Back to regular PGA Tour action this week - who will win at Colonial?
Charles Schwab Challenge Golf Betting Tips 2021
Who’d be a golf punter? Phil Mickelson at 250-1 wins a Major just a month shy of his 51st birthday - do me a favour!
Nobody has tipped Lefty more times than yours truly, even this year when a glimmer of the Mickelson of old was sighted, but how could a guy who had not posted a top-ten or even a top-20 in his 14 starts since the 2020/21 year kicked off last September land the PGA Championship?
In one of sport’s greatest fairytales, Phil The Thrill’s amazing feat will have been cheered home by everyone who loves golf. It was a result that transcended betting, where losing your money mattered little in the grand scheme of things.
Gambler Mickelson brings excitement and charisma to a game that, let’s face it, can often be tedious to watch.
There would not be many golfers I would willingly pay money to watch but he tops the list and long may he continue to do so.
Now, with the US Open being played in his home city of San Diego next month, he can dream the impossible dream of completing his career grand slam.
That’s the Major in which he’s been a six-time runner-up, often the bridesmaid, never the bride.
And it’s being played on the Torrey Pines course where he scored his first victory as a pro 28 years ago in what was then called the Buick Invitational, a victory he repeated twice more in 2000 and 2001.
The South course has been toughened up considerably since but, even so, he won’t be 250-1 for that.
There’s still a bit of 60-1 around if you believe there’s another significant chapter to be written in a 30-year career that has realised six Majors.
Who knows how many more would have come his way if Tiger had not been around?
Mickelson is down to play in this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas and is a 60-1 chance for a tournament we oldies still call The Colonial.
This was the first tournament back after the three-month hiatus caused by Covid and Daniel Berger was the winner, beating a nervous Collin Morikawa in a playoff, with Mickelson missing the cut on his first visit for ten years to the classic venue where he was twice a winner, in 2000 and 2008.
Although Berger has won since, at Pebble Beach in February, it is Morikawa who has achieved more with three victories featuring his PGA victory at Harding Park and WGC success in Florida at The Concession.
A top-ten at the weekend in defence of the Wanamaker Trophy at Kiawah is further evidence that the Californian should take his revenge in a line-up of 121 headed by Justin Thomas and reborn 2016 Colonial champion Jordan Spieth.
At 7,209 yards, Colonial is a tight, old-fashioned par 70 with numerous doglegs and tight fairways.
It’s a shot-maker’s course, a track that demands fine positional play and a good imagination.
With only two par fives, one a 635-yard monster, it’s finesse over power this week.
Kevin Na holed everything to scoot home by four two years ago. He has won since at Waialae and finished in the top 12 at the Masters and the WGC Workday, both in far stronger fields than this.
He is no bomber, nor were recent previous winners Justin Rose, Kevin Kisner, Spieth, Chris Kirk and Boo Weekley. All are good thinkers though.
Not the most consistent by any means, Na can be lethal on a shorter course he likes.
He was fourth the year before he blew them all away.
Rose shared eighth spot with Morikawa and a bunch of others at Kiawah on Sunday, the third sign along with his seventh at Augusta and runner-up berth in Saudi that has emerged from a long dry spell.
Third place at Colonial last year was an oasis of success in a desert of missed cuts.
Spieth didn’t have his magical putter with him for the first two rounds at Kiawah, languishing way down the chart he habitually dominates, hence never a factor in finishing 30th.
Usually it is the driver that lets him down but that area is much improved as it will need to be on these tree-lined fairways.
Judge him more on the preceding four top-fives and a home-State victory in Texas.
He’s back in the Lone Star State now with a Colonial record to be proud of.
Winner in 2016 and runner-up either side of it, he even managed a top-ten last year when his game was far from shipshape and good results were hard to come by.
Thomas shared tenth spot with his pal Spieth here a year ago but he is not playing like the world No. 2 at the moment.
The Players champion has hit a sticky patch but, even so, the missed cut at Kiawah came as a shock.
Cases can be made for Abraham Ancer, whose Sunday 65 was the lowest of the week at Kiawah and lifted him into the top ten, and Patrick Reed, seventh last year only two shots off the winner and top-20 at the PGA.
Texan Ryan Palmer has a decent Colonial record and this 44-year-old will be inspired by Mickelson cracking the age barrier.
The same goes for a few other over-40s like Sergio Garcia, Jason Dufner and Rory Sabbatini.
Sergio won here 20 years ago - how time flies - while Sabbatini wore the Tartan Jacket in 2007.
Dufner didn’t quite do it in 2014, going down to Adam Scott in a play-off, but has now and again suggested he is not yesterday’s man just yet.
Check out how the GM Tipster is getting on this year on our Golf Betting Tips homepage.
Charles Schwab Challenge Golf Betting Tips 2021 - advised bets
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