PGA Tour 2023 - The Charles Schwab Challenge

[Splatt]

G’day Golfers,

 

I don’t know about you, but I had a great time last week watching the PGA Championship. It had everything a great tournament needs to have: top players in contention (Koepka, Hovland, McIlroy, Scheffler), top players missing the cut (Fitzpatrick, Fowler, Day), unexpected players holding their own (MICHAEL BLOCK), hole-in-one (MICHAEL BLOCK), and a very deserving winner with Brooks Koepka.
 

This week we’re back to your regular scheduled programming with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas.

Like the Byron Nelson a few weeks ago, one of the legends of the game is celebrated this week and plenty of upcoming legends will be wanting to add this to their list of wins.
The course this week has a lot of history as it is the longest-running host on the Tour, this year marks the 77th instalment of this tournament which began in 1946. Fittingly, it was Colonial CC that held the first event back after the covid break, such is its history.

The course was coined “Hogan’s Alley” after Ben Hogan won four of the first seven editions of this event (and finished no worse than fourth in the other three). Now Spieth is Colonial’s most consistent contender. Spieth won the Charles Schwab back in 2016 and since then has been runner-up 3 times and only finished outside of the top 10 twice in 10 appearances at the event.
Spieth had a pretty decent PGA Championship finishing T-29 at 5 over par, and this event will be his return back to PGA Tour golf after having to withdraw from the Byron Nelson with a wrist injury.

Colonial Country Club is a par-70, 7,209-yard course. It is a classic tree-lined positional course, so accuracy off the tee and accuracy on approach will be keys to victory here. The winning score at this event has only gone past 15-under-par twice since 2011, so expect low scores and a competitive top-of-the-table.

Sam Burns is the defending champ here, winning in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler with a 38-foot birdie putt. Scheffler was in the final group and at one point 5 golfers were tied for the lead at 10-under-par, but in the second half of their round, the wind picked up and caused havoc on the course. Burns shot 5 under on Sunday and had to sit and wait 2 hours for Scheffler to finish his round before finding out he was in a playoff. Burns will obviously be looking to defend, but historically this tournament has been hard to win back-to-back with only one golfer ever managing the feat; that golfer was Ben Hogan, so Sam Burns will join a very exclusive group should he manage it.
 

 

Field Highlights

·         Sam Burns – Defending champ and current OWGR number 14. He has had a pretty good season so far, with one win back in March at the Dell Matchplay event. However, his recent form is something he could improve; he has missed the cut at the last 2 events (PGA Championship, and the Wells Fargo), and he also missed the cut in consecutive Designated Event weeks at The Genesis and then the Arnold Palmer. Burns has proven he had the game to hang with the best of them, lets hope we see the best of Sam this weekend.
 

·         Jordan Spieth – Of the modern era, Spieth is the most consistent here and has the best record. It’s also a home course for Spieth and he’ll stay in his childhood home during the event; will those added layers of comfort have a positive effect on Spieth’s game? In his 9 appearances here since 2013, he’s had 1 win, 3 runner-ups, and 9 finishes in the top-14; his worse finish came in 2018 with a T-32, but he was battling an injury at the time. His wrist seemed to be giving no trouble last week at the PGA, so I’m hoping to see plenty of Spieth this weekend and hopefully watch him battling down the final stretch for the win.
 

·         Tony Finau – He made the cut last week at the PGA Championship right on the line at 5-over-par, and then he went to pieces over the weekend shooting 10-over on Saturday and Sunday. A final score of 15-over-par is not something you would normally see from Mr Finau, so I’m sure he’ll be back to his normal way this week. He’s already had 2 wins on Tour this season, 4 top-10’s, and has only missed one cut.
 

·         Scottie Scheffler – He’s back to number 1 in the world over Jon Rahm after his T-2 finish at the PGA Championship last week. He was playing some great golf and he looked like pulling off the comeback at one point, but Koepka was too good and held onto the lead. Scottie is always one to watch out for, but this week he’s a real threat (no duh, he’s world number 1) due to his recent form: T-2 PGA, T-5 Byron Nelson, T-11 RBC Heritage, and T-10 The Masters. He's had 2 wins this year on the PGA Tour, and something tells me we’ll see him hoisting another trophy soon.
 

