2025 Charles Schwab Challenge picks: Three long-shot bets for Colonial
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The PGA Tour will make its annual stop at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth this week for the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge.
Colonial has hosted a PGA Tour event every year since 1946, making it the longest-running non-major on the golfing calendar.
There's a good reason why the Tour has stopped at this track for the last 79 years – this is a challenging course to play.
Colonial is a par-70 that measures out 7,289 yards from start to finish and can play tough, especially if the wind picks up.
The current forecast is calling for some thunderstorms Thursday and Sunday, with the windiest days expected to be Friday and Saturday.
A tough course with some iffy weather makes this a tough tournament to project, but the bookmakers aren't being shy about taking a stance.
Scottie Scheffler has been installed as a +250 favorite, which is giving off Tiger-in-his-prime vibes.
The co-second favorites are Daniel Berger and Jordan Spieth, both of whom currently sport 22/1 odds at FanDuel Sportsbook.
The field really opens up outside of the top four or five players, so this tournament is ripe for the picking when it comes to trying to find a big price.
It's also produced plenty of long-shot winners, including Kevin Na (2019), Jason Kokrak (2021), Emiliano Grillo (2023) and Davis Riley (2024).
Akshay Bhatia's lone PGA Tour win came in Texas in 2024.
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2025 Charles Schwab Challenge long shots
Akshay Bhatia (70/1, FanDuel)
Two months ago, it looked like Akshay Bhatia was on his way to big things in 2025. The 23-year-old had just put the finishing touches on a third-place finish at THE PLAYERS, his third top-10 finish in four starts between February and March.
Things have stalled for Bhatia since then, with three missed cuts and no top-40 finishes in his last six starts.
We'll buy the dip.
Bhatia has as much talent as anybody in this field not named Scheffler, and he's proven to be the type of player who can handle challenging setups, like he saw at THE PLAYERS.
Bhatia is a former PGA Tour winner, and that victory came in the Lone Star State at the 2024 Valero Texas Open.
Betting on golf?
Emiliano Grillo (100/1, FanDuel)
There is a lot of boom or bust to Emiliano Grillo's game. When he's dialed in, Grillo can go tee-to-green with the best of them, but he's also a threat to completely come unglued at any moment.
At 100/1 odds, you can live with that, especially since he's had a lot of great moments at this course.
The Argentinian is a former champion at Colonial (2023), and has two other top-10 finishes in nine appearances at this track.
Grillo's form is about what you'd expect it to be at this point in his career, with a missed cut and two top-20 finishes in his last four outings.
Adam Schenk finished T5 at the CJ Cup in the beginning of May.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Adam Schenk (250/1, Caesars)
Our last play will come on the man that Grillo defeated in a playoff at the 2023 iteration of this tournament, Adam Schenk.
A long-time PGA Tour pro, Schenk has zero wins in 229 events, but he does have a couple of runner-up finishes and a handful of top-fives, including one three weeks ago at the CJ Cup, which took place just 56 miles away, just outside of Dallas.
Schenk had missed seven of eight cuts around that T5 at the CJ Cup, but he's clearly comfortable in Texas, so we'll bet on him finally getting into the winner's circle at a massive price.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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