The PGA Tour pulls into Fort Worth this week for one of its most loved stops on the calendar. The 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge runs May 25–31 at Colonial Country Club, the only PGA Tour venue that has hosted the same event in the same place every year since the tournament was founded — 80 years of continuous golf. This year it is also the first post-major event of the season, with players regrouping after Aaron Rai’s landmark PGA Championship victory at Aronimink last weekend.
Last year, Ben Griffin claimed his maiden individual PGA Tour title here, edging Matti Schmid by a shot at 12-under par. Twelve months on, Griffin returns as defending champion with a top-10 FedExCup position and a swing of momentum that he will be looking to convert into a successful Colonial defense. The mix of a venerable course, a strong field, and a milestone anniversary makes this one of the most intriguing weeks of the regular season.
Why Colonial Still Matters
The Charles Schwab Challenge is the longest-running PGA Tour event held continuously at one venue. Colonial Country Club has hosted the tournament every spring since 1946 — first as the Colonial National Invitation Tournament, then under various title sponsors, and today as the Charles Schwab Challenge. The 80th edition of the event in 2026 cements its place in the modern Tour calendar as a beloved "ball-striker’s course" where length matters less than precision.
At a modest 7,209 yards and par 70, Colonial is shorter than most modern Tour venues. The signature stretch known as the "Horrible Horseshoe" — the par-4 third, par-3 fourth, and brutal par-4 fifth — has tested every great player since Ben Hogan. Hogan, who won the tournament a record five times, is so synonymous with Colonial that the trophy bears his name and the property still feels built around his legacy.
That history matters because Colonial rewards the kind of golf that gets lost on bombers’ tracks: tight fairways, demanding approach shots into small bentgrass greens, and second-shot creativity. Drivers come out of the bag less often. The leaderboard typically features tour veterans, world-class iron players, and short-game artists rather than long-knockers.
Ben Griffin: From Loan Officer To Tour Champion
Ben Griffin’s win at the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge was one of the better feel-good moments of the season. Griffin’s story is well known by now: he left professional golf in 2021 to work as a loan officer in North Carolina before getting back on tour through the Korn Ferry ranks. His Colonial win was his second on Tour after a team victory at the Zurich Classic with Andrew Novak earlier that month, but his first individual title.
The win was built on scrambling — Griffin ranked first in the field that week in strokes gained around the green — and on holding nerve in a final round he started in front. He closed in 1-over 71 at 12-under total, just enough to hold off Schmid’s late charge. That style of play is well suited to Colonial: position over power, recovery over raw distance, patience over force.
Twelve months on, Griffin is no longer a feel-good story but an established Tour player with serious FedExCup standing. Whether his form translates against this stronger field is one of the biggest questions of the week.
The 2026 Field And Storylines To Watch
Coming directly off the PGA Championship, the Charles Schwab Challenge consistently draws a strong mix of major contenders looking to keep momentum going and players sharpening up before the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in mid-June. Past champions including Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, and Emiliano Grillo are typically among the headline commitments.
For 2026, the storylines stack up nicely. Scheffler, who has lived in Texas for years, has unfinished business at Colonial after his close calls in recent editions. Aaron Rai will arrive fresh off his Wanamaker Trophy win — Colonial’s precision-first setup suits Rai’s metronomic ball-striking and his unusual two-glove, seven-year-old TaylorMade M6 driver setup. Jon Rahm, who tied for second at Aronimink, is another name to watch as he chases his second Charles Schwab title.
Beyond the established names, watch for first-time winners trying to break through on a venue that has historically rewarded breakouts. Matti Schmid’s near miss in 2025 still resonates, and players like Cam Young — currently exempt from the new ball rollback testing thanks to a lower-spin Pro V1x configuration — will be looking to leverage their precision into a maiden Tour win.
What Makes The Colonial Test Unique
Most weeks on Tour, length off the tee is the single biggest predictor of finishing position. Colonial is one of the rare exceptions. Look back at recent Charles Schwab Challenge winners and you find Justin Rose, Daniel Berger, Jason Kokrak, Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Davis Riley, and Ben Griffin — none of them prototypical bombers. What links them is some combination of approach-shot accuracy, wedge play, and putting touch on Colonial’s firm and fast greens.
For weekend players watching this week, that’s the practical takeaway: Colonial is the closest thing the PGA Tour offers to a course most amateurs actually play. Tight, tree-lined fairways. Approach shots from awkward yardages. Small greens that demand creativity around them. If you want to learn from this week’s broadcast, watch what the pros do with mid-irons from 150 to 180 yards out, and watch their wedge play from 80 to 100 yards. Those are the shots that decide a Colonial Sunday — and they’re the same shots that decide most amateur rounds.
The Plaid Jacket, The Wall Of Champions, And The 80th Edition
One of the great traditions of the Charles Schwab Challenge is the awarding of the Leonard Trophy and the iconic plaid jacket presented to the winner. Every champion since 1946 is also added to Colonial’s Wall of Champions on the clubhouse side of the 18th green — a literal marker of the tournament’s 80-year continuity. Ben Griffin’s plaque was unveiled in 2025; this Sunday a new name will join the list, or Griffin will become only the second player after Hogan to win in consecutive years at Colonial since 1947.
The 80th anniversary brings additional fanfare. The tournament has been refining a multi-decade tradition while modernizing its operations — bigger fan zones, expanded charitable giving (the event has now raised well over $200 million for charity in its history), and a stronger broadcast presence as the PGA Tour’s spring stretch heads toward the second major of the year.
How To Watch The 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
Tournament rounds run Thursday May 28 through Sunday May 31, with featured-group and featured-hole coverage available on ESPN+ and main broadcast windows on Golf Channel and CBS. Pro-am and practice round coverage typically picks up midweek on the tournament’s official platforms. The 156-player field plays 18 holes for two rounds, with a 36-hole cut to the top 65 and ties, followed by the weekend rounds for the win.
What This Means For The Rest Of The Season
Colonial sits at an inflection point in the PGA Tour calendar. The PGA Championship is over. The Memorial and the U.S. Open are coming. For players outside the top 30 of the FedExCup, the next month is decisive — a window where moving up before the summer signature events becomes much harder. Expect a hungry field in Fort Worth, plenty of players using the week as a tune-up for Shinnecock Hills, and a setup that rewards patience and precision over raw athleticism.
For Ben Griffin, the week is a chance to validate the breakout — to turn one win into a body of work. For the rest of the field, Colonial offers what has been true for 80 years: a tournament that has never moved, on a course that has never been brought to its knees, with a list of champions that reads like a short history of American golf. The plaid jacket is up for grabs again, and on its 80th edition, the Charles Schwab Challenge has lost none of its weight.
