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Charles Schwab Challenge odds, predictions, PGA Tour picks

Charles Schwab Challenge odds, predictions, PGA Tour picks

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
Charles Schwab Challenge odds, predictions, PGA Tour picks https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The Charles Schwab Challenge follows up the PGA Championship but still hosts a surprisingly strong field this week at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Below, we look at the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.

This tournament was the first event played upon the PGA Tour’s mid-June restart a year ago. Daniel Berger (+1600) returns as the defending champion; Jordan Spieth (+1000), already a winner in Texas this year, is the pretournament favorite. They’re ranked seventh and 23rd, respectively, in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings.

PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson (+5000) is also in the field. He’s a two-time winner at Colonial, most recently in 2008.

Charles Schwab Challenge picks – Favorite

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 4:15 p.m. ET.

Tony Finau +2200

Finau tied for 23rd at Colonial last summer after finishing as the runner-up at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge. He has six top-10 finishes this year, including three runner-ups, and his T-8 finish last week was his 10th career top-10 placing in a major.

Finau was in the top three of the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee the last two years at Colonial, and has had great success on these greens. He was first among those to make the cut last week in SG: Around-the-Green, and he’s 10th on Tour this season in SG: Approach.

Thirteenth in both the Golfweek rankings and the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), Finau shares the seventh-best odds to win this week. He’s an excellent value bet.

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Charles Schwab Challenge picks – Contender

Matt Wallace (+6600)

Wallace played Colonial professionally for the first time last year and missed the cut, but he averaged 0.78 SG: Putting per round over 36 holes. He struggled around the greens and on approach, but he has been much sharper in both respects in 2021.

He finished third at the Valero Texas Open in early April and has two other top-10 results this year (Wells Fargo Championship, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship).

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Charles Schwab Challenge picks – Long shot

Harry Higgs (+12500)

Higgs was a surprise T-4 finisher at the PGA Championship. His first top-10 showing in 12 events this year moved him to No. 93 in the OWGR.

He was second among those to make the cut in SG: Around-the-Green for the week and he has been an excellent putter all season. There’s some risk of a letdown coming off of his first career major appearance, but this number is far too high against a weaker field.

The 29-year-old resides in Dallas, Texas, and tied for 38th at Colonial with a strong around-the-green game last June.

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U.S. Women's Amateur heads to former U.S. Open venue Chambers Bay in 2022

U.S. Women's Amateur heads to former U.S. Open venue Chambers Bay in 2022

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
U.S. Women's Amateur heads to former U.S. Open venue Chambers Bay in 2022 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball is currently underway at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, host of the 2015 U.S. Open. Next year, the women will get their turn when the U.S. Women’s Amateur is hosted on the scenic course on lower Puget Sound.

Chambers Bay made its USGA hosting debut more than a decade ago when the 2010 U.S. Amateur was played there. Peter Uihlein won that event.

“Chambers Bay has become an extremely special place to the USGA, and we are ecstatic that on the heels of this week’s championship we can assure that our relationship with Pierce County and the golf course continues,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director, Championships. “The U.S. Women’s Amateur and Chambers Bay are sure to produce a memorable week, fitting of both the championship’s stature and the spectacular setting.”

The U.S. Women’s Amateur, the premiere women’s amateur championship, will be played for the 122nd time next year, and Chambers Bay will be a fitting backdrop. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the course opened in 2007. The 250-acre course, built on the site of a former sand-and-gravel mining operation, is the centerpiece of a 930-acre park owned by Pierce County.

“The USGA has been a tremendous partner since Chambers Bay opened nearly 15 years ago,” said Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier. “To be able to continue this collaboration with another opportunity to showcase our world-class golf course to the best amateur players in the world is incredibly exciting for our entire community.”

The USGA is a week removed from announcing Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles as the site of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur, which means Chambers Bay will start a two-year stretch of West Coast championships. The Women’s Am heads to Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2024.

This year’s event will be played at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York. Rose Zhang is the defending champion.

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U.S. Amateur Four-Ball bracket balanced with youth, like medalists Kelly Chinn and David Ford, and experience

U.S. Amateur Four-Ball bracket balanced with youth, like medalists Kelly Chinn and David Ford, and experience

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
U.S. Amateur Four-Ball bracket balanced with youth, like medalists Kelly Chinn and David Ford, and experience https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball owns a short history as one of the newest U.S. Golf Association championships. The tournament has only been played since 2015 (minus 2020, when – like many USGA championships – the Four-Ball was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic), but this year has been one for the books.

In the previous five iterations of the championship, a combined 19 sides managed to post 36-hole totals of 10 under or better in stroke play. Over the weekend at host site Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington (and stroke-play co-host the Home Course), 20 sides produced such scores.

