A marathon day at Colonial Country Club ended with half a dozen names atop the leaderboard following the first round of action at the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge. A weather delay that stretched over two hours long pushed play to the brink of darkness with Lee Hodges holding the solo lead before a bogey on his last brought five other names into the equation.
The one-time PGA Tour winner's long day of work resulted in a 6-under 64 that put him in lockstep with J.J. Spaun, Matt McCarty, Ryan Gerard, Andrew Putnam and Tom Kim, who is beginning to find some form. The still 23-year-old captured his first top-10 finish of the season at the Myrtle Beach Classic earlier this month and has continued to make in roads towards the player that claimed three early victories in his career.
"Working on a few things, new swing coach, and just kind of getting back to the things that I've done so well," Kim said. "It's kind of nice, I've worked really hard on fundamentals. That's kind of what I've been working on.
"It's nice to not be able to change so much but be able to make some tweaks where I felt like…I wanted to get better at and the little things that are just kind of combining, and I haven't really changed much with my golf swing, but the little things that I've changed has allowed me to start hitting it better. I would say the confidence out there is getting a lot higher, too, which is nice."
More than half the field finds themselves within five strokes of Hodges' total after 18 holes of play as soft conditions due to early-week rains allowed players to pin their ears back around a historically difficult Colonial. The Round 1 scoring average came in at a shade under 69.00 with U.S. Open winners Spaun and Gary Woodland among those to cause some damage.
Spaun's 64 clipped Woodland's tally by a single stroke as the two Americans played alongside Swedish superstar Ludvig Åberg who came in with a respectable 66 of his own. At 4 under, Åberg spearheads a logjam of players that includes seasoned winners like Max Homa, Russell Henley, Nico Echavarria and Hideki Matsuyama.
Two-time major champion Justin Thomas got his tournament off in less-than-ideal fashion with two straight bogeys out of the blocks, but he battled back tough to get into red figures with a 69, while his good friend Rickie Fowler will have work to do to make the cut after an opening 70.
The leaders
T1. Lee Hodges, Ryan Gerard, Tom Kim, Andrew Putnam, J.J. Spaun, Matt McCarty (-6):
Hodges rolled in a birdie from 28 feet just as the horn sounded for the weather delay, but he wasn't done yet. Returning to finish his round after two hours, he tacked on two more birdies, played the Horrible Horseshoe (Nos. 3-5) in 2 under and sprinted through the finish line to the top of the leaderboard.
On the day, he made more than 100 feet worth of putts, while hitting 10 greens in regulation in a row during the meat of his round. Making this more impressive is that he closed his round on the front nine in 4 under -- the side that played slightly more difficult on Thursday.
It's a great start for Hodges and one that is desperately needed. He is without a top-10 finish since the opening event of the 2026 season and finds himself No. 117 in the season-long race, one year after narrowly failing to earn his full-time status.
Other contenders
T7. Alex Smalley, Ricky Castillo, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman, Kevin Yu, Jordan Smith, Luke Clanton, Doug Ghim, Erik van Rooyen, Gary Woodland, Billy Horschel (-5)
For the fifth straight round dating back to the PGA Championship, Smalley finds his name on the first page of the leaderboard. While he was the 18-, 36- and 54-hole leader at Aronimink before settling for a runner-up result, the Duke graduate started his Charles Schwab Challenge just outside of pole position with hopes of finally capturing his first PGA Tour title.
His continuous run of top-tier golf has included five straight top 20s, a pair of runner-up finishes and another top 10 sprinkled in. Unlike at Aronimink, where Smalley's putter carried the load, it was his ball striking that was superb on Thursday as he split 10 fairways, hit 15 greens in regulation while making zero putts outside 15 feet. All of this added up to five birdies, zero bogeys and another opportunity to position himself for a weekend run.
"Everybody wishes to get off to a good start," Smalley said. "I realize that that's probably not going to happen every single first round that I'm going to play for the rest of my career -- hopefully it does. But, yeah, just I felt like the first few holes I had some chances, just made some pars.
"I knew it was playing relatively easy so I just tried to stay patient and was able to get a couple the last few holes on the back nine. I mean, always getting off to a good start is good, but you still have to keep pushing forward, you can't let off the gas once you do get off to a good start."
The blade brigade loses another
Only two players inside the top 20 in the Official World Golf Rankings use a blade putter. Matt Fitzpatrick and Matsuyama continue to lead the resistance, however their efforts received a mighty blow at Colonial as one of their fellow soldiers decided to jump enemy lines.
Ludvig Åberg went from a blade model to a new Scotty Cameron Phantom 3. For as well as Åberg has been playing this season, the one area where he has fallen relatively short has been on the greens. This has materialized in final rounds and is perhaps the missing piece in his quest to re-enter the winner's circle.
On Thursday, the Swede fired a round of 4 under in large part because of the new putter. Åberg gained more than two strokes on the field with the putter in hand (15th in SG: putting) and put seven circles on his scorecard in the process.
👀 Ludvig Åberg is using a new putter! He's playing a @ScottyCameron Phantom 3 head. First major putter switch, although he has been changing loft and heads in the Odyssey #1 style this season. Here's a Phantom 3 built for him earlier in the season https://t.co/oGrNk6p0hz pic.twitter.com/edRbpk22m4
— Alistair Cameron (@ACameronWRX) May 28, 2026
2026 Charles Schwab Challenge updated odds and picks
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
- J.J. Spaun: 15/2
- Ludvig Åberg: 17/2
- Russell Henley: 15-1
- Alex Smalley: 15-1
- Matt McCarty: 15-1
- Tom Kim: 16-1
- Gary Woodland: 20-1
- Keegan Bradley: 20-1
- Ryan Gerard: 20-1
Spaun was the selection at the onset of the week, and he did nothing wrong to sway us off our position. The reigning U.S. Open champion was sturdy from tee to green, went around Colonial without dropping a shot and still has juice to squeeze out of his rounds as he got neither of the par 5s.
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