PGA DFS GPP Breakdown: Charles Schwab Challenge
Top-ranked grinder, STLCardinals84, will break down his top PGA DFS picks in various price ranges for this week’s tournament. Which golfers should you be targeting to try and take down the big DFS tournaments? Find out below.
Welcome, golf grinders! We have another PGA Tour stop in Texas this week, and this tournament will be held at Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge. Sponsorship has changed over the years for this event, but the one constant has been the course. Colonial has been the host site for this event since 1946, and we have a surprisingly strong field for the week after a major.
As for the host course, Colonial has withstood the test of time, even as technology has helped players get much better on the golf course. It’s a traditional par 70 layout that doesn’t offer much in the way of length, but the course can be very challenging, especially when the Texas winds pick up. The short par five first hole is the only real pushover on the course, and even that hole is no longer the “gimme” birdie hole that it once was. The traditional late spring winds in Texas often pick up during this event, which serves to make Colonial even more of a challenging test. However, it’s worth noting that the wind is not expected to be very strong this week, so perhaps we will see better scoring than usual at this event.
As with many shorter courses, Colonial sets up as your typical second shot golf course, and distance off the tee is largely irrelevant. Almost the entire field can reach the par five first hole in two shots if their drive is in the fairway, and very few golfers can reach the par five on the back nine in two. It’s all about approach play and ball striking for me this week, and I am valuing course history a little more than normal. Most winners of this event tend to have some history at the venue, so that factor can’t be discounted on a challenging layout. No first time participant has won here since Sergio Garcia all the way back in 2001.
With only 120 golfers in the invitational field this week, we will see a lot more 6/6 lineups in DFS (unless there is massive carnage from the studs), so keep that in mind as you set your lineups. It’s time to look at some of my favorite GPP picks!
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel GPP Breakdown for the Charles Schwab Challenge
Tony Finau
DraftKings: $10,700
FanDuel: $11,600
Yahoo: $44
If you are looking for safety at the top this week, there’s no doubt that Scottie Scheffler is the choice. He is a top 15 machine that just keeps cranking out elite finishes every week. Tony Finau is also coming off a poor showing at last week’s PGA Championship, though he did make the cut. Recency bias is going to scare people away from Finau in this spot, and early ownership projections have Finau around 10-15% lower than Scheffler. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly pivot to Finau in GPP builds. He has top 25 finishes in four straight editions of this tournament, including a runner-up finish in 2019 and a 4th place finish a year ago. He ranks third in the field in approach over the last 36 rounds (behind only Scheffler and Morikawa), and Finau has plenty of win equity of his own.
Collin Morikawa
DraftKings: $10,400
FanDuel: $11,300
Yahoo: $43
When you factor in ownership, Morikawa is perhaps my favorite overall play this week. He closed with a solid one-under round on Sunday at the PGA Championship, and a course that emphasizes approach play suits his game perfectly. He has made the cut in all three of his previous trips to Colonial, and that includes a pair of top 15 finishes. Over the last 36 rounds, he ranks 2nd in this field in approach play and 3rd in tee to green play. As long as the putter comes along at a reasonable clip, there’s winning potential at 10-15% ownership here.
Sungjae Im
DraftKings: $9,500
FanDuel: $11,000
Yahoo: $42
Im is coming off a poor showing last week, but this is a fine spot to bank on a bounce-back week. He ranks inside the top 10 in this field in virtually every tee to green metric during the 2023 season, and his play around the green has also been sharp. That plays well on a difficult course, and he has top 15 finishes in two of his four previous trips to Colonial. Im is as consistent as they come, so don’t fret too much about one poor start. He’s perfectly viable in any format.
Stephan Jaeger
DraftKings: $8,100
FanDuel: $9,600
Yahoo: $25
Jaeger has been one of the more popular value selections over the course of the last two months, and he has made that trust pay off with several solid finishes. He has just two missed cuts in 13 starts during calendar year 2023, and he has shown a little more upside of late with top 20 finishes at the Mexico Open and the AT&T Byron Nelson. He got into the PGA Championship as an alternate and was sitting at T10 before the final round. A poor Sunday is going to have everyone shying away from paying a higher price for him now. I’m not going to let one round scare me away from his solid 2023 body of work.
