Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on X at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge, which gets underway Thursday in Texas.

Two long-time friends and legendary golfers from the state of Texas have us transitioning from Byron Nelson’s annual event to “Hogan’s Alley” at Colonial Country Club, home to five career victories by Ben Hogan and what will be the 80th edition of the Charles Schwab Challenge this week on the PGA Tour — the longest running tournament on the Tour at the same golf course.

Colonial Country Club was designed by John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell and received a Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner renovation immediately following the 2023 playing of this tournament. This historic golf course now measures nearly 7,300 yards and plays to a par 70. The fairways are narrow and tree-lined, bordered by somewhat penal Bermudagrass rough. The greens are small targets and are fast, Bentgrass surfaces. The test requires accurate placement off the tee, hitting greens in regulation, and a hot putter.

I looked at Driving Accuracy this week, Strokes Gained: Approach, Greens in Regulation, and Strokes Gained: Putting (Bentgrass). With 12 of the holes being par 4s, I looked at those that measure between 350-450 yards and I considered Hole Proximity from 125-175 yards.

Colonial is one of the classic, positional, accuracy-based golf courses that doesn’t necessarily cater to the bombers and rewards a player who can dial in the wedge play, hole putts, and avoid bogeys. We definitely see some similar tests on Tour and crossover success on those leaderboards as well.

I always like to start with Waialae Country Club, home to the Sony Open. Chris Kirk and Kevin Na immediately come to mind as two players that have dominated at both Waialae and Colonial. Na, David Toms, and Zach Johnson have won at both tracks. Matt Kuchar, Kirk, Jason Kokrak, and Daniel Berger are examples of players who have had tremendous success at each course. Sea Island (RSM Classic), Innisbrook (Valspar Championship), TPC Southwind (FedEx St. Jude Championship), and Pebble Beach are the other courses I used that show a great deal of correlation.

I believe it is also worth noting as we near ever closer to this year’s U.S. Open championship that many winners here at Colonial are also U.S. Open champs. It begins with Ben Hogan who won multiple times at each. More recently, Tom Watson, Corey Pavin, Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose are examples of players who have won both championships. Keep an eye on the leaderboard this week as it can possibly provide clues as to who might be ready to pop in a few weeks at Shinnecock Hills. I can tell you that I have already made a bet on one very big long shot to win next month’s U.S. Open, who has PGA Tour wins at Pebble Beach, TPC Southwind, and Colonial. We will have our Early Bets article for the U.S. Open up right here next week.

We went the way of the long shot last week at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and were able to get two top 20 finishers in Stephan Jaeger and Taylor Moore. With this week’s field also lacking an abundance of big-time stars, I am going to utilize the long shot approach once again.

Ryan Gerard (70-1)

Gerard is one of the premier ball strikers on Tour and that includes being very accurate off the tee. He’s fallen off the boil a bit since beginning the season with two straight runner-up finishes but the first of those two second place finishes was at Waialae for the Sony Open. He’s made the cut now in six straight starts, is a very good putter, and is exceptional in Hole Proximity from 125-175 yards.

Mac Meissner (70-1)

I nearly made Meissner a play last week at TPC Craig Ranch and he did indeed have a strong week, finishing 31st and firing three of four rounds in the 60s. He attended nearby SMU, so I have to believe he is familiar with this golf course and certainly golf in the state of Texas. He finished fifth here at Colonial in 2024. Meissner is an excellent putter, great on approach, ranks 25th on Tour in Scrambling, and is 37th for Greens in Regulation. He ranks 13th on Tour in Bogey Avoidance.

J.T. Poston (70-1)

Similar to last week, I want to lean on good putters again here in Fort Worth. Poston’s short game numbers are surprisingly off this season for a player who has always used such skill sets as his strength. He has top 10 and top 20 finishes at every one of the correlated courses this week, including recent 10th- and 12th-place finishes here at Colonial. Poston also lives in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia and trains at Sea Island Golf Club, where they play the RSM Classic. Despite his short game numbers being off this year, I can’t ignore that he has always been an excellent profile for this type of golf course.

