This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
Travelers Championship
Course: TPC River Highlands (6,835 yards, par 70)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 700 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
After a brutally tough week at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst that saw just eight players finish the week under-par, the top players on the PGA Tour will certainly be excited to take dead aim again and be aggressive at TPC River Highlands, one of the shortest courses of the year. Last year Keegan Bradley posted the lowest aggregate total in Travelers Championship history at 257 (23-under-par) to win by three strokes over Zac Blair and Brian Harman. TPC River Highlands has also given up the lowest 18-hole score in PGA Tour history when Jim Furyk shot 12-under 58 in the final round in 2016.
This tournament dates back 72 years ago to 1952 when it was known as the Insurance City Open. It then was renamed the Greater Hartford Open in 1967, a title that remained until 2004 when Buick took over title sponsor for three years before Travelers becoming the title sponsor for each of the last 18 tournaments. TPC River Highlands has been the host of the event since 1984 after undergoing a redesign by legendary architect Pete Dye. This will be the second straight year it has featured a $20 million purse and been contested the week after the U.S. Open. This is the last of eight Signature Events this season. Players will now focus on getting into the Top 50 in the FedExCup standings by season's end to ensure they are guaranteed a spot in all Signature Events in 2025.
Scottie Scheffler will be looking to shake off a poor showing at the U.S. Open and get back to the dominant level of golf he has shown throughout much of the season winning five times, including the Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship. PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele picked up his eighth straight top-15 finish at the U.S. Open and will look for his second win in three years in Cromwell, CT. With the Olympic qualifying deadline on Monday, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa have locked up the final two spots alongside Scheffler and Schauffele on the U.S. team. Patrick Cantlay just got beat out for the final spot after a T3 finish at Pinehurst. Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland are the other top-10 players in the OWGR slated to tee it up this week. Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Billy Horschel received sponsor exemptions to play this Signature Event along with Michael Thorbjornsen, who will be making his professional debut after finishing No. 1 on the PGA Tour University ranking. The Stanford product will have full status for the remainder of this season and for the 2025 PGA Tour season. We'll see if he can make the same kind of leap that Aberg did after finishing No. 1 in the PGA Tour University rankings in 2023. Rory McIlroy is the only qualified player who will not compete at the Travelers Championship as he will take some time off to process his heartbreaking finish to the U.S. Open.
As mentioned at the top, we should see some great scoring this week. Five of the last six tournaments have seen a winning score of at least 17-under-par. With so many birdie and eagle chances, especially on the back-nine, it leads to a lot of dramatic finishes. Maybe none more so than Jordan Spieth's bunker hole-out on the first playoff hole in 2017 that sent the natural amphitheater around 18 green into a frenzy. The fans always come out in bunches to support the Travelers Championship as it is annually the second-most attended PGA Tour event after the WM Phoenix Open. It's going to be another hot week with temperatures in the low-90s and high-80s for most of the week. The winds look to be relatively benign, but we may have some weather to contend with on Friday and Saturday. The course should play pretty firm, but any rain could take some of the sting out and set up a true shootout for the final round.
Recent Champions
2023 - Keegan Bradley (-23)
2022 - Xander Schauffele (-19)
2021 - Harris English (-13)
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-19)
2019 - Chez Reavie (-17)
2018 - Bubba Watson (-17)
2017 - Jordan Spieth (-12)
2016 - Russell Knox (-14)
2015 - Bubba Watson (-16)
2014 - Kevin Streelman (-15)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting/Putts per GIR
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Accuracy
- Proximity 100-125 yards/125-150 yards
Champion's Profile
The players are certainly in for a much different challenge than what faced them in the last two tournaments at Muirfield Village and Pinehurst. TPC River Highlands is one of the more gettable courses on the PGA Tour as we rarely see any under 7,000 yards anymore. There will certainly be plenty of wedge opportunities, especially with the hot temperatures and balls flying forever. This course gives a player plenty of options off the tees to take less than driver and put an emphasis on finding the short grass. You don't really want to mess with this mixture of bluegrass and ryegrass that has been allowed to grow up over three inches the last few Travelers Championships.
Your typical SG: Approach and GIR percentage numbers are going to be important as always, but I'll also be taking a look at proximity ranges from 100-125 yards and 125-150 yards due to the high number of wedge and short iron opportunities. In any case with a shootout, a lot of it will come down to simply sinking putts. I think putting numbers will certainly bare more importance than it has the last couple weeks and that will certainly bring a lot more players into the mix. It will also be a big adjustment for players who dealt with bermudagrass all week at Pinehurst, now they will be facing a mixture of bentgrass and poa annua on the greens. I think you can also get away with some average short game play a lot easier than you could at the demanding short game complexes at Pinehurst.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Scottie Scheffler ($13,200)
This might be a week where we get a nice ownership drop on Scheffler coming in off a week where he burned a lot of people. Scheffler still had an excellent week with the irons, he just had a terrible putting week, something that we have not seen from him in a very long time. I'm expecting him to bounce back and have an opportunity at his sixth win of the season. Scheffler is trending at TPC River Highlands going T13-T4 the last two years.
