GOLFICITY BETS: The 2020 Charles Schwab Gambling Guide

Charles Schwab Challenge Tournament Preview

After a gap of almost three months, PGA TOUR golf is back with a bang this week at one of the favorite venues on the rotation – Colonial Country Club, which will host the Charles Schwab Challenge.

A huge field of supreme quality will gather in Texas, allaying any concerns that the best in business would be reluctant to return while the coronavirus remains such a notable enemy.

Well, forget about it. McIlroy, Rahm and Koepka make up just one featured group, and then we consider guys like Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed too, among many other supreme performers.

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This is, in essence, a major quality field, and while golf will feel strange without a live crowd make no bones about it: the standard of play at Colonial will be outstanding.

We’ve missed, they’ve missed, everybody’s missed it. Well, worry no more – the PGA TOUR is back, and the action could be better than ever.

Charles Schwab Challenge Course Preview

Having hosted the US Open in 1941, and been the venue for this tournament since 1946, you might think that Colonial Country Club is old-fashioned.

And it is, to some extent, with minimal changes having been made in the previous 80 or so years. But here’s the thing: you don’t need to tinker with a classic.

Colonial has defenses galore that prevent it from being overpowered by the modern player. Many of the fairways – 12 in fact – are doglegging and tree-lined, and the angles presented require the players to take woods and irons off the tee for premium accuracy.

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As if to confirm the point, there’s deep bunkers dotted around the property and some thick rough too, not to mention the occasionally fierce wind that blows in Fort Worth, Texas.

The key thing to note is that this is a Par 70 track with just two Par 5s, and that explains the nature of the assignment in hand.

Named Hogan’s Alley after the major champion’s exploits here, Colonial Country Club is not for the faint hearted – good luck to all those coming in cold this week!

Charles Schwab Challenge Outright Winner

In an event stacked with studs and major champions, it’s actually a quiet man of golf that we favor this week.

Be under no illusions, Webb Simpson can hang with the best of them at any point, but on courses where reliable ball-striking is key rather than sheer brute strength he really comes to mind.

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The former US Open champion ranks first on Tour for both Bogey Avoidance and Par 4 Performance this season, and that willingness to grind out scores makes him an obvious pick on a Par 70 layout where strategy is rewarded.

Indeed, a catalogue of quality efforts at Colonial prove the theory, and assuming he isn’t dusting cobwebs off his bag we thoroughly expect Simpson to be there or thereabouts this week.

Charles Schwab Challenge Top 5 Finish Pick

There’s no heroics with this pick, but the feeling is that Xander Schauffele will ultimately become the number one player in world golf, and his class should come to the fore at layouts like Colonial.

A fantastic grinder, Schauffele is a man of few mistakes – as evidenced by his Bogey Avoidance rank of tenth on Tour, and he is as reliable as they come standing over >20ft putts too.

A sublime shot shaper, doglegs hold no fear for Schauffele, and while there’s a suspicion that he is better off on Bermuda than Bentgrass, it’s more likely that he simply thrives when the greens are running at a fair old pace – as they will this week.

Charles Schwab Challenge Top 10 Finish Pick

How will the absence of a crowd at Colonial impact upon the action?

Only time will tell on that front, and for most the difference in their performance and attitude around the venue will be negligible.

But you do wonder if Patrick Reed, free of the burden of disapproving patrons, might just be able to focus on the thing he’s really pretty good at: playing golf.

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Of course, there is the counter argument that says Captain America needs to get his blood pumping to play his best game, but hot heads rarely prevail out on the course and so we expect Reed to continue his rich vein of form prior to the season’s break, where he was consistently excellent prior to winning the WGC-Mexico Championship.

Charles Schwab Challenge Top 20 Finish Pick

The defending champion this week, with the perfect game for Colonial Country Club, makes Kevin Na an obvious play in the Top 20 Finish market.

Accurate off the tee and rock solid with the flat stick from close range, Na is a reliable play at layouts that suit his grinding game, and with three top-10s in the last five years Colonial clearly fits the bill.

Whether he’s been hitting the range hard during the time off remains to be seen, but Na is at no disadvantage to his peers and, indeed, his outstanding record at Colonial will give him the edge on many.

Charles Schwab Challenge Match-up to Watch

As we will discover in the next section of this guide, there is ample scope to fade Rory McIlroy this week – not words we write often, and that also feeds into this week’s best match-up bet too.

GolfBet, and pretty much all of the leading sportsbooks, have paired the Irishman with Jon Rahm in their match bets for the Charles Schwab Championship, and the Spaniard holds plenty of appeal.

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You sense that Rahm would delight in beating his own Grandmother in a skins match, such is his love of the battle, and having been paired with Rory and Brooks Koepka in a featured group he will be desperate to flex his muscle.

A handy record at Colonial, with two top-five finishes in the last three years, already gives him the edge on McIlroy, and so we expect Rahm to bring it home for matchup bettors this week.

Who to Fade this Week

Given how long he has been around, it’s amazing to think that Rory McIlroy has never played Colonial Country Club before.

The Irishman is the best player in the world right now, but his edge is diminished somewhat at layouts where most are taking woods and irons off the tee, rather than unfurling the big stick.

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Colonial is a course where streaky iron play, a pinpoint wedge game and rock-solid close range putting are key, and based on those characteristics it would really be a surprise if Rory can get ahead of the field.

A lack of competitive golf will also have a ‘levelling’ effect on those involved, and so by all accounts you can fade McIlroy this week with reasonable confidence.

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