For the first time since the 1940s, the PGA TOUR is visiting Asheville, North Carolina. This week’s event is a brand-new tournament with a new sponsor on a course that hasn’t ever hosted a PGA TOUR stop. This will be the first year of a four-year agreement, so it’s a course and setting to get used to for the next few years. This week should be an exciting debut event, which also serves as the first tournament in the FedExCup Fall. Even though most of the big names are not playing, there is plenty at stake this week in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so let’s look at the many available options and pinpoint a few of my best bets for Round 1 of the Biltmore Championship Asheville from DraftKings Sportsbook.
The 132 players in the field will tee off in typical groups of three from both the first and 10th tee this week. The earliest groups start at 7:20 a.m. ET, with the later wave getting underway at 12:10 p.m. ET and continuing through 2:00 p.m. ET. There doesn’t seem to be a distinct wave advantage. It will be very warm and humid, so getting out early could help, although an afternoon thunderstorm could mix things up. With a new course and unknown weather impact, it’s best to stick with strong and steady producers rather than relying on potential course fit.
In this post, we’ll focus on my three best bets for Round 1 of the Biltmore Championship Asheville on Thursday, September 17.
Doug Ghim End of Round 1 – Top 20 Finish (+198)
Even though Ghim usually isn’t one of the favorites in a full-field PGA TOUR event, he is this week since the field is missing so many big names. He is tied for the fourth-shortest odds to win the event and also has the fourth-shortest odds to finish in the top 20 for the entire event. In Round 1, getting him at almost 2:1 odds for a top-20 finish for the round seems like good value, especially since he’s coming in with some momentum.
Ghim is coming off back-to-back top-20 finishes at the Rocket Classic and the Wyndham Championship just before the playoffs. He didn’t make the playoffs, finishing at No. 93 in the FedExCup Standings, but he has a good chance to get his full-time membership and exemption if he plays well this fall since the top 100 will earn full-time membership for 2027, which will be a critical year for the revamped schedule coming soon.
Over the last six months, Ghim is second in the entire field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and he is also in the top five in Total Strokes Gained and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee over that span. His inconsistent putting is really the only area of his game that has held him back from a breakthrough win.
He has posted six top-25 finishes in his 18 events on the season, highlighted by a pair of T-6 finishes at the John Deere Classic and the Zurich Classic. He is one of my favorite DFS options for the week, and he also makes a lot of sense as a best bet for Round 1 of the Biltmore Championship.
Ghim tees off at 1:27 p.m. ET alongside Cameron Champ and Lanto Griffin.
Ben Kohles Over 4.5 Birdies or Better – Round 1 (+100)
The par-71 layout of The Cliffs at Walnut Cove is a little unique in that it still has four par-5 holes, five par-3 holes, and nine par-4 holes. Those par-5 holes will be especially important for Kohles as he tries to collect five birdies to deliver on this plus-money prop.
Kohles comes into the Biltmore Championship on a nice run since finding his groove in the late spring. He has split time between the PGA TOUR and the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026, where he won the BMW Charity Pro-Am Presented by TD SYNNEX by four strokes in June. Between the two sets of events, he has posted 11 top-30 finishes in his last 12 tournaments.
On the Korn Ferry Tour, he played three events since the Wyndham Championship, making the cut in each event and posting top-30 finishes at the AdventHealth Championship and the Simmons Bank Open in his last two events. He is 17th on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, with the top 20 securing a full-time PGA TOUR membership for next season, and he’s also currently No. 96 in the FedExCup Standings, with the top 100 at the end of the FedExCup Fall earning full-time membership as well.
Over the last six months, Kohles is fifth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and eighth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. His accuracy and solid tee-to-green game make him a good fit for a wide variety of courses, which sets the 36-year-old up for more success this week in the Biltmore Championship.
Davis Chatfield (+198) over Zecheng Dou and Hayden Springer – 3 Ball – Round 1
If you’ve followed my Round 1 picks this season, you know how much I love a good 3-ball matchup bet to close out the day. It’s a great way to get favorable odds without having to defeat the entire field–just the two other players in the group. It also eliminates any weather issues, since the three are playing at the same time if they’re in the same group.
Chatfield is a long shot in this trio as he plays alongside Dou and Springer at 1:38 p.m. ET. His odds at almost 2:1 are extremely favorable, though, especially given how well he has been playing recently.
Earlier this season, Chatfield missed six straight cuts in individual events, but he has made the cut and posted a top-35 finish in five of his last six events. He posted his only top-10 finish of the year with a T-5 at the ISCO Championship, and he is coming off a T-16 at the 3M Open and a T-25 at the Wyndham Championship in his most recent tournament. Over the last three months, Chatfield leads the entire field in Driving Accuracy and ranks sixth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. That skill set should play well at this venue, giving him a good chance to stay hot.
Dou missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship in his last start and has missed the cut in three of his last five events. He did post a T-21 at the John Deere Classic and a T-16 at the 3M Open, but his form hasn’t been as consistent as Chatfield’s, and he has lost strokes on approach in five straight events and seven of his last eight.
Springer has also been inconsistent over the last few months, missing the cut in six of his last nine PGA TOUR events. He did pop with a T-3 at the 2026 Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation just last week, so he does have some momentum from that.
All three players in this group are looking for a big FedExCup Fall to move into the top 100 in the standings, and of the three, I like Chatfield to get off to the best start at the Biltmore Championship because of his recent form and versatile, consistent play since turning the corner in the middle of this season.
