Yes, Brittany Lang is from Texas, but that doesn't mean she knows Champions Golf Club

The TOUR leaves Kiawah Island, and so does Phil Mickelson with his sixth major title. The TOUR travels from the historic 2021 PGA Championship to the storied Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Charles Schwab Challenge. The course will play as a par 70, measuring 7,209 and will be putt on bentgrass greens. There are 121 players in the field, and the standard top 65 and ties make the cut. The Charles Schwab Challenge was the first tournament back after the COVID-19 shut down last season. Daniel Berger (+1800, $10,000) is your defending champion. STRATEGY The field moves back to its usual field size of 121 golfers after seeing its most robust group of 156 golfers in 2020, with every player on TOUR looking to get back to action post-COVID-19 shut down. The slimmer field will host some of the best golfers in the world like Justin Thomas (+1000, $11,000), Jordan Spieth (+850, $11,200), Tony Finau (+1600, $9,600), Justin Rose (+3300, $8,900), Collin Morikawa (+1400, $10,500), Abraham Ancer (+1400, $9700) and Patrick Reed (+1800, $10,300). With close to 54% or more of players potentially making the weekend, this week should result in one of the highest percentages of lineups having all six golfers make the cut. Colonial Country Club has been one of the longest-tenured courses on the PGA TOUR, with this being its 76th season hosting a tournament. Colonial isn’t known for playing difficult like the Ocean Course, but it’s been ranked inside the top-10 in difficulty scoring relative to par over the past few years. Like last week, the winds can cause havoc at Colonial. The tournaments held in 2012, 2014 and 2019 all recorded either higher than average or severe wind conditions, with the winning score averaging around 12-under. We’ve seen close to 20% of rounds over the previous four years register very windy conditions. The fairways are tight and tree-lined, making any wayward tee shots challenging to recover from if the golfers find trouble. The greens are below average in size, measuring 5,000 square feet, but the average greens in regulation (GIR) hit here is close to the TOUR average. Initially, we would think that smaller greens result in a smaller percentage of GIR, but it doesn’t. Over the previous five years, the highest distribution of approach shots has come from 125 to 175 yards, which are relatively easy scoring opportunities for these guys. Similar to other traditional layouts on TOUR, like Pete Dye’s Harbour Town Golf Links and TPC Sawgrass, Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green will be the predominant statistic that will lead to success. DraftKings scoring will need to come from a massive amount of birdies, with one of the lowest eagle rates on TOUR. Also, with nine par 4s measuring under 450 yards, rostering golfers who rank high in shorter par 4s should take precedent over golfers who aren’t succeeding on these holes. This classical course layout lends itself to all types of golfers. Kevin Na (+6600; $8,400) can win with an impeccable short game, while Rose can do it with tremendous ball-striking, shooting 20-under, gaining 10.2 strokes with his irons, and four strokes Off-the-Tee. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Joaquin Niemann (+2500 to Win, $9,300 on DraftKings) When we’re back on bentgrass, we should be backing the Chilean sensation, who ranks 20th in approach over the previous 24 rounds. Niemann has only lost strokes with his irons in one tournament out of his past 11 and has played well on shorter courses like Colonial, finishing fifth at the RBC Heritage in 2020 and second at this year’s Sony Open at Waialae CC. Chris Kirk (+6600 to Win, $7,600 on DraftKings) Kirk is just 10 spots behind Niemann at 30th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green over the same timeframe but ranks the highest out of anyone in the field in Par 4 efficiency from 400 to 450 yards over the previous 24 rounds. On courses at or below 7,200 yards, Kirk ranks 27th in putting and eighth in birdies gained over his last two dozen rounds. Like Niemann, Kirk has been great on these shorter, classical courses, finishing seventh at the RBC Heritage and second at the Sony Open this year. Refer a friend and get $20 DK Dollars! Head to the DraftKings Playbook Promo page for more details! Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Flop Shot [$200K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. 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Note: The USGA, who owns and operates the U.S. Open, controls all digital streaming and broadcast rights to this event. For more information on how to watch this week, please visit the U.S. Open's website. PGA TOUR LIVE coverage will resume on Thursday, Oct. 1 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. The final round of the U.S. Open gets underway from Winged Foot. Here’s how to follow the action. Tee times Leaderboard HOW TO FOLLOW (All times ET) Television: Sunday, 8 a.m.-10 a.m. (Peacock), 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (Golf Channel), 12 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC). MUST READS Wolff takes lead into final round at U.S. Open Where Wolff cut his teeth Woods, Mickelson booted from Winged Foot DeChambeau’s confidence at ‘all-time high’ Win probabilities: U.S. Open Woodland has torn labrum in left hip