Collin Morikawa ($11,500)
Morikawa is another player that many had pegged to do better at Pinehurst, but he still ended up with a T14 thanks to another very strong putting week. That makes it seven straight finishes of T16-or-better in individual events, including four top-4 finishes. TPC River Highlands should be a place that would be perfect for his game due to how accurate he is off the tee and how strong his short irons are. Now combine that with this great putting and short game we have seen for the last few months and this might be the spot where he gets back in the win column.
Viktor Hovland ($11,100)
Hovland's missed cut at the U.S. Open makes me even more in on him this week. He didn't have to grind through the weekend and now is fresh and ready to get back on track after good showings at the PGA and Memorial. Hovland's approach game is back, as he gained over a stroke per round in each of his last four tournaments. He also drives it well and can get hot with the putter. Hovland's short-game issues won't be much of a concern on this course, where he finished T11 in 2020.
The Middle Tier
Sungjae Im ($10,100)
So maybe majors aren't his cup of tea just yet, but everything else has been so good lately. Im has missed the cut at the first three majors of the year, but he has gone T12-Win-T4-T9-T8 in his last five non-majors. Im enjoys the birdie barrages and that should be the case this week at Travelers. He is good all the way through the bag, but particularly off the tee where he has gained strokes in his last 10 starts. Never missed a cut in three prior starts at TPC River Highlands.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($9,200)
It wasn't his best week at Pinehurst but still was a solid T32 and he has now gained strokes with the putter in 11-of-12 and around the green in 10 straight. Bezuidenhout is also very strong with his wedges as well ranking 13th in proximity 100-125 yards. There is also quite a few par-4s out there the players will need to attack and he ranks fourth in par-4 BOB%. The South African's lack of distance will not be in anyway a hinderance to his chances this week.
Tom Hoge ($8,900)
Well if we want to go all in on iron play this week, Hoge is usually the man for the job. He has gained strokes on approach in 21 straight starts and ranks third in both proximity 100-125 yards and 125-150 yards. That leads to a ton of birdie chances every week and it's a big reason why Hoge is leading the PGA Tour in total birdies. He doesn't have a great history at TPC River Highlands, but on paper hitting if the fairway, hitting in close and sinking putts are the goal, then Hoge should be in your lineup.
The Long Shots
Taylor Pendrith ($8,700)
I think a lot of folks might see a short course and not really think twice about Pendrith, but he has been tearing it up on all different styles of courses lately with top-25s in six of his last eight starts, including the win at Byron Nelson, which was another birdie-fest. Pendrith's putting is the biggest reasons I'm super high on him this week as he ranks fifth in SG: Putting and eighth in putts per GIR on the season. Another big hitter with great touch was pretty good around this place in Bubba Watson.
Victor Perez ($8,000)
I'm willing to forgive a missed cut at Pinehurst considering he was third at the Canadian Open and T12 at Memorial before that. The PGA Tour rookie has had a very underrated season with the irons ranking 31st in SG: Approach and 27th in GIR percentage. Perez also has started to find some momentum on the greens gaining strokes in three of his last four starts.
Andrew Putnam ($7,200)
This is definitely a venue where Putnam can shine. He is short, but accurate off the tee, good with his wedges and can fill it up on the greens. He has never missed a cut at TPC River Highlands and gained strokes on approach in all of his starts. Putnam ranks fourth in par-4 scoring average and will get his chance to attack a lot of them this week. Definitely the type of high upside play that helps on a week like this with no cut.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
A theme you probably noticed throughout the top value plays was that what you did at Pinehurst really doesn't matter. That course is such a different test than this and so there really is no comparison at all. In a lot of cases I actually prefer players that had no stress on them last week versus a lot of the players that were there in the hunt on the weekend. In DFS this will be a really bunched contest. The first reason is because this course lends itself to very little separation and the second is because everyone will be guaranteed 72 holes. Especially in a 71-man field, you have to go a little outside the box to find any sort of advantage. That's why I think it would be wise to go back to the players that burnt a lot of people last week and don't be afraid to leave some salary on the table. No other Signature Event has been more set up to see some of the lesser ranked players be able to compete with the big dogs.
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