Alex Smalley shot 5-under 65 in Thursday’s opening round at the Charles Schwab Challenge and sits at T-4 following his round at Colonial Country Club. Armed with a clean card and a week of rest, he’s ready to put the pedal to the metal, still in search of his first win on the PGA Tour.
The Duke University alum is coming off the best performance of his career, after he finished T-2 at the PGA Championship two weeks ago. The 29-year-old led by two strokes going into Sunday’s final round at Aronimink and despite not being able to hold on for the victory, the second-place finish at the second major of the season has already opened up a lot of doors.
“The PGA’s done a lot for me schedule-wise,” Smalley said on Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas. “From my finish I got into the U.S. Open, I got into The Open Championship. So, my schedule’s definitely changed from what I thought it was going to be from the last few weeks, and I think it has a better cadence now.”
The new cadence and comfortability appear to already be paying off for Smalley, after an impressive opening day at Charles Schwab, where he’s riding the momentum of his recent success.
“Everybody wishes to get off to a good start. 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 you still have to keep pushing forward, you can’t let off the gas once you do get off to a good start,” Smalley said on Thursday.
While there’s been a lot of recent change for Smalley, he has a lot of history at Colonial Country Club, where he’ll be spending the week. Dating back to his college-playing days at Duke, he played the Nike Invitational a few times at this course, prior to the recent renovation. Regardless of the course upgrades, Smalley said it’s nice to know what to expect.
“Just going back to a course that you’re familiar with,” Smalley said. “Once you get on-site, you’re basically just determining what the conditions are like each week. If it’s firm, if it’s soft, you know, that kind of thing. It’s nice to be able to know in the back of your head what you’re going to get going to a tournament.”
A win this week for Smalley, wouldn’t be just the first of his career, it would also make him a new car owner. That’s because the champion of the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge will receive a 1982 Scrambler in custom “Schwab Blue.” However, outside of the corporate walls, the restored Jeep appears to closely resemble “Carolina Blue,” especially if you spent four years in Durham.
“They have had that color I think every year that I’ve been here. I told my caddie, it might have been on Tuesday or Wednesday, that it might need a little touch-up on paint if we happened to walk away with it after the round on Sunday,” he added.
The real question is which Blue Devil Pantone will Smalley choose if he clinches victory in Fort Worth? “Duke Navy Blue” or “Duke Royal Blue?” Better consult his caddie.