Eric Cole (90-1)

Cole is yet another player who checks the box of tremendous short game who excels in approach play. He ranks 47th on Tour for SG: Approach, 16th for SG: Putting, and is 34th in Scrambling. Like Meissner, Cole also finished 31st last week and posted three of four rounds in the 60s. Prior to that he had two straight sixth-place finishes and a 14th. Cole has finished fifth and 13th at the Sony Open, as high as third at Sea Island, 12th at the Valspar, and has been 22nd, 14th, and 15th at Pebble Beach.

Taylor Moore (115-1)

If you were playing our selection of Moore last week for First Round Leader, you cashed a nice winner as he fired a 62 at TPC Craig Ranch last Thursday. He ended up finishing 14th for the tournament and ranked 10th in that field for SG: Putting. He is now trending in the right direction with finishes in his last three starts of 20-17-and-14. He won the Valspar in 2023, the same year he finished fifth at TPC Southwind. Moore has also been as high as eighth at the RSM Classic.

Lee Hodges (150-1)

The results at the correlated courses for Hodges are the strongest of all of our selections this week. He’s never missed a cut here at Colonial with a finish as high as 12th on his resume. He’s been sixth and 10th at the Sony, fourth and fifth at Sea Island, 18th at the Valspar, and 13th at the FedEx St. Jude. He is the only one of our choices this week who does not have the history or the numbers of a great putter — but he ranks 57th on Tour for SG: Approach, 16th in Driving Accuracy, and is especially good in Hole Proximity from 125-200 yards.

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on X at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which gets underway Thursday in Texas.

It feels good to get a break for a minute from the “major” events that have dominated the PGA Tour schedule for the last six weeks. It’s on to a good old-fashioned birdie-fest deep in the heart of Texas as for the sixth year in a row, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson will be held at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.

I like to call these next three weeks “The Legendary Swing,” as we go from the Byron Nelson to Ben Hogan’s place, Colonial Country Club, next week in Fort Worth, only to be followed by the Memorial at Jack Nicklaus’ place in Dublin, Ohio. It’s a great lead up to the season’s third major, the U.S. Open, which will be held at Shinnecock Hills in New York. Scottie Scheffler will be looking to complete the career grand slam at Shinnecock — but first, he’ll be looking to defend his title here at Lord Byron’s place.

Scheffler went “Star Trek” last season, boldly going where no man has gone before, getting to 31 under par and winning by eight shots. Reinforcements were immediately called in to investigate, and with the help of Lanny Wadkins, the golf course was tweaked in an effort to make things a bit more challenging.

In the 2026 edition, we will get a par 71 that measures just a shade less than 7,400 yards. Tom Weiskopf originally designed the property in 2004 but Wadkins has since narrowed the fairways, moved some of the bunkering, and renovated many of the greens — again, to try to adjust things to challenge the modern Tour player while still keeping this golf course playable for the club membership. In the five times that Craig Ranch has hosted this tournament, the average winning score is 25.5 under par. At the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, the Over/Under winning score proposition bet is 260.5, meaning 23.5 under par.

Even with the changes to the golf course, my approach to the handicap hasn’t changed. The formula remains the same: efficiency off the tee, greens in regulation, hole putts for birdie. Even though there have been some changes to these Bentgrass greens, I still believe that this will ultimately become a putting contest. Accordingly, I have looked at Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Putting (Bentgrass), Birdies or Better Gained, Par 5 Scoring, Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, and Par 4 Scoring on those measuring 450-500 yards.

I believe the correlated courses are fairly strong this week. In these watered-down field events, we tend to see the same names surface on the leaderboard. I looked at two other Weiskopf designs we see on Tour, TPC Scottsdale and Black Desert Resort in Utah. I also looked at Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational), Vidanta Vallarta (Mexico Open), and El Cardonal at Diamante (World Wide Technologies Championship).

