Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gaming tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. An experienced golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read their picks below for the 2026 Austin Championship, which gets underway on Thursday.
The encore was a success. Can we now make it three weeks in a row?
Mexico was very kind to us, meet Andrew Novak at Vidanta Vallarta and Blades Brown last week in Los Cabos — but now we venture into parts unknown as the Tour returns to the United States at the Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas for the Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions.
U Course of Canyons it’s a Tom Fazio design and a new one on Tour that we’ve never seen before. The golf course opened in 1999 and was redesigned by Fazio again in 2022 to prepare for the standards of the modern Tour. We know it’s a par 72 and stretches over 7,400 yards. The course features a large amount of slope and elevation variation from tee to green. The fairways are very wide and there really isn’t much rough to speak of. The property is Bermudagrass wall to wall and being in the middle of November, that Bermudagrass is terribly close to its winter sleep, so thick, ugly, lush rough will not be the case – but there has been a lot of rain in the area, which we expect will make the track play long and soft.
Without having any tournament history, I have to rely on some basics like Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. Most of the Par 4s are about 450 yards or longer and three of the four Par 3s are over 200 yards, so I looked at Hole Proximity from 150 yards to 200 yards plus. I also leaned heavily on Scrambling and took into account Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass).
The weather looks like it will be very pleasant in Austin with temperatures in the high 70s and little wind, so I expect birdies as well.
As for related courses, these are just educated guesses based on course layout, features and location. I used Vidanta Vallarta, where they played the Mexican Open, and TPC Summerlinthe former home of the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. I also used a couple of tracks from Texas, TPC San Antonio (Valero Texas Open) and Memorial Parkwhere they play the Houston Open.
Brian Harman (33-1)
Harman was the first name that jumped off the page with his win last season at TPC San Antonio and his 2017 win at Eagle Point Golf Club in North Carolina. Eagle Point was used instead of Quail Hollow that season for the Wells Fargo Championship. It is a Fazio design and shares many of the same classic Fazio design elements as the Barton Creek. Harman is a wonderful scrambler and putter and thrives on a Bermudagrass surface. I’ll take a stab at one of the most successful and best players in this field, who also seems to have some sense on this golf course.
Zach Bauchou (40-1)
The young American has been playing solid golf this season and in Cabo San Lucas last week, he ranked ninth in that field for SG: Approach for the week, 14th in Driving Distance, and 18th in Scrambling. Bauchou recorded a top-10 finish a month ago at the Baycurrent Classic and also performed first this season at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, also located in the Lone Star State. Over the past 20 rounds, he ranks 10th in this field for Birdie or Better Percentage and is eighth for Hole Proximity from 200+ yards.
Johnny Keefer (40-1)
Keefer missed the cut in both events in Mexico, but was seventh and tenth just weeks earlier in Asheville and the Black Desert in Utah. He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and evidently has an affinity for golf in the area with a third-place finish earlier this season at Memorial Park in Houston and a second-place finish at the Byron Nelson. Keefer is especially long off the tee, ranked 11th in this field for SG: Off the Tee in the last 20 rounds. He is 10th and 12th in this field for Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards and 200+ yards, respectively.
David Ford (42-1)
I tried the Tar Heel from UNC a few weeks ago and I’m going to ride that horse again here in Austin after finishing fifth last week at El Cardonal. Ford finished third five weeks ago in Utah and is the top seed in this field for SG: Off the Tee over the last 20 rounds. He is fourth in Scrambling – and to top it off, he was a winner in Texas during his college years at Colonial Country Club.
Ben Kohls (45-1)
Kohles was born in Dallas and hasn’t missed a cut on Tour in five months. In that span, he made 12 starts and never once finished worse than 29th. In the last 20 rounds, Kohles ranks 13th in this field for SG: Off the Tee, 10th for SG: Approach, sixth in Scrambling, and eighth in Birdie or Better Percentage. It might be time for BK to find the winner’s circle.