Eric Cole
DraftKings: $7,200
FanDuel: $8,700
Yahoo: $25
Eric Cole cooled off a bit after a hot start to the PGA Championship (which nearly saw him finish as the first round leader). He was still able to grind out a very solid T15 finish, and that was his third top 25 finish in his last four starts. The tee to green game has been very solid, and he ranks 11th in the field in total strokes gained over the last 36 rounds. Nobody priced below him grades out better than that, and very few in this price range are even close. He’s one of the best point per dollar values on the entire board.
Carson Young
DraftKings: $6,300
FanDuel: $7,400
Yahoo: $20
He’s going to be more popular in the eyes of sharper DFS players, but casual players aren’t going to roster him. Young absolutely DOMINATED a strong field at the Dallas U.S. Open qualifier on Monday, shooting -16 in two rounds to beat everyone else in the field by at least six shots. He also has top 20 finishes in three of his last five starts, and he’s priced near the minimum everywhere. The upside he has shown over the past two months gives him very intriguing potential that you usually don’t see at the minimum salary ranges.
Other Risk/Reward GPP Options – Max Homa, Min Woo Lee, Akshay Bhatia
Good luck this week!
Image Credit: Getty Images
Top-ranked grinder, STLCardinals84, will break down his top PGA DFS picks in various price ranges for this week’s tournament. Which golfers should you be targeting to try and take down the big DFS tournaments? Find out below.
PGA Championship
Welcome, golf grinders! We have another PGA Tour stop in Texas this week, and this tournament will be held at Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge. Sponsorship has changed over the years for this event, but the one constant has been the course. Colonial has been the host site for this event since 1946, and we have a surprisingly strong field for the week after a major.
As for the host course, Colonial has withstood the test of time, even as technology has helped players get much better on the golf course. It’s a traditional par 70 layout that doesn’t offer much in the way of length, but the course can be very challenging, especially when the Texas winds pick up. The short par five first hole is the only real pushover on the course, and even that hole is no longer the “gimme” birdie hole that it once was. The traditional late spring winds in Texas often pick up during this event, which serves to make Colonial even more of a challenging test. However, it’s worth noting that the wind is not expected to be very strong this week, so perhaps we will see better scoring than usual at this event.
As with many shorter courses, Colonial sets up as your typical second shot golf course, and distance off the tee is largely irrelevant. Almost the entire field can reach the par five first hole in two shots if their drive is in the fairway, and very few golfers can reach the par five on the back nine in two. It’s all about approach play and ball striking for me this week, and I am valuing course history a little more than normal. Most winners of this event tend to have some history at the venue, so that factor can’t be discounted on a challenging layout. No first time participant has won here since Sergio Garcia all the way back in 2001.
With only 120 golfers in the invitational field this week, we will see a lot more 6/6 lineups in DFS (unless there is massive carnage from the studs), so keep that in mind as you set your lineups. It’s time to look at some of my favorite GPP picks!
Tony Finau
DraftKings: $10,700
FanDuel: $11,600
Yahoo: $44
If you are looking for safety at the top this week, there’s no doubt that Scottie Scheffler is the choice. He is a top 15 machine that just keeps cranking out elite finishes every week. Tony Finau is also coming off a poor showing at last week’s PGA Championship, though he did make the cut. Recency bias is going to scare people away from Finau in this spot, and early ownership projections have Finau around 10-15% lower than Scheffler. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly pivot to Finau in GPP builds. He has top 25 finishes in four straight editions of this tournament, including a runner-up finish in 2019 and a 4th place finish a year ago. He ranks third in the field in approach over the last 36 rounds (behind only Scheffler and Morikawa), and Finau has plenty of win equity of his own.