At the top of that list, and with the No. 1 seed now that stroke play is set to begin, are two teenagers: David Ford and Kelly Chinn. They are the Nos. 1- and 3-ranked players in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, respectively, and Chinn is the reigning AJGA Rolex Player of the Year. The two combined for rounds of 62-65 for medalist honors.

Scores: U.S. Amateur Four-Ball

“I know David and I were trying to go as low as possible,” said Chinn, who is headed to Duke University in the fall, while his partner will enroll at Atlantic Coast Conference in-state rival North Carolina. “To shoot [that low of a score] for 36 holes is awesome.”

The cut was made on Sunday evening to the top 32 sides that will advance to match play – or at least, it was almost made. Eleven sides returned to Chambers Bay first thing Monday morning to play off for the final six spots on the bracket.

So far, both youth – like Chinn and Ford – and experience – like defending champions from 2019 Scott Harvey and Todd Mitchell (who finished T3 at 14 under) – are represented.

In the youth category, don’t overlook Luke Potter, who won the Maridoe Amateur last winter, and Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur championship, who combined to take the No. 5 seed.

Teens Carter Loflin and Wells Williams as well as Maxwell Ford (David Ford’s twin brother) and Bruce Murphy also advanced.

The bracket will also include current collegians and 2017 champs Frankie Capan (Florida Gulf Coast) and Shuai Ming Wong (SMU) plus inaugural Four-Ball champs Nathan Smith and Todd White – both of whom have taken turns on the U.S. Walker Cup squad.

The championship match will be played Wednesday.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3fgLemj
Anawin Pikulthong repeats at Golfweek West Coast Junior Open; Gracie McGovern wins girls division

Anawin Pikulthong repeats at Golfweek West Coast Junior Open; Gracie McGovern wins girls division

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
Anawin Pikulthong repeats at Golfweek West Coast Junior Open; Gracie McGovern wins girls division https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In some ways, not much has changed at all for Anawin Pikulthong over the past year. The rising high school junior won the Golfweek West Coast Junior Open a year ago with rounds of 69-64. He did the exact same thing on Sunday at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona.

Pikulthong, who plays for Hamilton High School in nearby Chandler, finished 11 under and ran away with the boys title. Charlie Allen was second at even, Blake Hammarstrom and Camden Braidech tied for third at 3 over, while Colton Cherry was fifth at 5 over.

“It was pretty special – last year I thought that 64 was once in a lifetime and to be able to do it again today proves that a lot of hard work is coming along,” he said.

Pikulthong, who has committed to play college golf close to home at Arizona State, has played a few tournaments at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes but “never really shot anything remotely close to that so today was pretty special.” His closing 64 included an eagle at the par-5 third hole plus six birdies and no bogeys.

As for what’s changed in his game the past year?

“I’ve just been improving on putting, a little bit of short game. I’m hitting it a little bit longer … lately it’s been translating to better scores,” he said.

A year ago at this time, Ashley Menne claimed the title in the girls division. But on Sunday, Menne was leading her Arizona State team up the leaderboard at the NCAA Women’s Championship at nearby Grayhawk Golf Club with a bogey-free 65.

This year, Gracie McGovern stepped up, reaching 6 under for 36 holes to win by eight shots over Annie Dawson and Samantha Olson, who tied for second at 2 over.

“I’m really excited and all that hard work and dedication has paid off,” she said. “Even though it was hot, I just tried to remain focused and calm.”

McGovern’s closing, bogey-free 67 threatened her lowest score in competition – it came one shot shy of her record 66. She’ll be a sophomore in high school at Chaparral in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the fall.

“Just hitting greens and I just tried to play good strategy,” she said of the weekend. “I laid up on most holes and I gave myself a lot of full swings instead of 30- to 40-yard shots.”

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Forward Press podcast: Tom Coyne on his new book, A Course Called America

Forward Press podcast: Tom Coyne on his new book, A Course Called America

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
Forward Press podcast: Tom Coyne on his new book, A Course Called America https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Welcome to episode 96 of Forward Press, a weekly podcast from Golfweek.

In this edition of the Forward Press Podcast, Golfweek’s David Dusek chats with golf writer and professor, Tom Coyne, about his new book, A Course Called America: Fifty States, Five Thousand Fairways, and the Search for the Great American Golf Course.

As always, you can download the Forward Press podcast and listen on all of your favorite platforms, including: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | Castbox | Radio Public.

Did you like what you heard? You can catch up on previous episodes of the Forward Press podcast here.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3wI9jbR
Sports world reacts to Phil Mickelson's record-breaking PGA Championship

Sports world reacts to Phil Mickelson's record-breaking PGA Championship

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
Sports world reacts to Phil Mickelson's record-breaking PGA Championship https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Garth Brooks has friends in low places.

