It’s going to be weird for some of these players who just played a long golf course at Quail Hollow and now have to adjust this week on a short golf course at Colonial for the Charles Schwab.

Both golf courses are very different. Quail Hollow was a driver and long iron intensive test. Colonial will ask players to hit a bunch of middle irons and club down off-the-tee due to its short length and missed fairway penalty.

Over the last three years, here are the top 10 players in the field that have gained the most total strokes on short golf courses:

If I was designing the perfect golf course for Aaron Rai, it would look an awfully lot like Colonial. We were on Rai for his first PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship in August, as Sedgefield is a golf course that primarily tests accuracy off the tee and short to middle iron play. Colonial asks an incredibly similar set of questions, and Rai’s elite driving accuracy and approach play should play dividends at the old-school Perry Maxwell design as well.

Rai is also coming off a quiet 19th-place finish at Quail Hollow (a far worse golf course for him) where he ranked third in the field in approach play. His ball striking actually improved as the week went on, as Rai ranked fifth in the field in tee to green play on Sunday en route to a tidy two-under par round. I expect him to carry this momentum to Colonial next week and capture his second PGA Tour victory.

My selection in our ISN Staff OAD pool is going to be Aaron Rai. Since Andy wrote about him in his player profile, I will highlight another golfer you should be considering.

J.T. Poston is coming off his best finish at a major championship, placing T5 at the PGA Championship. Poston averaged 1.40 strokes per round on approach at Quail Hollow, which is the best he has hit his irons since the RSM Classic this past fall.

Poston fits the skillsets we are looking for at Colonial: accruacy OTT, elite recent approach play, and the ability to get hot with the putter.

Poston ranks 18th in the field distance from edge of fairway (L50 rounds), 38th in strokes gained on approach (L36 rounds), and 3rd in strokes gained on bent-grass surfaces.

Finally, Poston is quite comfortable on short golf courses, as he ranks 4th in total strokes gained on short golf courses.

Shoutout Tom & Marty’s who is Poston’s number 1 fan. Can he get it done this week? I believe he has a good shot with the way he played last week.

Okay, as everyone knows, 2025 is a Ryder Cup year. Yet not just is it a Ryder Cup year, it’s also a Ryder Cup year at Bethpage: a golf course very special to me, and even more pertinent to my ISN colleague, Brian Kirschner, who lives just a 5 iron away. In fact, Bethpage was how our friendship began. The first time we ever met, I stayed in his childhood bedroom before we woke up at 4:30 AM the following morning to tackle the Black course. 

To share my excitement about my favorite event coming home to New York, I wanted to create a monthly Ryder Cup power ranking for the next nine months leading into the event. On the first week of every month, I will track my projected team, based on who I believe is most likely and should be at Bethpage. I am now taking into account the automatic qualifiers, so if they have a Q next to their name, this means they are qualified for the team at this moment in time. Each month I will move players up and down accordingly, and it should be a fun way for everyone to track how the teams stack up as we near the September festivities. Hope you enjoy. 

*Writer’s Note: I have Keegan Bradley at 13 because he has already told us that unless he qualifies on points, he’s not picking himself. So unless Keegan qualifies, it’s a moot point to put him on the team amongst the other picks. For what it’s worth, if we were just purely ranking the best American golfers right now, I would put him at #10, right behind Jordan Spieth and ahead of Patrick Reed. 

We are done with the PGA’s second major and onto the second slam on the tennis courts - Roland-Garros.

The French Open, commonly known as Roland-Garros, is held in Paris and takes place on the renowned red clay.

What makes this year really interesting is the parity on both the ATP (mens) and WTA (womens) sides of the bracket - 128 players in each the men and women's sides. 

Over the years, you had a big three in men's tennis - Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer, and no one else really stood a chance on the men's side. 

While in the last year or two, the baton has been passed to players like Sinner and Alcaraz who are elite, the gap between them and the field is nowhere near as large as it was between the former big three and the field -- both Sinner and Alcaraz have their flaws and are beatable in a best of five set match. 

On the women's side, while Swiatek won the French Open the last three years, she is coming into this year's French Open in poor form and off multiple early round losses in the string of weeks leading up.

While Sabalenka might be the favorite, she is not known for being a natural clay tennis player, paving the way for some opportunities for chaos. 

The draw comes out on Thursday afternoon -- while we have some outstanding futures we have pulled out, we will make some additional plays once the draw is officially out.

Early dark-horse picks:

Mens

- Francisco Cerundolo 50/1 -- the clay specialist is coming into Paris in the best form of his career,  and has had an outstanding season (27-11 on the year).  If he gets the right draw, he will be tough for anyone to beat in a best of five set match on the red dirt. 

Womens

- Elina Svitolina 30/1 -- she's playing the best tennis of her life (25-8 on the year).  In her last three tournaments on clay leading up to Roland Garros, she won a title, lost in the SF and lost in the QF.  She has been to the QF four separate times in Paris and I think this is the year she gets over the hump. 

With three outrights on the year, let's add another!

It was a slow start to the 2025 season for Scottie Scheffler, who garners lofty expectations for obvious reasons. He showed some rust early in the year due to battling a hand injury that was caused by making ravioli on Christmas.

With Rory McIIroy achieving the career grand slam, along with winning at Pebble Beach and the Players, he was the biggest storyline heading into the PGA Championship. Bryson DeChambeau was second due to his recent run at the Masters and his major championship resume over the past two years.

It felt like Scottie Scheffler was coming into last week under the radar, which is crazy to even type. On Sunday, when Jon Rahm faltered on the final holes and Bryson didn’t have his best stuff, Scheffler fought through some adversity with his swing and came out on top. Scheffler showed he’s still the top dawg in professional golf.

It was evident for the second straight major championship that Bryson is struggling with his irons, especially with his distance control. There were multiple times last weekend where he came up short or airmailed a green.

Bryson has shown he has one of the highest floors in professional golf because of how good he is with his driver, his improved short game, and his steadiness with the putter. I came away more impressed with Bryson after the final round of the PGA Championship because he didn’t have his best stuff and still finished T2.

It is truly remarkable what he is doing off-the-tee with his Krank driver. Going into the US Open, Bryson will continue to be one of the biggest storylines for good reason. Oakmont should suit him well with how long and straight he is off-the-tee. Everyone will be watching if he can fix his approach game in time.

One of the biggest headlines before balls were in the air last Thursday was how vocal players were about their frustrations with Quail Hollow hosting a major championship. Here is what Justin Thomas had to say in his press conference earlier in the week:

With little missed fairway penalty as we talked at much length last week, there wasn’t much strategy for what players should do around Quail Hollow. I thought Quail Hollow played fine on TV, but I would have preferred the PGA of America rotate to a course that was more architecturally pleasing.

My biggest gripe with Quail Hollow hosting another major championship is that they already host the Wells Fargo/Truist Championship every year. Players were coming into the week already knowing how to get around the golf course. I believe a regular PGA Tour stop shouldn’t host a major championship.

The golf course that is hosting the major championship should be one of the main storylines and should be highlighted in high regard.

Congrats to our very own Andy Lack for zagging off the Bryson outright popularity and betting Scottie Scheffler to win the 2025 PGA Championship. Andy’s DFS player pool killed it, especially with Harris English finishing T2.

Shoutout to many of our insiders in the discord that had massive weeks in DFS. Let’s keep the momentum going into the Charles Schwab Challenge!