Year after year, Colonial provides an amazing challenge for being such a short course. Seeing scores like this after watching what we saw unfold at Valhalla truly warms the heart.
At the halfway point, so many golfers are live, including Scottie Scheffler. His world is truly all over the place at the moment, so I wasn't shocked to see him get off to such a slow start. However, the way he bounced back shows why he is the best player in the game.
Conditions will continue to be a factor over the weekend. The best iron players will rise to the top. These firm greens require precision, even from short distances. Below, we will take a look at the leaderboard and odds board. There is value in the live positional market heading into the weekend, so let's get to my Charles Schwab Challenge Round 3 picks.
Leaderboard:
Davis Riley -10 (+500)
Hayden Buckley -8 (+1400)
Pierceson Coody -8 (+1800)
Sungjae Im -6 (+900)
Keegan Bradley -6 (+1000)
Sepp Straka -6 (+850)
Ryan Fox -6 (+3500)
Kevin Tway -5 (+4500)
Robbie Shelton -5 (+5000)
Brian Harman -5 (+1400)
Tony Finau -5 (+1100)
Round 3 Picks
Sungjae Im Top 5 (+140)
Im has been trending tremendously and was nearly on my betting card this week. I chose to fade the PM/AM wave and while that is looking good thus far, there are some players performing well from that wave — Im is one of them. He is hitting the ball tremendously and gaining nearly six strokes ball striking.
Recently, Im has been hitting it well, but the putter was holding him back. This breakout week was well overdue. He does his best work on these style courses and that is showing. I love Im to remain in the mix over the weekend and we can pay that off with a live top-five bet.
Davis Thompson Top 10 (+1400)
Thompson sits at even par through 36 holes after a pair of 70s. He's hitting the ball well, but the chipping is really holding him back. Short game is a very volatile stat and Davis is usually decent around the green.
In his most recent start, Thompson had one of the best ball striking showings of his career. That is transitioning into this week at Colonial Country Club and Davis is one solid round away from making a run. I believe we can get ahead of the narrative and Thompson can be in contention for a nice finish come Sunday afternoon.
Chandler Phillips Top 10 (+1800)
Phillips is once again proving his ability to make it happen on a course like this. His best result on Tour was a few weeks ago at The Valspar Championship. Year after year, there is a ton of overlap with the Valspar Championship leaderboard and the Charles Schwab Challenge. This is because both courses emphasize position off the tee and put a premium on iron play.
Phillips is a young and proven golfer, but his best trait seems to be the irons. He regularly gains strokes on approach and he is doing that through 36 holes at Colonial Country Club. The Texas A&M product is gaining 2.5 strokes on approach, which is good for top 25 in the field. Iron play will rise to the top and Phillips will be locked in for this pseudo home game.
