golf

Golf Glance: Sam Burns defends at Colonial; Major time for Champions

Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports

Field Level Media’s Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.

PGA TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: PGA Championship (Brooks Koepka)
THIS WEEK: Charles Schwab Challenge, Fort Worth, Texas, May 25-28
Course: Colonial Country Club (Par 70, 7,209 yards)
Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)
Defending Champion: Sam Burns
FedEx Cup leader: Jon Rahm
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
Streaming on ESPN+: Thursday-Friday, 8:15 a.m.-7 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Twitter: @CSChallengeFW
NOTES: Colonial was dubbed “Hogan’s Alley” after Ben Hogan, who won four of the first seven editions of the event. He is the only player in event history to successfully defend his title, which Hogan did twice. … Scottie Scheffler reclaimed the No. 1 world ranking with his runner-up finished at the PGA Championship. This is the third time Scheffler has risen to No. 1 in 2023, while Rahm has claimed the spot on two occasions this year. … Michael Block received a sponsor exemption after the 2022 PGA Professional of the Year finish T15 at last week’s PGA Championship. … Min Woo Lee and Ryan Fox are in the field after each earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour following last week’s major, where Lee finished T18 and Fox T23. … Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson owns the 72-hole tournament scoring record of 259 set in 2010. He’s the oldest player in the field at 47, while Akshay Bhatia is the youngest at 21 years old. … The winner of this year’s event will also receive a restored 1973 Ford Bronco.
BEST BETS: Scheffler (+400 at BetMGM) finished runner-up last year leads the PGA Tour with 10 top-10s this season and has finished no worse than T12 in his past 13 starts on tour. … Jordan Spieth (+1400) won in 2016, has finished runner-up three times and owns the lowest career event scoring average (67.75) on record. … Tony Finau (+1400) finished T4 last year. He scuffled to a T72 last week but does own a pair of titles this season. … Viktor Hovland (+1600) finished T2 along with Scheffler last week and will be making his third event start. … Max Homa (2200) has a pair of wins among his seven top-10s this season. … Burns (+2800) beat Scheffler in a playoff last year. He is coming off a missed cut last week but has a win at the Match Play among four top-10s this season.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: the Memorial Tournament, Dublin, Ohio, June 1-4

LPGA Tour
LAST TOURNAMENT: Cognizant Founders Cup (Jin Young Ko)
THIS WEEK: Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play, Las Vegas, May 24-28
Course: Shadow Creek Golf Course (Par 70, 6,804 yards)
Purse: $1.5M
Defending Champion: Eun-Hee Ji
Race to the CME Globe leader: Lydia Ko
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Wednesday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET; Thursday-Friday, 7-10 p.m.; Saturday, 5:30-8:30 p.m.; Sunday, 6:30-9:30 p.m. (All times Golf Channel)
Streaming: Sunday, 1:30-4 p.m. ET (NBC Sports App, golfchannel.com, Peacock)
Twitter: @LPGAMatchPlay
NOTES: This is the third edition of the event, and the only annual Match Play tournament on the LPGA Tour calendar. Ally Ewing won the inaugural event in 2021. … The 64-player field will be divided into 16 groups that will compete in round-robin-style competition from Wednesday-Friday. The winner of each group will advance to single-elimination play. Eight matches will be played Saturday morning, followed by four quarterfinal matches in the afternoon. The semifinals and championship match will be contested on Sunday. … Two-time major champion Brooke Henderson is the top-ranked player in the field. … Las Vegas residents Danielle Kang and Alison Lee practice out of Shadow Creek.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Mizuho Americas Open, Jersey City, N.J., June 1-4

Champions Tour
LAST TOURNAMENT: Regions Tradition (Steve Stricker)
THIS WEEK: KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, Frisco, Texas, May 25-28
Course: Fields Ranch East (Par 72, 7,193 yards)
Purse: $3.5M (Winner: TBA)
Defending Champion: Steven Alker
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Steve Stricker
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. (NBC), Sunday, 3-4 p.m. (GC), 4-6 p.m. (NBC)
Twitter: seniorpgachamp
NOTES: This is the second major of the Champions Tour season, with Fields Ranch East playing host to its first ever major. … Eight-time PGA Tour winner Stewart Cink will make his Champions debut after turning 50 on Sunday. … With last year’s victory, Alker earned a spot in last week’s PGA Championship, where he missed the cut by five shots. … The 156-player field includes seven members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. … Every winner of the event since 2014 is in this week’s field. … Jeff Sluman withdrew on Monday and was replaced in the field by PGA Professional Tim Weinhart.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Principal Charity Classic, Des Moines, Iowa, June 2-4

LIV Golf League
LAST TOURNAMENT: LIV Golf Tulsa (Individual: Dustin Johnson; Team: Stinger GC)
THIS WEEK: LIV Golf D.C., Potomac Falls, Va., May 26-28
Course: Trump National Golf Club (Par 72, 7,479 yards)
Purse: $20M Individual (Winner: $4M); $5M Team (Winner: $3M)
Twitter: @livgolf_league
Defending Champion: Inaugural event
NOTES: The event will consist of 54 holes of stroke play with a shotgun start. … Koepka is coming off winning his fifth career major title at last week’s PGA Championship. He is second in the LIV Golf player standings behind Talor Gooch, while Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC leads the team standings. … Koepka, Gooch and Johnson are the three players to have won multiple LIV events.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Valderrama, Andalucia, Spain, June 30-July 2

–Field Level Media

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