By the looks of Twitter on Sunday night, Phil Mickelson has friends and fans  – lots of them – in high places.

The biggest names in the golf, sports and entertainment worlds all had words of congratulations for Mickelson, whose PGA Championship win at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in South Carolina made him the oldest men’s major champion in golf history at 50 years old.

From his longtime fellow competitor Tiger Woods to Jack Nicklaus and the likes of Jimmy Fallon and the New England Patriots, check out the best reactions to Mickelson’s record major win.

PGA Championship: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag | Prize money

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3fclI1w
These are the eight golfers who won on PGA Tour after turning 50

These are the eight golfers who won on PGA Tour after turning 50

Golfsolutions May 24, 2021
These are the eight golfers who won on PGA Tour after turning 50 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Since January 1, 1900, more than 16,800 players have teed it up on the PGA Tour. There have been more than 4,300 official Tour events. More than 900 individual winners have grasped championship hardware.

Of those, there are now eight who were 50 years or older.

The only players to roll through the elderly roadblock were Craig Stadler, Fred Funk, John Barnum, James Barnes, Davis Love III, Art Wall, Jr., and Sam Snead and, at the 2021 PGA Championship, Phil Mickelson.

Snead was 52 years, 10 months and 8 days old when he won the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open, making him the oldest to win on the PGA Tour. Mickelson’s PGA win made him the oldest major champion.

Here’s a look at those eight players.

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio contributed to this article.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3bRkR4j
No. 1 South Carolina continues upward climb at NCAA Championship. Can the Gamecocks go from last to match play?

No. 1 South Carolina continues upward climb at NCAA Championship. Can the Gamecocks go from last to match play?

Golfsolutions May 23, 2021
No. 1 South Carolina continues upward climb at NCAA Championship. Can the Gamecocks go from last to match play? https://ift.tt/3oCvoWp

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It took a playoff at the NCAA Louisville Regional to get top-ranked South Carolina to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2017. The Gamecocks promptly dug themselves another hole early on at Grayhawk, coming in dead last out of 24 teams after the first round. They’ve been ranked No. 1 by the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking since early March.

Lois Kaye Go opened the championship with an 87 that included a nine and three double-bogeys. This is a senior who owns the second-lowest scoring average in school history 72.80.

Head coach Kalen Anderson pulled Go out of the lineup in Round 2 and replaced her with senior Pimnipa Panthong, a Kent State transfer and two-time MAC Golfer of the Year. Panthong shot 90 with a triple and a quad. As a team though, the Gamecocks cut 24 strokes off their opening round and moved into a share of 14th with Michigan. The top 15 advanced after three rounds and there was much work to be done.

Anderson had multiple team meetings. Saturday afternoon’s message was firm. Sunday’s morning message was much softer, more loving.

South Carolina won four times during the regular season and only recently started to take a dip. The team got wrapped up in outside distractions, Anderson said. She reminded them of the sacrifices they’ve made during the pandemic. Told them they’ve come too far to miss the mark now.

“This is an unbelievable group, an unbelievable group of talent,” said Anderson. “They know what to do. Sometimes they just need to just be guided in the right direction. Sometimes we have so much talent that everybody gets going in a little bit different direction, and we just have to herd them into the right one.”

Anderson was pleased with their upbeat mood Sunday morning. She put Go back in the lineup and she delivered, posting a 73 to help South Carolina move into 12th.

“I think I just felt more relaxed,” said Go, who hails from the Philippines. “After I’d say a horrific round, it’s like, kind of hard to, how do you say it? Make things worse.”

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard led the Gamecocks with a 69 and Mathilde Claisse added a 72 to help a team total of 1-under 287. Now that they’ve survived the first cut, South Carolina looks toward the next one. After 72 holes, the field will be cut to eight.

Their 23 over total puts them six shots back of eighth place, held by Florida State. Four teams sit within six shots of the top eight – Arizona, Oregon, LSU And South Carolina.

Since the women’s NCAA Championship moved to match play in 2015, the Gamecocks have only advanced to the top 8 once in 2016, when they lost in the first round.

“They battled, “said Anderson. “I’d say right now we’re not playing our best golf. We’re still a great team and we just need to fight through it.”

