Following the second major of the golfing season, where Xander Schauffele claimed the PGA Championship title, the PGA Tour returns to the grindstone with the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
We selected Sweden's Alex Noren to finish in the top 30 last week and the veteran duly delivered with a T12 finish, with our tip to win Scottie Scheffler troubled by off the course issues that may have affected his performance.
And he is the big name that will take to the par 70, 7,289-yard course which is ranked in the top 10 in terms of difficulty for the 2022-23 season with an average round score of 70.734 - three-quarters of a shot over par.
Emiliano Grillo of Argentina is the defending champion with the likes of Sam Burns, Jason Kokrak, Daniel Berger and Kevin Na winning in recent years. There will be many former champions in the field, but the two that head the betting are recent runners-up in the US South.
World number one Scheffler – runner-up in 2022 - ended a run of five straight top two finishes with a T8 performance at the PGA Championship, but he is still put in an exceptional performance given the circumstances, and statistically is by far the best player in the world.
He leads the PGA Tour in shots gained (2.813), scoring average (67.49), par fours (3.85), birdie average (5.40), greens hit in regulation (74.5%) and putting average (1.665) - an all-round star. He is priced 11/4 to win the tournament, and he's hard not to back with most of the top names missing.
His biggest challenger, in terms of world ranking, is set to be world number nine Collin Morikawa, the 2020 runner-up. He has four top 10 finishes and eight top 25 finishes in 12 tournaments this season, but is yet to claim a title outright.
The American has a strong putting game – he ranks 11th in putts per round, 17th in putting percentage and 14th in one-putt percentage. He is 15th in birdie average and is the most accurate driver on the tour, hitting 78.74% of fairways.
He finished T4 in last week's PGA Championship, two shots ahead of Scheffler but six off the victor Schauffele. A top 10 finish at 29/20 is probably a bet that can be supported.
An outsider we like is Thomas Detry, who boasts the 25th best scoring average on the PGA Tour at 70.632 per round. He is also ranked sixth in birdie average (4.50) and is strong on the greens being 10th in putting shots gained (0.602), 14th in putting average (1.718), 21st in putts per round (28.19) and ninth in one-putt percentage (43.99%).
The Belgian finished T4 at the PGA Championship, and previously finished T8 at the Zurich Classic doubles tournament and T2 in the Texas Children's Houston Open. His season includes four top 10 finishes and six top 25 outings.
Detry is 60/1 to claim victory each-way to five places, 19/4 to finish in the top 10 and a backable 13/10 to record a top 30 finish.
Best bets
Scottie Scheffler to win (11/4)
Collin Morikawa top 10 (29/20)
Thomas Detry top 30 (13/10)
