021 by Kokrak who had finished 13th in his start prior to the PGA at the Valspar while Burns had lifted the trophy at the Valspar just four solo starts prior to his win here.
More recently 2023 winner Grillo had posted two very recent top tens before 2024 winner Riley bucked this trend having not posted a top ten all year. Last year though Ben Griffin won here on the back of a top ten at the PGA Championship the previous week.
It would clearly seem to be the case then that Colonial CC is not as a rule a venue where you find your game out of the blue.
Finally of course when in Texas we should never forget that players with Texas connections always tend to go well in the Lone Star State and over the years Pierceson Coody, Mac Meissner, Scottie Scheffler, Davis Riley, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Mito Pereira have all flown the Texas flag here
The winning score has varied quite a bit here over the recent years with Adam Scott winning with a total of just -9 in 2014 and Kisner winning with -10 in 2017. However in 2010 Zach Johnson won with a total of -21, in 2016 Spieth won with -17, in 2018 Rose triumphed with a total of -20, in 2019 the winning number for Kevin Na was -13. In 2021 -15 got the job done for Daniel Berger while Kokrak triumphed with a -14 total in 2021.
Finally the last three years has seen winning scores of -8, -14 and -12 from Grillo, Riley and Griffin respectively.
As always this variation in score will be down to how firm or soft the course is playing and how much the wind picks up. In addition the year Scott won the rough was up more than average which put more of a premium on ball striking.
WEATHER FORECAST
The early part of the week shows the possibility for a storm on Wednesday, however beyond this while there is always the potential for storms in this area hopefully we will get through without interruption.
Temperatures look set to be warm and muggy hitting the 90s. Wind often factor at Colonial and Texas in general, doesn’t look to be too much of an issue this week with nothing more than 10-15mph currently in the forecast.
As I always say though this could all change!
PICKS
I have gone with five players this week as follows;
RICKIE FOWLER – 20/1 – 2.5pts E/W – 1/5 odds 1st 10
I will start this week by sticking with Rickie Fowler.
Fowler arrives at Colonial as one of the hot hands on tour having bagged three straight top tens prior to his down the field finish at the PGA. He has the recent strong form then we look for here.
Looking at Fowler’s history in the event he was sixth here in 2023 so he also has the requisite previous top ten here.
Twentieth on tour in putting, while strong in all other departments Fowler has all the tools to succeed here and with many of the games biggest names missing here this looks a great opportunity for him to return to the winners enclosure.
HARRY HALL – 35/1 – 1.5pts E/W – 1/5 odds 1st 8
If we are looking for players who are strong on the greens you don’t have to look much further than Harry Hall.
Looking at Hall’s 2026 so far he has three top tens to date including an eighth recently at the Truist so again we have the recent strong finish we are looking for.
Alongside his recent good form the biggest plus for Hall heading in to this week is his record at Colonial. He boasts two top tens in his three visits here including sixth last year. Clearly this is a venue he enjoys and he look set for another big performance here this week.
TONY FINAU –55/1 - 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1st 8
Moving on and Tony Finau ticks an awful lot of boxes this week.
Sixth at the CJ Cup last week Finau was impressive from tee to green on the way to notching his best finish on tour in over a year.
A look at Finau’s record here gives plenty of encouragement with two top fours on the CV while he is a course specialist at the correlating Memorial Park in Houston with a win and a runner up to his name. He also has a fifth in the bank at the Valspar.
With form in all the right places then and with his game seemingly turning a corner I am keen to be on board.
AJ EWART – 150/1 - 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1st 10
Next it is a first for me, as in the first time backing AJ Ewart.
AJ earned his PGA Tour card courtesy of winning Q School at the back end of last year. A victory, which it must be said came pretty much out of nowhere after a ho-hum year on both the PGA Tour of Americas and the Canadian Tour.
The Canadian though has started life pretty strongly on tour making nine of 13 cuts with his best finish coming when 11th at The Valspar, an event that we know correlates well here.
Looking at his stats for the season and AJ’s strength appears lie on the greens as he currently sits 19th in putting, which again bodes well for this week.
Nineteenth at the Byron Nelson last week, he should arrive here in confident mood and could just thrive on his debut at Colonial.
DAVID LIPSKY – 225/1 - 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1st 10
Finally I will roll the dice on David Lipsky at the odds on offer.
At 37yrs old Lipsky remains a maiden on the PGA Tour however he does boast two DP World Tour wins.
This season David currently sits 61st in the Fedex standings, a place which is largely down to his runner up finish at the Valspar, a result, which immediately makes him of interest for here.
If we then look at his history at Colonial and prior to missing the cut last year he had finished ninth and 16th in his previous two visits so we know the track suits him.
A look at Lipsky’s results over the past few years shows a lot of poor stuff interspersed with the occasional big finish. Last season saw him post two third place finishes to keep his card while the previous year aside from his ninth here, which came in the midst of a poor run of form, he did all his work in the Fall, notching three top tens.
Lipsky is very much a punters friend then, someone who will hit the frame two or three times a year at juicy odds due to his inconsistency.
Prior to his missed cut he had played solidly at the Truist to finish 24th and I can see him popping up here to make the frame if not more at big odds.