·         Michael Block – The PGA Club Pro who won over the world last week at the PGA Championship by finishing at +1 in a tie for 15th, the highest a club professional has finished in a major since 1986. By finishing in the top 15 he has automatically qualified for next year’s PGA Championship and was awarded a sponsor exemption for the Charles Schwab this week. If you haven’t seen the video (I will link below), Block’s reaction to finding out he was playing in the final round with Rory McIlroy was so earnest, and to top it off he scored a slam dunk hole-in-one on the final par-3 of the tournament. With his T-15 finish, he jumped from 3,580 in the OWGR to 577!
I’m sure he’ll be a big fan favourite this weekend, even if his odds of winning are slim.
 

The rest of the field can be found here.

 

In recent years this tournament has seen its fair share of bad weather during the event, fingers crossed that this year isn’t the same.

For those in the MGS Pick ‘Em tournament, remember to get your picks in. Is anyone getting close to the 8 selection limit for a golfer yet? I know I am

 

SPLATT

[Splatt]

I'm not sure how many are over Michael Block by now, but I'm still living in Block-town at the moment.

He's in a feature group for round 1 teeing off soon

[Rickp]

On 5/24/2023 at 7:46 AM, Splatt said:

G’day Golfers,

 

I don’t know about you, but I had a great time last week watching the PGA Championship. It had everything a great tournament needs to have: top players in contention (Koepka, Hovland, McIlroy, Scheffler), top players missing the cut (Fitzpatrick, Fowler, Day), unexpected players holding their own (MICHAEL BLOCK), hole-in-one (MICHAEL BLOCK), and a very deserving winner with Brooks Koepka.
 

This week we’re back to your regular scheduled programming with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas.

Like the Byron Nelson a few weeks ago, one of the legends of the game is celebrated this week and plenty of upcoming legends will be wanting to add this to their list of wins.
The course this week has a lot of history as it is the longest-running host on the Tour, this year marks the 77th instalment of this tournament which began in 1946. Fittingly, it was Colonial CC that held the first event back after the covid break, such is its history.

The course was coined “Hogan’s Alley” after Ben Hogan won four of the first seven editions of this event (and finished no worse than fourth in the other three). Now Spieth is Colonial’s most consistent contender. Spieth won the Charles Schwab back in 2016 and since then has been runner-up 3 times and only finished outside of the top 10 twice in 10 appearances at the event.
Spieth had a pretty decent PGA Championship finishing T-29 at 5 over par, and this event will be his return back to PGA Tour golf after having to withdraw from the Byron Nelson with a wrist injury.

Colonial Country Club is a par-70, 7,209-yard course. It is a classic tree-lined positional course, so accuracy off the tee and accuracy on approach will be keys to victory here. The winning score at this event has only gone past 15-under-par twice since 2011, so expect low scores and a competitive top-of-the-table.

Sam Burns is the defending champ here, winning in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler with a 38-foot birdie putt. Scheffler was in the final group and at one point 5 golfers were tied for the lead at 10-under-par, but in the second half of their round, the wind picked up and caused havoc on the course. Burns shot 5 under on Sunday and had to sit and wait 2 hours for Scheffler to finish his round before finding out he was in a playoff. Burns will obviously be looking to defend, but historically this tournament has been hard to win back-to-back with only one golfer ever managing the feat; that golfer was Ben Hogan, so Sam Burns will join a very exclusive group should he manage it.
 

 

Field Highlights

·         Sam Burns – Defending champ and current OWGR number 14. He has had a pretty good season so far, with one win back in March at the Dell Matchplay event. However, his recent form is something he could improve; he has missed the cut at the last 2 events (PGA Championship, and the Wells Fargo), and he also missed the cut in consecutive Designated Event weeks at The Genesis and then the Arnold Palmer. Burns has proven he had the game to hang with the best of them, lets hope we see the best of Sam this weekend.
 

·         Jordan Spieth – Of the modern era, Spieth is the most consistent here and has the best record. It’s also a home course for Spieth and he’ll stay in his childhood home during the event; will those added layers of comfort have a positive effect on Spieth’s game? In his 9 appearances here since 2013, he’s had 1 win, 3 runner-ups, and 9 finishes in the top-14; his worse finish came in 2018 with a T-32, but he was battling an injury at the time. His wrist seemed to be giving no trouble last week at the PGA, so I’m hoping to see plenty of Spieth this weekend and hopefully watch him battling down the final stretch for the win.
 

