Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge

Charles Schwab Challenge Fantasy Sleeper Report

Even without his regular driver, Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer on planet earth… and he proved it once more on Sunday by taking down the PGA Championship at a canter.

Testing from the USGA found that the world number one’s normal big stick failed to confirm with its regulations – not because anything untoward was attempted by Scheffler’s camp, just as a consequence of wear and tear from using it for more than a year.

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Rory McIlroy’s driver also failed testing – he was forced to use a different model, missed a stack of fairways, and refused to talk to the media as a result. But Scottie… well, Scottie got to work.

In fact, he ranked fifth in the field for SG: Off-the-Tee, but this is a guy that could use a garden shovel and still compete with the world’s best.

Scheffler paced himself, got into contention on Friday, and then ran away with it over the weekend, turning a three-shot advantage heading into the final round into a five-shot margin of victory. 

This was his third major, his fifteen PGA TOUR title, and sees the world number one complete 50% of the career grand slam. Surely he will eat into that soon enough… perhaps even in the weeks ahead this summer.

Talk about going from one extreme to another at the Charles Schwab Challenge this week. Those players that get some serious airtime on their drives had the best things at Quail Hollow, but at Colonial Country Club the modus operandi will be rather different.

An exhibition of first-rate positional golf will be required to win the Charles Schwab Challenge. The fairways are thin, while the tree-lined, doglegging fairways help to create a rather cramped feel to proceedings.

The small Bentgrass greens are well protected too, and with only two Par 5s to score on, it’s little wonder that a mark of single digits under par has been enough to win two of the last three editions of this event… and Davis Riley was the only player to reach double digits in 2024.

Riley saw off Scottie Scheffler last year, albeit with a four-shot lead heading into the final round, to continue a fine tradition of long shot winners at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Emiliano Grillo, the 2023 champion, was an 80/1 outsider, while before him the likes of Jason Kokrak (60/1, 2021), Daniel Berger (66/1, 2020), and Kevin Na (70/1, 2019) all went on to lift the trophy.

Could we see a repeat in 2025? It’s certainly possible, even with Scheffler and co in the field, and that’s why we’re tooling up with five longshot picks in our Charles Schwab Challenge sleeper report.

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Brian Harman – 50/1 – Colonial is tailormade for Brian Harman, whose accuracy and world-class short game both get a chance to shine without the danger of being completely overpowered.

In his last eleven trips to Colonial, Harman has finished T31 or better in ten of them, with T7 his best turn in amongst three top-ten returns.

What’s perhaps interesting from a betting perspective is that the 38-year-old seems to be getting better with age; his best day in golf came when winning the British Open, and he won just his fourth PGA TOUR event in April of this year.T3 at the correlating RBC Heritage in April, why can’t Harman follow up his victory at the Texas Open this week?

Andrew Novak – 60/1 – Davis Riley parlayed a win at the Zurich Classic pairs event into strokeplay success at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Can Andrew Novak follow suit?

He certainly has the credentials, which he has proven perfectly since the start of April: winning the Zurich Classic alongside Ben Griffin, Novak had previously lost in a playoff to Justin Thomas at the correlating RBC Heritage, and finished T3 at the Texas Open.

His approach play is good enough to win at Colonial, and so his short game, while some recent improvements off the tee have enabled Novak to produce the best golf of his career to date over the past few weeks.

Thorbjorn Olesen – 70/1 – For so long a classy operator on the DP World Tour, Thorbjorn Olesen is starting to show his best Stateside too.

The Dane has finished T5 and T7 at the Texas Open and Myrtle Beach Classic since the start of April, building his success on a solid foundation of ball-striking prowess.

His confidence is so high that Olesen was able to finish T33 at the PGA Championship despite losing strokes to the field on the greens, but he putted beautifully on Texan Bentgrass greens at the CJ CUP Byron Nelson, so hopes of an improvement in that regard this week are fair.

Tom Hoge – 100/1 – Can the enigmatic Tom Hoge bring together all of the elements of his game at the same time?

T3 at the PLAYERS, T5 at the Texas Open, T14 at The Masters… he’s certainly knocking on the door, and you would expect a player that is genuinely world-class with wedges and irons to thrive in these conditions.  Hoge’s issues come on the tee, but when he’s able to club down and not be penalized for it, he can get by – as he did at the PLAYERS, gaining +0.52… good enough to let the rest of his game sing.

At 100/1, why wouldn’t you want one of the best approach players on the entire PGA TOUR on your side?

Brian Campbell – 300/1 – Make no mistake: Brian Campbell will struggle to compete week to week on the PGA TOUR, so lacking in length is he.

And yet, when there’s a premium on finding fairways, this slow and steady sort comes into his own. Campbell really is outstanding on approach, gaining a mammoth +1.51 on an elite field at The Masters and +1.77 at the Truist Championship. He can chip and putt too, and as a winner on TOUR already this season he has to be respected. Davis Riley won this event as a 300/1 longshot last year… could Campbell repeat the dose?

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the Charles Schwab Challenge here.

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2024-2025)

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