I’m going with the long shot approach this week. Scheffler is a prohibitive favorite at around +185. Si Woo Kim and Jordan Spieth are the second choices at around 15-1. Brooks Koepka checks in around 25-1 and after that, there isn’t anything shorter than 40 or 50-1 — and that is where I will get started.

Stephan Jaeger (70-1)

Jaeger seems to fit the profile quite nicely this week. He’s a big hitter off the tee and has really turned into one of the game’s better putters. He’s won in the state of Texas previously (Houston Open), and he’s been a fixture on the leaderboards at many of the correlated courses with two top-6 finishes at Vidanta Vallarta, a runner-up and 11th-place finish in Utah, and an 11th and 20th-place finish here at TPC Craig Ranch. He caught my eye last week at the PGA Championship, where he finished 18th. He was third in that field for Greens in Regulation and ninth for SG: Putting — which was also a Bentgrass surface.

Matti Schmid (80-1)

Maybe it’s a German thing this week as both Schmid and Jaeger hail from Deutschland — and of course, Schmid was another who shined last week at Aronimink, finishing fourth. And what was a big part of his success? Yes, putting. Schmid was No. 1 in that field last week for SG: Putting. He was eighth last season at the World Wide Technologies Championship and finished fifth at Black Desert in 2024.

Jordan Smith (80-1)

Of all my selections this week, Smith is the only one who struggles with the putter, but I couldn’t ignore his ball striking numbers or his 16th-place finish earlier this season on another Weiskopf design, TPC Scottsdale. The Englishman is spending his first full season on the PGA Tour after being an exclusively European Tour player for many years. He currently ranks 21st on Tour for SG: Off The Tee, 34th for SG: Approach, and is 62nd in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards. Over the last 24-rounds, he ranks 12th in this field on the Par 5s and is 15th in Hole Proximity from 200 yards or more.

Beau Hossler (90-1)

A University of Texas Longhorn, Hossler ought to feel very much at home this week and yes, he is an excellent putter, ranking fourth on Tour for SG: Putting. He finished third two weeks ago at Myrtle Beach, where he ranked third in that field for Greens in Regulation and seventh for SG: Off the Tee. Hossler is the king of the top 20-finish at the correlated courses having taken 17th here at Craig Ranch in the past, 10th at Vidanta Vallarta, 15th, 20th, and 17th at El Cardonal, 11th in Utah, two top 25s at Bay Hill, and a 14th-place finish at TPC Scottsdale in 2023.

Taylor Moore (125-1)

We’ve hit two recent winners at the Valspar Championship, Fitzpatrick earlier this season and Moore at 60-1 back in 2023. He really hasn’t done much since that lone Tour victory but he has shown some signs. He finished 17th two weeks ago in Myrtle Beach where he ranked ninth in that field for SG: Off the Tee and was 26th in SG: Approach, gaining nearly three shots on the field. And yes, the putter has come back around, ranking 33rd on Tour this season for SG: Putting. He is also one of the very best on the circuit for Hole Proximity between 175 and 225 yards. He finished ninth last year at TPC Scottsdale, hasn’t ever missed a cut at Bay Hill, and was runner-up earlier this season at the Cognizant Classic.

Hayden Springer (200-1)

Welcome to the 200-1 category. I believe this is our first venture into this territory in some time. Springer is a banger off the tee who can putt and that is a nice formula for TPC Craig Ranch. He also spent his college years at both Texas Tech and at TCU, so he is no stranger to this golf course or golf in this part of the world. He has spent most of his time this season on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he ranks fifth on that circuit for SG: Tee to Green and 11th for SG: Approach. Springer finished 20th last year at the Black Desert Championship.

