Attacking the Green!: 2026 Austin Championship Stats Breakdown and Best Bets

Welcome back, golf fans. The seventh of eight fall events brings us the inaugural Austin Championship from the Fazio Canyons Course @ the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa. Once again, we get a weaker field with just four players ranked Top 50 in the DataGolf World Rankings but still plenty of opportunities for profit in the betting market.

With a new course, we can erase course history from our model and instead concentrate on current form in the fall season. Another impact of the new course is the simplification of the stats model, looking mostly at ball-striking stats. Let’s jump in and take a closer look at the course, then look at some of the top bets this week.

The Course: Fazio Canyons Course @ the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa

The Fazio Canyons Course is a standard Par 72 setup with four Par 3’s, 10 Par 4’s, and four Par 5’s. It is longer by PGA Tour standards, listed at 7,451 yards, but with forgiving fairways, we should see most of the field let it rip with a higher-than-average driving distance for the week. With danger lurking with tree-lined fairways, creeks, and canyons, you can’t be too wayward with the drives, but not adding extra weight to driving accuracy by any means. My stats model will be looking more at iron game this week, with some emphasis on long irons, with three of the four Par 4s greater than 200 yards and four of the Par 5s over 450 yards. The Par 5s look very gettable, so I will also look at Par 5 Birdie or Better % in my model.

Stats & Trends That Matter: Finding the 2026 Austin Championship Best Bets

Jordan Smith (+3500 Outright / +305 Top 10 / +168 Top 20)

If form is at the top of the list this week, we cannot ignore the consistency of veteran Jordan Smith in 2026. He has made 20 of 26 cuts overall during the year and comes into this week having made 10 straight. This includes all four events he has played in the Fall season, in which he has finished T26 or better and has Top 10s in two of the last three. Statistically, he is 4th in this field in SG: Ball Striking, 1st in Total Driving, 6th in Greens in Regulation, 4th in Par 4 Scoring, and 4th in overall Scoring Average. My top bets with Smith will be the Top 10 and Top 20, but I will also sprinkle some on the outright.

Ben Kohles (+4600 Outright / +365 Top 10 / +196 Top 20)

Another veteran player still seeking his first career win, but like Smith above, I am more interested in the secondary markets for my exposure. Kohles’ form is eerily similar to Smith’s as he enters the week having made a whopping 12 straight going back to mid-June. More impressive is the fact that in each of those events he has finished inside the Top 30 in all of them, with two Top 10s and seven Top 20 finishes. His game is led by an airtight iron game, as he leads this field in SG: Approach for the season and is 8th/4th in Proximity from 175-200 and 200+ yards. To cap it off, he is also 1st in Par 4 Scoring and 2nd in Par 5 Scoring. I will continue to ride Kohles in the secondary markets during the fall season and will also sprinkle an outright bet on there as well.

Seamus Power (+4500 Outright / +365 Top 10 / +198 Top 20)

While Power hasn’t been nearly as consistent overall as Kohles and Smith, he is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and has been red-hot during the fall season. He was runner-up at the Bermuda Championship, which was also one of his three Top 10s over four fall events, with the fourth a T21. He is 1st in SG: Total over that stretch, gained three or more strokes on approach in three of those events and is Top 5 in putting, as well. Like the players above, I will be heavier on the secondary market bets with a little exposure to the outright.