The PGA TOUR is back in Texas for this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club. This historic event draws a solid field even though it falls between last week’s PGA Championship and next week’s signature event at The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. The Colonial Country Club is typically a difficult, technical track and usually results in a great week of drama for fantasy golf. It should be a fun week to build your bankroll using this week’s fantasy golf cash games! My top picks for cash contests this week are Scottie Scheffler ($13,700), Alex Smalley ($7,700) and Sami Valimaki ($6,900).
Make sure to also check out my top three pivot plays for tournament lineups at the Charles Schwab Challenge in a companion piece to this post. The pivot plays for tournament lineups are more aggressive, while these three picks are generally less aggressive picks with higher floors and lower risk. The picks in this post usually have much higher ownerships than the pivot plays, but they still make good plays in contests where your lineup being unique is less important. Think of cash game picks as laying back and playing a par 5 as it was designed with three shots before reaching the green, looking for a solid birdie. Tournament picks are doing driver off the deck to try to reach the green in two—more reward if it works, but much more risk as well.
Just to be sure we’re all using the same terms, “cash games” are contests that pay out to about the top half of entries. Typically, they are in the 50/50s & Double Ups or Head-to-Head sections of the DraftKings lobby. In this format, it’s important to minimize risk and raise the floor of your entry rather than focusing too much on the ceiling.
With those ground rules set up, let’s dive deeper into my top three fantasy golf cash game plays for this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Scottie Scheffler ($13,700)
After winning each of his last two starts, Scottie’s ownership will be very high for this “home game” in Fort Worth at Colonial. However, he brings so much win equity and such a high floor that he’s worth paying up for in almost all formats, especially in cash games.
He dominated THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson three weeks ago with a runaway win at TPC Craig Ranch and returned after a week off for last week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. He pulled away over the weekend to claim his third career major championship last week, but he has proven in the past that he can go on dominant winning streaks and follow up his majors with a victory the following week.
Even when he doesn’t win, he seems to always be near the top of the leaderboard with seven top-10 finishes in his 10 events in 2025, with no finish worse than T-25. Over the last 24 rounds, he leads the field in Total Strokes Gained, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Strokes Gained: Approach. On this course, Scheffler has finished in the top-three each of the last three seasons but has never claimed a victory.
Even if he doesn’t win, he has a high enough floor to be worth spending up to include him. He’ll stretch your salary thin at other spots, but he’s just too hot to pass up right now.
Alex Smalley ($7,700)
Smalley is a strong play this week due to the layout at Colonial that emphasizes accuracy and short game over length off the tee. He has a good history on this track, finishing T-27 and T-40 after making the cut in two of the last three seasons before withdrawing last year due to illness after Round 1.
He got off to a strong start to the season with a T-16 at the Sony Open on a shorter, technical track that plays similar to Colonial. Counting that result, he has made the cut in 10 of his 15 events this season with seven top-25 finishes. He missed the cut in four of five events after his T-14 at THE PLAYERS Championship, but seemed to find his groove again with a T-39 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. Smalley kept rolling with a T-5 at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic and a made cut for a T-28 at the PGA Championship last week.
Over the last 50 rounds, Smalley ranks fourth in the entire field in both Total Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He also ranks third in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green over that span, and that skillset should show well at Colonial.
If he’s at the top of his game, he can contend for his first PGA TOUR victory this week, but if not, he still has a high enough floor to be a good play for cash games at this salary under $8,000.
Sami Valimaki ($6,900)
Valimaki missed the cut at the PGA Championship last week, but he was on an impressive roll before that and makes a great value play this week.
The 26-year-old from Finland posted four top-20 finishes in five events before that, making the cut at all three Texas events with a solo fourth at the Texas Children’s Houston Open starting the run at the end of March. He added another top-10 finish with a T-7 at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic just before last week’s missed cut.
Over the last 24 rounds, Valimaki ranks seventh in the field in Total Strokes Gained and fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. Strokes Gained: Approach is king at Colonial, and Valimaki has proven he can contend when he’s at the top of his game with five top-25 finishes in 14 events this season.
Valimaki missed the cut in his only previous trip to Colonial, but his recent form is enough to still give him the nod over the other cheap plays on this slate, most of whom have little to no experience at this track at all and much shakier recent form.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR Single Entry $25 Double Up
