2023 Charles Schwab Challenge Betting Guide

The tournament plays tribute to the history of golf by presenting an official Scottish tartan jacket to the winner of the event. There is also a Wall of Champions on the first tee, upon which are the engraved names and scores of each champion dating back to its inaugural event in 1946.

The Charles Schwab Challenge is one of only five tournaments within the PGA to have an invitational status, which means it has a reduced field as opposed to some other PGA events. There should still be approximately 125 players teeing off, though, so it is far from empty. The other four tournaments with invitational status are the Genesis Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, and the Memorial Tournament.

The tournament itself is a standard stroke play event, where the player with the best under-par score after four day’s play will be crowned champion. At the tournament’s midpoint, which comes after two full days of play on Friday evening, a cut line will be introduced to chop the field in half with players on one side of the line missing out on the final two day’s play, and players on the other side of the line playing on for another two days. This is commonly referred to as missing or making the cut, and introduces another betting opportunity (see above). From here, there is another two days of play on the Saturday and the Sunday until a winner is found. In the case of a tie where more than one golfer has the same score, a playoff is undertaken on the 17th green to find a champion.

One of the longest-running tournaments in PGA Tour history, this tournament was founded in 1946 as the Colonial National Invitational and has gone by many names but, as of 2019, it has been called the Charles Schwab Challenge. Packed with tradition, the tournament came about after the venue, the Colonial Country Club, hosted the 1941 US Open. When The Colonial hosted the event, it was the first time that the US Open had been held south of the Mason-Dixon line, which marked the historic boundary between North and South in Colonial America. Looking to make the most of the tourney’s success, local organisers launched The Colonial Invitational in 1946.

Unlike many golfing events, The Colonial has never wandered from its home, and has played at the same venue throughout its entire existence. In 2003, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play in any PGA Tour event in 58 years when she played in Bank of America Colonial, as it was called at the time, following Babe Zaharias, who competed in the Los Angeles Open, in 1945. Sadly for her, she missed the cut.

In 2020, the tournament was played in June and was the first PGA Tour event to be staged after the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This event was also held without spectators, which was another PGA Tour first.

Only eleven men have won this tournament more than once.

Ben Hogan has won it the most with five wins.

The other ten golfers – Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Lietzke, Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson and, most recently, Zach Johnson – have all won the event twice each.

In 1955, Chandler Harper won by eight strokes, a tournament record.

The course record here 261 and was made by Kenny Perry in 2003.

Perry repeated the trick two years later in 2005.