After Thursday’s first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, the field was looking up at John Pak ($6,000; 62 FPTS), who blistered the course with a -7 (63).
Two golfers on Friday replicated the -7 (63) and are now tied for the lead heading into the weekend: Ben Griffin ($8,700; 81.5 FPTS) and Matti Schmid ($6,700; 85 FPTS). Both Griffin and Schmid shot -4 (66) on Thursday.
Friday started off well for Griffin, as he birdied the first two holes of the round. He added another birdie to close out the front nine. On the back nine, Griffin birdied the first three holes before giving a stroke back with a bogey on Hole 5. He closed out the round with two birdies in the final three holes.
Schmid also birdied the first two holes on Friday. He added two more birdies on the front nine. Schmid again birdied the first two holes on the back nine. He added another birdie four holes later and finished the round unblemished.
DraftKings Sportsbook has Griffin has the favorite to win it all at +210 and -750 to finish in the Top 10. Schmid is right behind at +400 and -350 to finish Top 10.
In the $700K Summer Sand Trap tournament, Griffin is rostered on 7.05% of teams while Schmid is on 2.03%
As for Pak, after Thursday’s -7 63, he finished Friday’s round -2 (68). He birdied the first hole of the day, but closed out the front nine by going bogey, birdie, birdie. On the back nine, he birdied the second hole, but had two bogeys on Holes 14 and 15 before closing out the round with a birdie on Hole 18.
Pak is rostered on only 0.22% of teams.
DraftKings Sportsbook had Pak at +2500 to win it all, the fifth-lowest odds, after Thursday’s round, and +180 to finish Top 10. He is now +2200 to win it all and +105 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%.
Scheffler went -2 (68) on Thursday. He followed that up with a +1 (71) on Friday. Scheffler racked up two bogeys on the front nine. He got those back with two birdies on the back nine but then bogeyed the final hole of the round. He made the cut by one stroke.
Scheffler was the favorite to win it all at +300 after Thursday. He is now +2800 and +125 to finish Top 10.
Here are the golfers rostered on at least 10% of teams that missed the cut (E):
Daniel Berger ($9,900; 25 FPTS) is rostered on 18.34% of teams, the second-most. Berger finished +2 (72) on Thursday. While he improved with an even-par on Friday, he missed the cut by two strokes. Berger racked up two bogeys and a birdie on the front nine. On the back nine, he had two birdies and a bogey. Berger was +15000 to win it all and +750 to finish top-10 after Thursday.
Alex Smalley ($7,700; 24 FPTS) is rostered on 12.03% of teams. Smalley finished +2 (72) on Thursday and went even-par (70)on Friday. He also missed the cut by two strokes. The day began promising with a birdie on the first hole of the day. Then it was crickets outside of a bogey on the back nine. Smalley was +60000 to win it all and +2000 to finish Top 10 after Thursday.
Aaron Rai ($9,100; 23 FPTS) is rostered on 16.99% of teams. He shot an even-par (70) on Thursday then went +1 (71) on Friday to miss the cut by one stroke. It was an eventful round on Friday for Rai, as he racked up two bogeys and two birdies on the front nine before notching two bogeys and a birdie on the back nine.