·         Tony Finau – He made the cut last week at the PGA Championship right on the line at 5-over-par, and then he went to pieces over the weekend shooting 10-over on Saturday and Sunday. A final score of 15-over-par is not something you would normally see from Mr Finau, so I’m sure he’ll be back to his normal way this week. He’s already had 2 wins on Tour this season, 4 top-10’s, and has only missed one cut.
 

·         Scottie Scheffler – He’s back to number 1 in the world over Jon Rahm after his T-2 finish at the PGA Championship last week. He was playing some great golf and he looked like pulling off the comeback at one point, but Koepka was too good and held onto the lead. Scottie is always one to watch out for, but this week he’s a real threat (no duh, he’s world number 1) due to his recent form: T-2 PGA, T-5 Byron Nelson, T-11 RBC Heritage, and T-10 The Masters. He's had 2 wins this year on the PGA Tour, and something tells me we’ll see him hoisting another trophy soon.
 

·         Michael Block – The PGA Club Pro who won over the world last week at the PGA Championship by finishing at +1 in a tie for 15th, the highest a club professional has finished in a major since 1986. By finishing in the top 15 he has automatically qualified for next year’s PGA Championship and was awarded a sponsor exemption for the Charles Schwab this week. If you haven’t seen the video (I will link below), Block’s reaction to finding out he was playing in the final round with Rory McIlroy was so earnest, and to top it off he scored a slam dunk hole-in-one on the final par-3 of the tournament. With his T-15 finish, he jumped from 3,580 in the OWGR to 577!
I’m sure he’ll be a big fan favourite this weekend, even if his odds of winning are slim.
 

The rest of the field can be found here.

 

In recent years this tournament has seen its fair share of bad weather during the event, fingers crossed that this year isn’t the same.

For those in the MGS Pick ‘Em tournament, remember to get your picks in. Is anyone getting close to the 8 selection limit for a golfer yet? I know I am

 

SPLATT

Great write up once again!

[fixyurdivot]

8 hours ago, Splatt said:

I'm not sure how many are over Michael Block by now, but I'm still living in Block-town at the moment.

He's in a feature group for round 1 teeing off soon

I think Michael has hit the proverbial wall .  Currently at +7 thru 14, I'm sure he'd like to just get the scorecard signed, head for a shower and relax.  No doubt he's pretty spent mentally and physically.  It will be a challenge getting to the weekend but hopefully he can make a strong run tomorrow and sneak in .

Great job on the weekly threads .

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Great writeup! Sorry I missed it earlier. 

Should be a interesting week and hoping for a Fowler win! 

[Splatt]

3 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

I think Michael has hit the proverbial wall .  Currently at +7 thru 14, I'm sure he'd like to just get the scorecard signed, head for a shower and relax.  No doubt he's pretty spent mentally and physically.  It will be a challenge getting to the weekend but hopefully he can make a strong run tomorrow and sneak in .

Great job on the weekly threads .

 

I swapped out Scottie Scheffler for Block in my line up this week.

Not my brightest idea it turns out 

[Kenny B]

4 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

I think Michael has hit the proverbial wall .  Currently at +7 thru 14, I'm sure he'd like to just get the scorecard signed, head for a shower and relax.  No doubt he's pretty spent mentally and physically.  It will be a challenge getting to the weekend but hopefully he can make a strong run tomorrow and sneak in .

Great job on the weekly threads .

 

Obviously he played well last week under difficult conditions, but he did have some luck involved to get into this tournament.  I think a club pro has a better chance to hang with the big guys when conditions are tough.  If the course is easy, the tour pros are just so much better.

[Rickp]

7 hours ago, Splatt said:

I swapped out Scottie Scheffler for Block in my line up this week.

Not my brightest idea it turns out 

Oops, easy mistake to make everyone is rooting for this guy.  Unfortunately lightning isn’t striking twice but is a great story.  I’m sure emotionally and physically he’s pretty shot right now.

[Nick_D]

It was interesting to see a lot of people on socials start to turn on Block after he made the comment about if he had Rory's length off the tee he'd be a top player... This week is definitely his chance to back up that claim and I'm sympathetic to him after all the media he's had to deal with. Hopefully he puts that first round +11 behind him!

[fixyurdivot]

11 hours ago, Splatt said:

I swapped out Scottie Scheffler for Block in my line up this week.

Not my brightest idea it turns out 

Oh well, your emoji was in the right place.