Carson Young (225-1)

While we’re here in the 200-1 zip code, why not stick around for another minute? Shake hands with Mr. Carson Young, who like Springer, has split his time this season between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours. On the KFT, Young has three top-7 finishes, including last week at the Colonial Life Charity Classic where he ranked 17th in that field for SG: Approach and was No. 1 in SG: Around the Green. On the Korn Ferry Tour this season, Young ranks No. 1 for SG: Tee to Green and for SG: Around the Green. He is sixth for Putting Average. Young has been at his best in these types of fields, at these types of golf courses, having finished 14th here in the past at Craig Ranch, eighth and 15th at Vidanta Vallarta, ninth, sixth, and runner-up at El Cardonal, and was 11th in Utah in 2024.

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on X at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 PGA Championship, which gets underway Thursday in Pennsylvania.

Two days before the second major championship of the golf season begins, there are still some questions about how this golf course will play — one of which involves the weather.

The forecast currently looks beautiful with mostly sunshine, but there are a couple of areas of interest that figure to have an impact on this tournament. Around midnight ET on Wednesday evening, there is a better than a 50 percent chance of some showers, expected to last for a few hours. This could, of course, make for a soft and very vulnerable golf course come Thursday’s opening round. As the day goes on, the sun is expected to shine with winds in the 15 mph range. This not only looks like the early tee times could see an advantage but that the golf course could also dry out over the course of the day. At the same time, the early wave looks to experience chilly temperatures with an expected high for the day only in the low 60s — a stark contrast from Sunday’s final round expected high temperature in the high 80s.

Golf course restoration specialist Gil Hanse has said Aronimink is at its best when conditions are firm and fast. It looks like we will get there eventually but Thursday could be different. It appears on the surface that there will be an opportunity to get out to a fast start on Thursday morning, taking on a rain-softened golf course.

The other question mark that exists for me is whether or not the bombers will be able to bomb entirely — or will this test be more tilted toward accuracy and positioning off the tee as it seems is the architect’s intention? We may not know this for sure until early on Thursday or even late on Friday — and for our purposes, it certainly matters in which type of player we are figuring will have the best skill set required for what the golf course is presenting.

It is also interesting to note that when Hanse was brought in to perform his overhaul in 2016, he was under the assumption that this PGA Championship would be played in its normally scheduled month of August, when conditions would almost certainly be firm and fast. Of course, the PGA Tour moved this event from August to May in 2019. From a fan’s perspective, I am hoping Mother Nature cooperates and we get the perfect test. We saw Valhalla play soft and receptive in 2024 and Xander Schauffele won with a winning score of 21 under par. I can tell you that one of the finest golf oddsmakers in the world, Jeff Sherman, at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, has made the winning score proposition bet this week Under/Over 267.5 — meaning 12.5 under par. If he is correct, I believe we get our wish of Aronimink, the weather, the rough, etc., providing the proper test and producing a well-deserving champion.

We provided an early look at Aronimink and a few of our selections to win the 108th PGA Championship last week. I have since come up with five additional players who I believe have a legitimate shot to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy and are being offered at a fair price.

Patrick Cantlay (55-1)

I hemmed and hawed on Cantlay last week but eventually pulled the trigger on Monday. I was concerned with his putting numbers but I do like just about everything else that I am seeing. First, in his last four starts, which include the Masters and two Signature Events, he’s finished 7-12-8-10. Strong. Secondly, he has performed very well at what I believe make sense as correlated courses. He was third at Pinehurst in 2024, 14th at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023, and was fourth, not far away, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club last year for the Truist Championship. He’s been runner-up at Detroit Golf Club and at East Lake Golf Club. Cantlay has finished fifth, seventh, runner-up, and has won the Tour Championship. He ranks 51st on Tour in SG: Approach and in Driving Accuracy. He is 20th for Greens in Regulation and in Scrambling.

