After Thursday’s first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, the field is looking up at John Pak ($6,000; 62 FPTS), who blistered the course with a -7 (63).
The round started off in tremendous fashion, as Pak eagled the first hole of the day. He then notched another birdie to close out the front nine. On the back nine, Pak racked up four birdies to complete the unblemished round. Pak leads by three strokes heading into Friday.
Pak has played 27 PGA TOUR events. He’s made the cut in 10 and doesn’t have any top-10 finishes.
In the $700K Summer Sand Trap tournament, Pak is rostered on only 0.22% of teams.
DraftKings Sportsbook has Pak at +2500 to win it all, the fifth-lowest odds. He’s +180 to finish Top 10.
The most rostered golfer is Scottie Scheffler ($13,700; 23.5 FPTS) at a whopping 47.53%. The next-highest is Daniel Berger ($9,900; 11.5 FPTS) at 18.34%.
Like Pak, Scheffler also eagled the first hole of the day. He followed that up with a birdie on the next hole, but gave a stroke back with a bogey on Hole 3. The back nine was uneventful with a birdie and a bogey. Scheffler finished -2 (68) and is five strokes off the lead.
He is the current favorite to win it all at +300.
Here are the golfers rostered on at least 10% of teams that had a rough first round:
Si Woo Kim ($8,900; 10 FPTS) is rostered on 11.82% of teams. Kim finished Thursday +3 (73) and is 10 strokes off the lead. On the front nine, he birdied Hole 5, but then racked up a bogey and a double-bogey. On the back nine, he notched a birdie and another double-bogey. Kim is +60000 to win it all. He is +2200 to finish in the Top 10.
Alex Smalley ($7,700; 13.5 FPTS) is rostered on 12.03% of teams. Smalley finished +2 (72). The day started well with a birdie on the first hole. He gave it back with a bogey three holes later, but Smalley closed out the front nine with three more birdies. The back nine was a nightmare with three bogeys and a double-bogey. Smalley is +60000 to win it all and +2000 to finish Top 10.
Daniel Berger ($9,900; 11.5 FPTS) is rostered on 18.34% of teams, the second-most. Berger finished +2 (72) as well. He also birdied the first hole but closed out the front nine with three bogeys. Berger bounced back with a birdie on the first hole of the back nine, but then finished the round bogey, birdie and bogey. Berger is +15000 to win it all and +750 to finish top-10.
Data Golf projects an even-par cutline at 40.7%.
