2024 Charles Schwab Challenge PrizePicks: First-Round Plays for Thursday

Here's everything you need to know about the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge PrizePicks: First-round plays for Thursday's PGA Tour event in Fort Worth, Texas.

With the PGA Championship in the rear-view mirror, we now look forward to this week's 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge. Colonial Country Club hosts once again, which it has done annually since 1946.

Colonial is a par-70, 7,289-yard track designed by John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell that underwent a renovation following last season's event led by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner.

Find my 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge PrizePicks for Thursday below.

2024 Charles Schwab Challenge PrizePicks

Justin Rose is the first golfer to target on Thursday. Rose is coming off his best performance of the season with his sixth-place finish at last week's PGA Championship.

So, the question is, can he carry that momentum into Texas this week? I believe he absolutely can, especially considering that he won this event at Colonial in 2018.

Rose has followed up that victory with four made cuts over his past five appearances at Colonial, boasting three top-20 finishes over that stretch. Mix in the course history with his performance last week at Valhalla, and we should expect another fine week from Rose.

Furthermore, he ranks above the Tour average in birdies per round this season at 3.95.

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I wrote about Max Homa in my FRL article this week, and if I like him to lead after the first round, then I obviously also like him to record four birdies or better in the process. Homa enters this event in great form, making the weekend in 19 of his past 20 tournaments, including 12 top-15 finishes over that stretch.

He has also improved his play at Colonial year-over-year, finishing 23rd in 2022 and ninth last season. Speaking of which, Homa has now recorded four birdies or better in three of his past four rounds at Colonial.

There really has not been a flaw in Homa's bag over the past month, other than his driver battling some inconsistency. With that said, Colonial is a course where the importance of the driver has historically been minimized relative to strong putting and approach play, two areas he is very strong in.

This PrizePicks square is arguably the squarest (sorry, had to) play you can make this week, but I am going to take the bait. Scottie Scheffler is quite simply the best golfer in the world and the class of this field.

Scheffler has now won four of his past six tournaments while also finishing inside the top 10 in the two he didn't win. That includes his tie for eighth at last week's PGA Championship, a finish that weighed down by his worst round of the season when he went two-over par on Saturday as he competed without his usual caddie, Ted Scott, on the bag.

He rebounded with a 65 on Sunday, which was tied for the fourth-lowest round of the day. Therefore, I am not worried about that hiccup entering this week, especially in his home state of Texas at a course where he has finished in the top three each of the past two years.

Subsequently, he has shot 67 or lower in three of his past four rounds at Colonial. Meanwhile, Scheffler has shot 67 or lower in five of his past seven rounds.