Top 15 teams advancing

1. Stanford -18
2. Duke +2
3. Oklahoma State +4
4. Texas +6
5. Ole Miss +11
6. Arizona State +13
7. Wake Forest +16
8. Florida State +17
9. Arizona +18
10. Oregon +19
11. LSU +20
12. South Carolina +23
13. Baylor +27
14. Auburn +28
15. UCLA +31

Missed cut

Michigan State +34
Kent State +35
Georgia +38
Kentucky +38
Michigan +39
Virginia Tech +42
Maryland +42
USC +43
Alabama +52

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Brotherly love: Phil Mickelson wins the PGA Championship with brother Tim on the bag

Brotherly love: Phil Mickelson wins the PGA Championship with brother Tim on the bag

Golfsolutions May 23, 2021
Brotherly love: Phil Mickelson wins the PGA Championship with brother Tim on the bag https://ift.tt/3uflFGo

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – In the madness that engulfed the 18th green as Phil Mickelson became golf’s oldest major winner, brother Tim Mickelson made sure to tend the flag and secure it as a prized possession.

“It’s already in the golf bag,” he said.

When it was over and Phil had claimed his sixth major championship at age 50, 11 months and 7 days, he and Tim embraced in one of the long hugs where big brother and little brother tell each other ‘I love you, man.’

Tim called caddying for his brother his third career in the game. First, he was the men’s golf coach at the University of San Diego for eight years and then at Phil’s alma mater, Arizona State, from 2011 to 2016. He left to become an agent for one of his players, Jon Rahm, who had all of the makings of the superstar he has become. Tim served in that role for 17 months until Phil and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay split in June 2017 after 25 years of working together. What began on an interim basis became official several months later and together they have won five times together – three on the PGA Tour and two on the PGA Tour Champions.

PGA Championship: Scores | Photos | Money | Winner’s bag

But this one was extra special, coming at a time when Phil was largely being written off as finished, turning 68s into 72s.

“As a coach,” Tim said, “I always used to say, ‘It’s all about the process.’ You hope that the results will come when you want them to, but you have to trust that the process will lead you to the promise land.”

And so, Tim kept the faith.

“We all knew it was there, and he actually had told me [two] weeks ago, I think it was right after Charlotte, he said, I am going to win again soon. I just said, ‘Well, let’s just make sure we’re in contention on a Sunday.’ ”

Phil made sure of that shooting rounds of 70-69-70 to claim the 54-hole lead, and Tim remained his brother’s biggest supporter.

“As much as the fans want it, I want it more for my brother,” he said after the second round. “I see how hard he works, not just at tournaments. When he’s home, he’s playing every day. So, I see how much he wants it, and I want to do anything I can to help him have that.”

He delivered more than just the yardages, wind direction and helping with club choice on Sunday. At the fourth tee, Phil was concerned that the 4-wood he added to the bag at the last minute on Sunday might go too far. But Tim’s reassuring words gave Phil the confidence to commit to the shot.

“I think certainly my brother has played a big part in kind of keeping me present and in the moment and not letting a couple of bad swings affect me here or there, and so I think we’re having so much fun that it’s easy to stay present,” Phil said on Saturday.

When asked after he had captured the Wanamaker Trophy 16 years after he had done so for the first time, how Tim had been critical to his success on Sunday, Phil didn’t even wait for the question to be finished before jumping into his answer.

“I’ll tell you a perfect example, and this is an intangible that makes him relatable or understand me, get the best out of me and makes him a great caddie is I’m walking off 6, I had made some uncommitted swings the first six holes. I had been striking the ball awesome the first three days. I had a wonderful warm up session, like I was ready to go and I made some uncommitted swings the first six holes. He pulled me aside and said, ‘If you’re going to win this thing, you’re going to have to make committed golf swings,’ ” Phil said.

“It hit me in the head, I can’t make passive (swings), I can’t control the outcome, I have to swing committed. The first one I made was the drive on 7. Good drive on 7 gave me a chance to get down by the green and make birdie. From there on, I hit a lot of really good shots because I was committed to each one.”

Later he added, “It was the turning part of the day for me. It was the perfect thing to say.”

Phil said his brother doesn’t say much, but this week Tim estimated he told his brother 200 times to keep a quiet mind.

“I just told him to stop thinking so much. When he would get ahead of himself, I reminded him, ‘Hey, we’ll worry about that when we get there.’ A few stories here and there. Maybe one or two might have been made up, who knows, but anything I can to keep his mind off of the shot that’s coming up when it’s not even our turn to hit,” Tim said.

And so Phil followed in the footsteps of Dustin Johnson who won a major championship (2020 Masters with Austin) with his younger brother on the bag.

Said Phil’s longtime agent Steve Loy: “I mean, he’s now going to all of a sudden be one of the Top-10 players in the history of the game, and his brother is on the bag to share it. That’s as good as it gets.”

So good that it brought Tim to tears.

“To win a major championship at this stage of his career,” Tim said, “I definitely teared up for the first time since caddying for him four and a half years ago.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3ue0BQW