PGA DFS Core Plays: Charles Schwab Challenge
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various salary ranges for this week’s tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
The conviction plays were the star of the show at the PGA Championship, as Brooks Koepka won, Scottie Scheffler finished in a tie for second, and Cameron Smith put together a strong final round to finish T9. For the third straight week, we have hit an outright winner, so hopefully a few of you have been tailing the bets. There were so many storylines and takeaways from last week. Koepka is back, skinny Bryson DeChambeau looks like he knows how to golf again, Michael Block won over everyone’s heart (except for the strange curmudgeons on Twitter), and Scheffler is a machine. It’s sad that two majors are already behind us, but that means two are still ahead of us.
I could write about the PGA Championship for hours on end, but we have another tournament to cover. If you want a longer recap, check out this week’s Drive for Show, DFS for Dough with myself and Justin Van Zuiden. This event has changed names a number of times over the years, but has always been held at Colonial Country Club. This is a Par 70 that measures 7,209 yards. The course has only two par fives and they are tough compared to tour average, so there are no free birdies out there. This is typically one of the 10 toughest courses on the PGA Tour. With that said, the early forecast shows very little in terms of wind, so we could see easier scoring conditions this time around.
This has never been a course that golfers can overpower off the tee. The fairways are narrow (27-28 yards wide), they are tree-lined, and many of the holes require golfers to shape their shots. The greens are small (5,000 square feet), they are fast, and they feature pure bentgrass. The course doesn’t necessarily favor any specific type of golfer and we’ve seen a wide range of winners here over the years — Sam Burns, Jason Kokrak, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Na, Kevin Kisner, etc. Accuracy is more important than distance off the tee, golfers will be hitting a lot of wedges (100-150 yards), and golfers will need to gain strokes on and around the green to contend.
The only other note that I have is that there are only 120 golfers in the field this week. This means a much larger percentage of the field will end up making the cut. Given the strength of the field at the top, I am in favor of the stars and scrubs lineup construction this week.
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for the Charles Schwab Challenge
Field Breakdown Video & Model Download Link for the Charles Schwab Challenge
Field Size:
- 120 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties move on after the first two rounds
Weather Forecasts
Golf Course
- Colonial Country Club
- Location: Fort Worth, Texas
- Difficulty: 2022 (11th), 2021 (18th), 2020 (13th), 2019 (7th), 2018 (20th)
- Par 70 — 7,209 yards
- Fairway width: 27-28 yards on average
- Green type and speed: bentgrass, 12-12.5 on the stimpmeter
- Green size: 5,000 square feet on average
Course Notes
- Historically not a course you can overpower, but we’ve seen golfers get more aggressive off the tee the last few years
- Tree-lined parklands course with narrow fairways and small greens
- Only two par fives on the course and they are both difficult compared to tour average
- Any type of golfer can contend here, but you generally have to be very good on and around the greens
What to Look For
- Strokes gained approach
- Proximity with wedges (100-150 yards)
- Strokes gained around the green
- Total driving
- Strokes gained putting
- Experience in Texas
Core Plays
Scottie Scheffler
DK: $11,500 — FD: $12,000
SG: OTT — 1
SG: APP — 1
Bogey Avoidance — 1
SG: ATG — 5
SG: Putting (Bent) — 78
Noto’s Rating — 97.6