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LAS VEGAS — Tom Kim closed with a 5-under 67 and completed a bogey-free week in Las Vegas to win the Shriners Children’s Open when Patrick Cantlay fell apart on the final hole Sunday. Kim became the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to win twice on the PGA TOUR before turning 21. The 20-year-old South Korean won the Wyndham Championship in August to make the FedExCup Playoffs and he’s been soaring ever since. “I’m having fun playing on the PGA TOUR. It’s awesome,” Kim said. But he needed some help from Cantlay, who could have gone to No. 2 in the world with a win at the TPC Summerlin. They traded birdies along the back nine and came to the par-4 18th hole tied for the lead when it all fell apart for Cantlay. He was first to play and hooked a 3-wood left of the fairway into a desert bush in a ravine. Kim belted driver into the fairway and by the time he finally played his second shot to the green, Cantlay was lying four in the bottom of the pond. Cantlay tried blasting out of the bush to no avail. He took a penalty drop. He then hit out of the desert sand and into the pond. Cantlay finished with a 35-foot putt for triple bogey for a 69 that gave him a share of second place with Matthew NeSmith (66). “I figured the only chance I had was to get it in the fairway,” Cantlay said about his decision to try to play from out of the bush. “I played well — one bad swing at the end. Obviously, I would have liked to have closed the deal out today, but sometimes that’s golf. Kim became the first player since J.T. Poston at the 2019 Wyndham Championship to win a PGA TOUR event without making bogey. The way the back nine was going, no one could afford to drop any shots. Cantlay birdied the 11th and 12th to tie Kim for the lead. Kim responded with birdies on the next two holes to restore a two-shot lead. Cantlay had 30-foot eagle chances on the next two holes, driving the par-4 14th green with a 3-wood and reaching the par-5 15th in two, while Kim had to settle for pars. Cantlay’s 35-foot putt for triple bogey was worth $160,000, but that was small consolation. It was his third disappointment in Las Vegas, the site of his first PGA TOUR win. He lost in a playoff to Kevin Na in 2019 and had a share of the 54-hole lead the following year until a poor final round to tie for eighth. “I hit a lot of good shots,” Cantlay said. “Obviously, the last hole makes the whole week kind of sour.” That left Kim a somewhat muted celebration. “I played solid this week — no bogey for 72 holes,” Kim said. “I got very lucky on the 18th, I’m not going to lie. Patrick played awesome, and to come out with a win I feel fortunate.” Woods was 20 when he won in Las Vegas and then at Disney in just seven tournaments since turning pro. Kim now is the second-youngest player to win two PGA TOUR events before turning 21, a month behind Ralph Guldahl when he won the 1932 Arizona Open for his second win. It’s been quite the year for Kim, who honed his golf in Australia and the Philippines before turning pro. He started this year by winning the Singapore International and finishing runner-up in the Singapore Open on the Asian Tour. After winning the Wyndham Championship, he made his debut in the Presidents Cup by going 2-3-0 for the International Team and delivering one of the biggest moments with a 10-foot birdie putt in Fourballs in a 1-up win over Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. Next up is the ZOZO Championship in Japan for Kim, who goes to No. 15 in the world and becomes the highest-ranked Asian player, moving ahead of Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.

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