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The PGA Tour’s Fall Series has reached its penultimate stop, as we say goodbye to the international swing and return stateside. The inaugural 2026 Austin Championship at Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek is next on tap to host this week.
This will be our first look at PGA Tour competition at the newly renovated Fazio Canyons Course, and in this inaugural event, much speculation still remains as to how well this venue will withstand competition at this level. A resort course retrofitted to accommodate PGA Tour competition by pushing back tee boxes by 400 yards, I have my reservations as to what sort of test this course will truly impose on the field.
With generous fairways and large, fairly straightforward greens, I expect this to be a week where in-form ball-strikers can separate, as the 7,451-yard par-72 is not too long to rule out any trending player in this field from contending.
In this article, we’ll look for diamonds in the rough ahead of the 2026 Austin Championship.
Austin Championship Odds
Fazio Canyons Course Introduction
Fazio Canyons is Tom Fazio’s second design at Omni Barton Creek (following Fazio Foothills) and the more pristine of the two. It opened in 1999 on roughly 210 acres of Hill Country west of downtown Austin, routed along Short Springs Branch, a limestone-bed creek that winds throughout the course.
Golfweek named Canyons the No. 1 course in Texas in 2002, and following the 2022 renovation, it reclaimed its place as a top-2 course you can play in the state. For all that pedigree, it has never hosted a professional Tour event before this week, but Fazio’s 2022 restoration project launched to change that.
The 2022 restoration is the reason the Tour is here. What began as a bunker project grew into a seven-month, $5 million restoration directed by Fazio and his team, which reopened in October 2022. The course updates included new back tees added more than 400 yards, redefined corridors, rebuilt bunkers, redesigned greens, and a state-of-the-art irrigation system.
Tom Fazio built Canyons as a resort course first, playable at every level, built into a serene and inviting Austin-adjacent landscape. The Omni property marks a continuing trend of resort course hosts on the PGA Tour’s fall swing, a characteristic that tends to mean more simplistic or flat greens complexes and generous fairways.
The birdie fests should stop here, however, as Canyons’ combination of length, threatening water hazards, and angular treelines makes this more than a pure second-shot golf course. It’s not a claustrophobic course, but misfires will be penalized over the course of the week here, as accuracy and creating angles into tucked pin locations are the true game plan to score here.
Austin Championship Course Specs
For a deeper dive into the course, read my Austin Championship preview.
Austin Championship Golf DFS Picks & Longshot Bets
To identify “value” any given week on the PGA Tour, I find it’s best first to understand the consensus key stat profile. Then, take a stance on the elements of the tournament that may go overlooked. At the Austin Championship, Recent Form, SG: APP, and Comp Course History are consensus key areas factored into each player’s price.
From a golf DFS picks perspective, I will take a stance primarily on the importance of Comp Course History, SG: Ball Striking, and Approach Fit. It remains to be seen exactly for Fazio Canyons Course will stand up to PGA Tour competition, but if the scorecard yardage and course composition are any indication, it should play very similarly to other regular Texas stops on the PGA Tour schedule like TPC San Antonio and TPC Craig Ranch. I don’t expect this to be a pure second-shot birdie fest like recent weeks, but in-form ball-strikers should be able to continue to ride their hot form on this generous resort course.
Below, find my favorite value PGA golf fantasy picks and longshots for the 2026 Austin Championship. Stats pulled across the Last 36 Rounds unless otherwise noted. Their odds of winning the event are also shown.
Neal Shipley
These fairways may be described as generous in width, but this is a far cry from the pure second-shot setup we saw at El Cardonal last week. That’s a better sign for Neal Shipley, who relies on his elite driving skill as his greatest separator. He ranks 1st in this field by a considerable margin in SG: OTT, a skill he can lean on to create angles on this wide-yet-positional venue.
Shipley has been one of the best overall players on the PGA Tour this fall, making it through the cut in all five fall appearances with three top-16 finishes over that stretch. Shipley’s best result of the fall came at the Biltmore Championship Asheville, proving he’s up to the task of competing in an inaugural event in a canyon setting. The putter has truly been boom or bust for Shipley all season, and it will be the difference between a sixth made cut and a fourth top-20 finish this fall.
Luke Clanton
This time two years ago, we were talking about Luke Clanton the same way we talk about Jackson Koivun, Ben James, and Blades Brown today. All young “sky’s the limit” talents who enjoyed immediate success on the PGA Tour in their transition from college. Clanton’s first stint on the PGA Tour included four top-10 finishes over his first eight career starts. It’s been a winding road since then, but he’s proving this fall that the same talent is still there.
Clanton has finished top-35 in each of his last four starts this fall, highlighted by finishes of T7 at the Bank of Utah Championship and T11 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Ball-striking and putting have been the formula all along for Clanton, who is one of just four players in this field to rank top-20 in terms of both SG: APP and SG: Putting over the last 36 rounds. Ranking 27th in Driving Accuracy over the same span, I believe this is a course where Clanton will be able to continue leaning on those strengths, as he’ll play a high percentage of his approaches from these oversized fairways.
Kensei Hirata
If recent form, SG: APP, and SG: P are the three factors that matter most at Fazio Canyons Course, then Hirata stands out as one of the best values in this field. Hirata has found his stride over the last month, improving week-over-week with finishes of T34, T11, and 4th over his last three starts. His 4th place finish at El Cardonal last week was especially encouraging, as the 2.2 strokes he gained off the tee marked the second-best performance in that category of his career.
Hirata is not a long hitter off the tee, but this is not a course that requires elite distance. More importantly, Hirata is capable of spiking with his irons and putting, which is what this event will boil down to if winds remain down. He’s ranked top-15 in SG: APP and top-30 in SG: P in each of his last three starts, and will carry a high floor at this price if that form continues.
Cam Davis
The two-time PGA Tour winner and past Presidents Cupper is not officially “back”, but he is officially percolating. Davis was missing in action for effectively the entire 2026 season, but has seen a resurgence this fall. He’s made the cut in four out of five fall swing starts, after making a total of four cuts throughout the 2026 PGA Tour regular season.
The irons have been reliable for Davis throughout this resurgence, as he’s gained strokes on approach in each of his last six starts, and ranks 25th in SG: APP over that span. Off the tee has been the most volatile piece of Davis’ game lately, but Canyons’ generous fairways should mitigate that shortfall in his game. He flashed his potential with a T11 finish at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship three starts ago, and at this price, he has clear top-20 upside to pay it off.
Best of luck if you choose to roster these Austin Championship golf DFS picks!
Best Sportsbook Promos For Austin Championship Odds & Golf DFS picks
The PGA Tour’s Fall Series has reached its penultimate stop, as we say goodbye to the international swing and return stateside. The inaugural 2026 Austin Championship at Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek is next on tap to host this week.
