Fitzpatrick beats Hend in Euro Masters play-off

This week, the PGA TOUR travels to Fort Worth, Texas, for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club. The course will play as a tightly intertwined par 70, measuring 7,209 yards, and will feature bentgrass greens. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] STRATEGY Colonial Country Club will host the Charles Schwab Challenge once again this year and remains the longest active host for a non-major event on the PGA TOUR. The par 70 setup features doglegs and heavily tree-lined fairways, making accuracy off the tee a must this week. Players who miss the fairway may have their approaches blocked off by large overhanging trees. Water also comes into play on six of the holes and is featured predominately on the 18th, where a large pond guards one side of the green. Last season, Colonial played to a 69.567 scoring average and was the 13th-toughest venue on the PGA TOUR. The winners at this event the last three seasons have also all failed to reach anything better than 15 under par. Last year, Jason Kokrak grabbed the second of his three PGA TOUR wins, besting 2017 Colonial champion Jordan Spieth by two strokes. Kokrak had a fantastic week ball-striking, gaining +11.0 strokes combined in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and Approach stats while also gaining +5.5 strokes putting. The smaller bentgrass greens put an emphasis on approach play but do tend to run very pure, and we often see a lower than average amount of three-putts this week, as compared to other venues. With smaller greens and seven par 4s that range between 400-450 yards, players like Brian Harman ($7,800), Kevin Na ($8,100) and Kevin Kisner ($7,400) tend to excel at Colonial thanks to excellent approach and short games. Distance is certainly de-emphasized this week, and the focus for daily fantasy should be on finding players efficient from 150-175 yards on approach and good at scoring on shorter par 4s. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Abraham Ancer ($9,300) It was a disappointing Sunday for Ancer at the PGA Championship, starting the day in the mix before fading to a T9 finish. Ancer posted his second ever top-10 finish in a major last week, though, and also had his best ball-striking week of the season, gaining +4.6 strokes on approach alone. He appears to be sharpening into form and has the perfect style of game for long-term success at Colonial. Ancer ranks third in driving accuracy off the tee and will also be putting on his preferred surface this week, as he’s up to ninth now in Strokes Gained: Putting on bentgrass greens. Coming off a great week in Tulsa, Ancer makes for a logical starting point in daily fantasy golf lineups on DraftKings this week. Gary Woodland ($7,900) Woodland is another player who gets a bump this week for the setup. He’s 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting on bentgrass greens over the last 50 rounds and is now ranked 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach over that same span. Woodland has had an up-and-down season, as he’s accumulated three top-10 finishes since the beginning of March while also missing three cuts during that same span. Shorter courses aren’t necessarily a poor fit for Woodland, he has posted T9 and T14 finishes at Colonial the past two seasons. He gained strokes everywhere last week, except around the greens, and with easier around-the-green structures in play at Colonial, a big week for Woodland could easily be ahead. Maverick McNealy ($7,500) The last couple golfers to win the Charles Schwab Challenge after it directly followed the PGA Championship came off slow weeks at that major. That’s why I don’t mind playing McNealy for a bounce-back result this week. He struggled at Southern Hills but has been great for daily fantasy purposes, landing 14 made cuts in a row now dating back to last fall. McNealy has made the cut at Colonial in his three appearances at this event and gained over a stroke putting in each of those starts. He’s shown big upside when that club gets rolling and is available this week at a very friendly price on DraftKings. Brian Harman ($7,800) is another player with good course history who looks undervalued this week, given the setup. If you want to take a little more of a risk-reward approach, consider Emiliano Grillo ($7,000), who has finished T19 or better at this event in three of the last four seasons. Grillo has been striking ball poorly this year but comes in off two made cuts in a row. He sets up as a low-owned boom-or-bust target for big tournaments. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Pitch + Putt [$250K to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook or by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is wavegoodbye) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information. 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ORLANDO, Fla. — The long ball helped Bryson DeChambeau outlast Lee Westwood on Sunday to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, only the key shots were as much with his putter as his driver. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Bryson DeChambeau DeChambeau holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the front nine and a 50-foot par putt early on the back nine. He closed it out with a nervy 5-foot par putt for a 1-under 71 and a one-shot victory over the 47-year-old Westwood. It matched the low score of the day, one of only three rounds under par in the toughest final round at Bay Hill in 41 years. DeChambeau and Westwood were never separated by more than one shot over the final 15 holes, a fascinating duel of generations that came down to the last shot. For the second straight day, DeChambeau revved up thousands of fans on the par-5 sixth hole by smashing driver over the lake and leaving himself 88 yards away on the 565-yard sixth hole. Westwood was 168 yards behind him, and raised both arms to jokingly mimic DeChambeau’s reaction from the day before. They both made birdie. DeChambeau appeared to be in trouble on the 11th when he narrowly missed going in the water off the tee, caught a plugged lie in the front bunker and gouged it out to 50 feet. He made that for par to stay ahead by one. Westwood tied him with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-5 12th, only to give it back with a three-putt on the 14th. The tournament turned on the par-5 16th, where it was Westwood who had the advantage. DeChambeau’s drive went up against the lip of a bunker and he had to lay up short of the water. Westwood had 158 yards and hit a poor short iron that came up short of the green. He chipped nicely, except that it rolled out 6 feet by the hole on the lightning-quick greens and he missed the birdie for a chance to tie. DeChambeau was one ahead going to the 18th when he hit his most important drive of the day — in the fairway. Westwood’s tee shot settled in a divot, and he did well to get it on the green and two-putt from 65 feet. DeChambeau’s birdie putt slid by some 5 feet and he shook his arms in celebration when the par putt dropped. Westwood closed with a 73, not a bad score considering the average of 75.49 was the highest for a final round since 1980. Corey Conners stayed in the mix until the very end. The Canadian holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 16th to get within one shot, only to find a bunker on the par-3 17th and miss a 6-foot par putt. With a bogey on the final hole, he shot 74 to finish alone in third. Jordan Spieth was part of a four-man race on the front nine and briefly tied for the lead with a birdie on the par-5 sixth. That turned out to be his last birdie of the day. He took bogey on three of his last four holes for a 75, dropping him into a three-way tie for fourth with Andrew Putnam (71) and Ricky Werenski (73). For Spieth, it was his third top-five finish in his last four events. DeChambeau said he received a text Sunday morning from Tiger Woods, who is recovering from serious leg injuries from his car crash in Los Angeles. He said Woods, an eight-time Bay Hill winner, told him to “keep fighting.” He also considered the words from Arnold Palmer to “play boldly.” He needed all of that with the fight Westwood gave him, and the test Bay Hill provided. “It’s been quite a battle this whole entire time,” DeChambeau said. DeChambeau rose to No. 1 in the FedExCup rankings with his ninth PGA TOUR victory, and he became the first player this season with multiple victories, to go along with his U.S. Open title in September. It matched the longest it took for a multiple winner on the PGA TOUR since 1969. Nick Price won his second title in the 21st week of the season in 1994. Rory McIlroy, who started four shots out of the lead, was never in the mix. He came undone on the par-5 sixth, where he hit two tee shots into the water and then hit the fairway, green and made the putt to salvage double bogey. He shot 76.

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