Golf bettors, the wait is over.
The 2019-20 PGA TOUR season is set to resume on Thursday with the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, Texas and it's hard to put into words just how good it feels to have four days of PGA TOUR golf to watch, and more importantly, bet on.
This weekend also signals the return of one of the best sweats in gambling. If you're lucky enough to have had the pleasure of cashing an outright golf winner, especially a longshot, you know what I'm talking about. Hell, even if you've had a player in contention late into Round 4 you know how one bet can transform a regular Sunday afternoon into the ride of a lifetime.
If you've yet to experience this patented golf sweat, here's to hoping this is your week. Perhaps one of the players below can bring you to the promised land.
Here are our favorite outright bets for Colonial.
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2020 Charles Schwab Challenge Betting Picks
Jason Sobel
Kevin Kisner +9000 ($10 bet wins $900)
There’s nothing easy about making a selection this week. Some of the bigger names in the field have relatively little experience at this course, while some of the lesser-knowns feel like even bigger longshots after the layoff. And so, I’m sticking with what we know and picking the 2017 winner here.
Even though he’s finished MC-52nd the past two years, Kisner was in the top-10 each of the previous three, proving this is a place where he can find success. Perhaps my favorite stat in making this pick is that Kiz owns a 66.25 final-round scoring average in four attempts, which shows he improves as he becomes more comfortable during the week. Just as important as any of this, though, is a major intangible in a week when intangibles are a more vital variable than usual.
If you lined up every player in the field at the starting point like thoroughbreds in the gates, Kisner would be the unruly one stomping his feet and bucking his jockey, ready to get out there and run the race.
I love that combination of his mentality and history here – and the relatively big number next to his name doesn’t hurt, either.
Josh Perry
Justin Rose +5000
It’s hard to really back anyone with much confidence this week, but a couple of things are pointing my money towards Justin Rose.
First, he’s won here before so that’s always a benefit. But the more important thing may be his equipment change away from Honma.
Things just didn’t work out for him with the Japanese brand and his ball-striking clearly suffered, especially with his irons. He took the Honmas out of the bag in March and his ball-striking numbers started to turn around.
The three-month break should have allowed Rose to get back to his previous form and, when that happens, these mid-tier prices will be gone and Rose will be back towards the top of the board.
Bryan Mears
Abraham Ancer +8000; Collin Morikawa +5000
As I wrote here, I’m not a big outright bettor, and I think this week is especially tough to handicap. For what it’s worth, some of my favorite names on the board are Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed, Sungjae Im, Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa; if you can find them at elevated prices — Morikawa is 50/1 at DraftKings, for example — they’re definitely worthy of bets.
But Colonial definitely caters to longshots, and the layoff situation likely does, too, so I’ll go down the board a bit more to highlight another guy I really like: Abraham Ancer.
He has middling results here at Colonial, but I’m going to be looking at guys with excellent short games this week; scrambling and putting back-tested well here, which makes sense given the length of the course and its tiny greens.
And Ancer is one of the best scramblers in the field with his 64.0% long-term mark. He was excellent with both his short and long irons late in 2019 and early 2020, leading to multiple top-10 finishes, including at a WGC event.
Oh yeah — and he’s a Texas native, which could help him with the course, travel and the bentgrass greens. He has the talent, narrative and fit, so if you like outright bets, I think he’s too short at 80/1 at BetMGM.
And you know what, screw it: Morikawa is definitely in play at 50/1. There’s the two-for-one special you all deserve in this golf restart.
