5 picks our expert loves

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is an everyday visitor on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio community dedicated to sports activities and sport betting. You can comply with on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you may learn his picks under for the Charles Schwab Challenge, which will get underway Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas. Along with Kannon’s really helpful performs, you’ll additionally see knowledge from Chirp, a free-to-play cell platform that encompasses a vary of video games with attractive prizes, giving followers every kind of the way to have interaction within the motion with out risking any cash.

Three weeks in the past, the PGA Tour was in McKinney, Texas, for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, a mainstay on the Tour calendar, paying tribute to one of many legends of the sport. This week, we’re again within the Lone Star state, in Fort Worth for the Charles Schwab Challenge.

This match has been held at Colonial Country Club since 1946, the longest-running match on Tour to be staged on the similar course yearly — and we are able to tie in a legend of the sport right here as properly. Ben Hogan received at Colonial 5 occasions throughout his storied profession. A statue of the well-known Texan stands tall at Colonial, a spot sometimes called “Hogan’s Alley,” the place Hogan’s last Tour victory got here in 1959 on the age of 46.

Players will nonetheless, see a “new” Colonial Country Club in 2024 as Gil Hanse and his associate, Jim Wagner, have been introduced in final season on the conclusion of the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge to instantly get to work on the renovation. As is commonly the case with Hanse initiatives, he was introduced in to not solely polish up the course to modern-day requirements, however to additionally restore the golf course to its authentic historic design.

Colonial is a prolonged par 70 at practically 7,300 yards. The fairways are slender, tree-lined, characteristic dog-legs, and by no means run in the identical route on consecutive holes, which creates difficult choices in negotiating the seemingly ubiquitous Texas wind. The greens are small, bentgrass surfaces. It’s a traditional ballstrikers course for certain, the place accuracy, place off the tee, angles in on strategy, working the ball in each instructions, and quick recreation are the areas of emphasis. Sound just a bit bit like Ben Hogan joint? A four-time U.S. Open winner, Hogan completed third in 1941 when the U.S. Open was held at Colonial Country Club.

Make that psychological be aware too in the case of handicapping subsequent month’s main championship, the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Players that play properly at Colonial are sometimes excellent U.S. Open gamers.

When we translate what it takes to succeed right here into statistics, I checked out Strokes Gained: Approach, Greens in Regulation, Driving Accuracy, Strokes Gained: Par 4s (350-450 yards), Scrambling, Bogey Avoidance, Hole Proximity from 100-175 yards, and Strokes Gained: Par 3s (200-225 yards) as the common size of the Par 3s at Colonial is 209 yards.

Other positional-based golf programs we see regularly that require accuracy and precision are Sea Island (RSM Classic), Waialae CC (Sony Open), Harbour Town (RBC Heritage), Pebble Beach (AT&T Pebble Beach), TPC Southwind (FedEx St. Jude), Austin CC (WGC-Match Play), and Innisbrook (Valspar Championship).

Last week was quite a lot of enjoyable on the PGA Championship as we hit our first pre-tournament outright winner of the season in Xander Schauffele, who after all, we additionally cashed for a top-10 end. We had the leaderboard surrounded with picks on Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa too, each of whom simply grabbed a top-20 end for us. As we enter the late spring and its balmy climate, let’s see if we can also keep sizzling. As ordinary, this week’s performs are for an outright win and a top-20 end.

Collin Morikawa (12-1)

The two-time main champion has been taking part in lovely golf of late. We spoke final week about how placing has actually changed into a optimistic for Morikawa, and that was true once more for 2 of the 4 rounds final week at Valhalla. After arising simply quick on the Masters, Morikawa talked about actually driving his recreation to recover from the hump and begin successful once more. I think about that pursuit stays unchanged after being that shut once more on the second main of the season. I just like the push to proceed right here this week, a match the place he has completed runner-up and 14th up to now. Morikawa has additionally completed prime 10 at TPC Southwind, Harbour Town, and Waialae. He is No. 1 on this subject over the past 24 rounds for Fairways Gained off the tee.

Denny McCarthy (50-1)

McCarthy missed the reduce on the PGA final week however was sixth the week prior on the Wells Fargo and misplaced in a playoff final month on the Valero Texas Open, so I consider the present kind stays intact. A shorter, extra positional observe ought to higher swimsuit his recreation. Over the final 24 rounds, McCarthy is No. 1 on this subject for Scrambling, second in Bogey Avoidance, and twelfth on Par 3s measuring 200-225 yards. He has top-10 finishes at Sea Island, Pebble Beach, and Innisbrook and top-20 finishes at Harbour Town and TPC Southwind. He can also be No. 1 on this subject for Strokes Gained: Putting (bentgrass).

Christiaan Bezuidenhout (50-1)

The South African additionally missed the reduce final week at Valhalla however previous to that recorded a Sixteenth-place end on the Wells Fargo, a ninth on the Valspar, and completed thirteenth on the Players Championship. He’s been top-15 right here at Colonial up to now and has top-20 finishes at Waialae, Harbour Town, Pebble Beach, and TPC Southwind. Over the final 24 rounds, Bezuidenhout is No. 1 on this subject for Hole Proximity from 100-125 yards, second in Scrambling, third in Bogey Avoidance, and sixth on the Par 4s measuring between 350-400 yards.

Andrew Putnam (55-1)

Putnam completed 53rd final week on the PGA Championship and never surprisingly ranked 73rd within the subject for Driving Distance. Again, Colonial Country Club must be a a lot better arrange for his recreation, the place he has completed fifteenth, twentieth, and third up to now. Putnam did achieve practically three strokes across the inexperienced at Valhalla and practically two-and-a-half strokes placing. He was additionally nineteenth within the subject for Scrambling — all essential talent units for this week. In reality, over the past 24 rounds, he ranks top-25 in virtually each class I thought of this week. Putnam additionally has three top-10 finishes on the Sony Open, two at TPC Southwind, and one other at Pebble Beach.

Billy Horschel (55-1)

A winner on Tour a month in the past on the Corales Puntacana Championship, Horschel continued the great kind in Louisville with an eighth-place end final week. He’s a machine on this week’s correlated programs, with a number of top-10 and top-20 finishes throughout the board. I anticipate the great kind to proceed for the Tour veteran, the place over the past 24 rounds, he ranks 14th on this subject for Good Drives Gained and eighth in Bogey Avoidance.

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