Jordan Spieth (65-1)

I have actually seen as high as 90-1 on the three-time major champion. Amazing number. I believe somewhere around 60-1 is the correct price. This will be Spieth’s 10th time trying to win the PGA Championship and thus complete the career Grand Slam. I believe this golf course gives him a good chance and that his game is definitely capable of contending. I said Speith finishing top 15 at the Masters was reasonable and if he found a little magic, that he could win it. He finished 12th. I feel similarly here. He is doing just about everything very well, especially the short game and the mid- to short-iron play. And I believe we will know right away if this is Spieth’s week or not as he has only once in his career completed Round 1 of a PGA Championship inside the top 20 on the leaderboard. If he finds himself as such heading into Friday, I believe he will have a shot.

Adam Scott (70-1)

The veteran Australian has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence to his career in the last couple of seasons, sitting second heading into the final round of last year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont and now twice finishing fourth this season: once at Riviera, and again three weeks ago at Doral. He hasn’t missed a cut since the Open Championship last July. The ball striking is impeccable, ranking third on Tour for SG: Approach, third for Hole Proximity from 150-175 yards, second from 175-200 yards, and third from 200+ yards. Scott ranks 19th on Tour in Total Driving and is 46th in Scrambling. He finished ninth at Pinehurst in 2014.

Kurt Kitayama (80-1)

Speaking of ball striking. Wow. Like his fellow UNLV Rebel golfer, Adam Scott, Kitayama too has been striping it and ranks seventh on Tour in Total Driving. The approach numbers are very similar to Scott’s as is his scrambling, ranking 54th on Tour. Unfortunately, the SG: Putting numbers are similar too as Scott is 90th on Tour and Kitayama 109th. Kitayama was runner-up this year at Riviera and has gone 8-9-19 in his last three starts at Harbour Town, Doral, and Quail Hollow respectively.

Sahith Theegala (150-1)

This is certainly a long shot and we are invested at very low risk. Theegala has been struggling off the tee, ranking 125th on Tour for SG: Off the Tee. However, if the bomb and gouge strategy is in play, it could work for Theegala. Also, if taking something less than driver off the tee for accuracy and positioning purposes works, that too could benefit Theegala. What we know for sure is that his approach play is very solid and his short game can be elite. He’s done well in the past at other Ross designs like Pinehurst, Oak Hill, and East Lake. Some will say the sloping fairways and large greens resemble the Plantation Course at Kapalua where Theegala finished runner-up in 2024. Some will say Aronimink aligns with Silverado in Napa, where Theegala has won, finished seventh, and sixth. At low risk, 150-1 or better is fine and finish position plays for top 40, top 30, or even top 20 could be very lucrative.

Welcome to our PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sport betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow him on X at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his early picks below for the PGA Championship, which gets underway on May 14 in Newtown Square, Penn.

“I intended to make this course my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize I built it better than I knew.”

Legendary golf course designer, Donald Ross, said that about Aronimink in 1948, the site of this year’s 108th PGA Championship, 20 years after opening the golf course. Legendary golf historian and master of design restoration, Gil Hanse, was brought to Newtown Square, Penn., along with his partner, Jim Wagner, in 2016 to work their magic and transform Aronimink back into major championship caliber as Ross originally intended.

More than 150 players, including 20 PGA club professionals, will make their way to the Philadelphia area next week for the second major championship of 2026. What a better place to hold one of golf’s crown jewel events than in the Birthplace of America in the year of the nation’s 250th birthday? Hot dogs, apple pie, and likely some fireworks if we can correctly land on the champion and this year’s recipient of the Wanamaker Trophy.

Stretching to nearly 7,400 yards, Aronimink will play to a par 70 for this year’s championship. The fairways have been made a bit wider by Hanse, who also did some tree removal, and added 100 sand bunkers to what is now a total of 174 that pepper this layout. The fairways feature quite a bit of slope, making for uneven lies when negotiating primarily long-iron approach shots into classic Ross-style greens, full of humps and bumps and shaved run-off areas.

