Charles Schwab Challenge Power Rankings

The PGA Tour remains in Texas for another week for the Charles Schwab Challenge from Colonial Country Club.

While Colonial is typically one of the sterner tests on the PGA Tour, the course won’t be the only test players face this week, with the temperatures set to clear 30C throughout the week, though the early forecast suggests the typical Texas breeze might be absent.

A par-70, 7,289-yard layout, the multiple dog legs and narrow fairways force players to club down off the tee, with driver often staying in the bag.

Golfers will be forced to plot their way around, and Colonial is extremely hard to overpower; more than half of approach shots will come from the 125-200-yard range, testing short- and mid-iron skills.

Owing to the course’s length and the small greens, scrambling skills will be required, though the lowered greens shouldn’t make getting up and down overly taxing following its 2024 renovation.

With a weakened field ahead of next week’s Memorial Tournament, JJ Spaun is the only representative within the OWGR’s top 10, though the likes of Ludvig Aberg, Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre and Justin Thomas will all tee it up.

Take a look at our Power Rankings for this week's Charles Schwab Challenge.

5 - Wyndham Clark

For the first time since his 2023 US Open win, Wyndham Clark won a four-round tournament at last week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, doing so in style.

Clark’s scintillating 11-under-par round of 60 on Sunday saw him finish three shots clear of Si-woo Kim and five shots clear of Scottie Scheffler.

Clark had a really disappointing 2025 and struggled through the first three months of 2026 largely owing to a stone-cold putter.

But the flat stick has shown some life in recent weeks and the 32-year-old ranked first on the greens enroute to victory, while his improved iron play held up nicely at TPC Craig Ranch.

Clark has never really shown any form at Colonial, but will be brimming with confidence after last week’s display.

4 - JJ Spaun

After a breakout season in 2025 in which he won a first major, there was plenty of intrigue as to how JJ Spaun would fare in 2026.

A drop-off wouldn’t have been particularly surprising, and so it’s transpired; Spaun missed four cuts in his first seven appearances before winning the Valero Texas Open.

Most of Spaun’s woes this season have been on the greens, where he’s gained strokes in just three out of 13 appearances in 2026, but his iron play has been largely excellent.

Spaun’s prior outing saw him miss the cut by two after a poor second round, but prior to that he was T25-T14-T5 at the RBC Heritage, Cadillac Championship and Truist Championship – three Signature Events that boast much deeper fields than he’ll face this week.

Colonial calls more for accuracy than distance, and it should suit Spaun’s game nicely. The 35-year-old has made six previous appearances in Fort Worth, and was T6 last year.

3 - Justin Thomas

It’s not easy to assess exactly where Justin Thomas is at the moment, but the recent signs are promising.

After battling injury that saw him miss the first two months of the season, Thomas finished dead last at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before bouncing back well at the Players the following week, finishing T8.

More recently, Thomas has improved in each of his last three starts, finishing T23-13-T4 at the Cadillac Championship, Truist Championship and PGA Championship respectively.

His ball-striking might not quite be where he wants it, but there’s enough in Thomas’s game to give him the belief he can compete.

Not a frequent attendee of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Thomas’s last appearance in Fort Worth was back in 2022, but he does have a T10 (having been one off the lead going into the final round) from 2020.

The tendency for players to club down off the tee should play into Thomas’s hands, and with Colonial calling for plenty of wedges, it’s another big tick in Thomas’s box.

2 - Russell Henley

There’s been a rather underwhelming dip in Russell Henley’s form since his briefly threatened the lead in the final round of the Masters en route to a T3 finish. Henley was T25 at the RBC Heritage at a course that suits him well, before finishing T49-MC at the Cadillac Championship and PGA Championship.

It could be argued that Quail Hollow and Aronimink weren’t quite to Henley’s liking, but there’ll be no excuse at Colonial where he was T16 in 2023.

Henley remains one of the best wedge players in the game, and if he can return to the form he’s shown over the last 18 months, it’s hard to see him not being there or thereabouts.

1 - Ludvig Aberg

If you’ve finished above Ludvig Aberg in a recent tournament, you’ve received a healthy boost to your bank balance and you might event have some silverware to your name.

Aberg’s last seven outings have seen him finish T3-T5-T5-T21-T4-T8-T4. The T21 was a disappointing showing at the Masters, but only one of the other six was a regular PGA Tour event. The Swede is largely appearing with the world’s best and beating most of them every time he pegs it up.

He had a glimpse at the PGA Championship but again came up just short and that’s the only real criticism of Aberg right now. He’ll wonder how he’s not won an event this year having had the Players Championship in the palm of his hands, shot an opening 63 at Harbour Town and been in the lead on Sunday at the Valero Texas Open.

Colonial is a proper tee-to-green test, and unsurprisingly, Aberg ranks first in the field for SG:T2G across the last eight tournaments as per Golf Betting System.

Debutants don’t have the best record in the Charles Schwab Challenge and this is Aberg’s first appearance, but players with a good record at TPC Deere Run have often performed well at Colonial, and Aberg’s only appearance at Deere Run saw him finish T4 in 2023.

Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.