The modern-day PGA Championship has been a bomber’s paradise. Brooks Koepka has won three in the last 10 years. Bryson DeChambeau has been runner-up in each of the last two. Driver-heavy courses like Quail Hollow, Valhalla, and Oak Hill have been the norm for this test in recent years. I believe however, that Aronimink may actually favor accuracy over distance off the tee. Total Driving (distance plus accuracy) is certainly a skill set that makes sense as I believe finding the proper positioning in the fairways trumps simply raw length. Long iron play from uneven lies, hitting greens not only in regulation, but also in the best particular areas of the greens, and incredible short-game skills, all figure into my initial profile on how to best solve Aronimink.

We saw this golf course a couple of times prior to the restoration when it hosted the AT&T National. The last time we saw it was after the remodel at the 2018 BMW Championship when Keegan Bradley beat Justin Rose in a playoff. As far as courses that figure to have some crossover characteristics, look no further than to other Ross designs we see regularly. Pinehurst No. 2 hosted the U.S. Open in 2014 and in 2024. Sedgefield Country Club is the annual host of the Wyndham Championship and Detroit Golf Club has been hosting the Rocket Mortgage Classic now for six seasons. Oak Hill hosted the PGA Championship in 2013 and in 2023, another Ross design, and then of course, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta where for a couple of decades now, they have played the Tour Championship.

Early Bets

Xander Schauffele (18-1)

I have three plays currently in pocket. Schauffele being one of the shorter shots, trading as basically the fifth or six favorite on the board at this time. He, of course, is a former PGA Champion, winning at Valhalla in 2024. Schauffele is arguably the greatest Donald Ross specialist on Tour, having won at East Lake and finished runner-up three times. He was third at Aronimink in 2018, seventh at Pinehurst in 2024 and was 18th at Oak Hill in 2023. In Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, he ranks 14th on Tour. He ranks 20th from 200 yards or more. Schauffele is third on Tour in Scrambling and is 42nd for Strokes Gained: Putting. Off the tee, he is 45th in Driving Distance and 65th in Driving Accuracy. The current form appears to be on point as well with consecutive finishes of 3-4-9-12 in his last four starts.

Russell Henley (56-1)

For so many years, Henley was just figured to not be long enough to compete on some of the game’s bigger courses. As he has ascended to a Top 10 player in the world in recent years, he’s won at Bay Hill and finished top 5 at Augusta National twice. He checks just about every box for me coming into Aronimink except for the iron play has been off a bit in 2026. But, he just finished third at the Masters a month ago. It is also worth noting, since 2019 when the PGA Championship moved to May on the calendar, every winner had finished top 10 at the Masters the month prior, except for Phil Mickelson in 2021. 2020 does not count because The Masters was played in November that year. As far as other Ross designs, Henley was seventh at Pinehurst in 2024, has four top 10 finishes including a runner-up at Sedgefield, a top 10 at Detroit Golf Club, and has finished second, third, and fourth at East Lake Golf Club.

Rickie Fowler (100-1)

One long shot before we leave and I’m sticking with the Donald Ross angle. Fowler was runner-up at Pinehurst in 2014, 19th at Oak Hill in 2013, has been runner-up twice at East Lake and won in a playoff at Detroit Golf Club in 2023. He also finished eighth here at Aronimink at the 2018 BMW Championship. The skill set in 2026 matches up as well as he ranks 11th on Tour in Scrambling, 20th in Strokes Gained: Putting, eighth in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, and is 28th in Total Driving.

I am going to continue to lean in on the accuracy angle more so than sheer power and as Hanse said about his remodel and this championship, it will come down to the short game. The ability to read these greens, the undulations, the scrambling, getting up and down for par. It is a Ross tradition for winners to be decided on and around the greens and I believe with Mother Nature’s cooperation, that is what we will end up with here in Philadelphia next week. Stay tuned as I will have my full card of outrights posted here on Tuesday.