This article is part of our DraftKings PGA DFS Picks series.
Travelers Championship
Purse: $20M
Winner's Share: $4M
FedEx Cup Points: 700 to the Winner
Location: Cromwell, Conn.
Course: TPC River Highlands
Yardage: 6,835
Par: 70
2023 champion: Keegan Bradley
Tournament Preview
With barely a moment to exhale after one of the most riveting major championships in recent memory, the PGA Tour season forges on. And, if you haven't noticed, we're about to head into the home stretch.
The Travelers will be the 43rd and final Signature Event of the season -- oh wait, it's just the eighth. Further, this will complete a grueling seven-week stretch in which there were three Signatures and two majors. After the Travelers, there are just six more weeks of tournaments until the playoffs start.
Not many people have been in favor of this schedule, with so many big events coming in rapid fashion. The Tour reasons that they want to front-load them to let the final weeks of the regular season be open and available to the lesser guys fighting to make the playoffs. The top 70 in the FedExCup Standings after the Wyndham Championship the second week in August advance to the playoff opener.
After the Travelers, it's the Rocket Mortgage, the John Deere and the Scottish Open. Then it's the Open Championship followed by the 3M Open, a one-week break for the Olympics and the Wyndham. That's it. To further help the lesser players, there will be two upcoming alternate-field events -- the ISCO Championship (formerly the Barbasol) opposite the Scottish and the Barracuda opposite the Open.
But for now, one more Signature Event with a no-cut field of 71 at TPC River Highlands.
Scottie Scheffler, who was an uncharacteristic non-factor at the U.S. Open, heads the field, but all eyes -- plus cameras and microphones -- would've been on Rory McIlroy. On Monday, he bowed out after the most gut-wrenching and painful loss of his career to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open. But every other big name is playing, notably Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau and Hideki Matsuyama, all of whom finished in the top-10 at Pinehurst No. 2. The defending champion is Keegan Bradley, who tied for 32nd last week.
Three of the sponsor's invitations -- the final Signature-Event invites of the season (Yay?!) -- once again come from the "round up the usual suspects" category: Webb Simpson, Adam Scott and Billy Horschel.
The fourth one is Michael Thorbjornsen, the 22-year-old Stanford star who just won the 2024 PGA Tour University race to earn his PGA Tour card. The New Englander first burst on the scene two years ago when he finished fourth in the Travelers. He played again last year.
Usually positioned right after the U.S. Open, the Travelers has served as an unofficial launching pad to pro careers. Four years ago, Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland made their pro debuts there. Three years ago, it their former Oklahoma State teammate Austin Eckroat. In the past, so did Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm, Simpson and others. Now, it's Thorbjornsen's turn.
The Travelers Insurance Company has been affiliated with the tournament since its inception way back in 1952. It became the title sponsor in 2007 -- after years of Sammy Davis Jr. being the "title host" in the 1970s and '80s -- and recently re-upped to continue at least through 2030.
TPC River Highlands came on the scene in 1984. It checks in at a mere 6,800ish yards. The 1928 design by Robert J. Ross and Maurice Kearney, with a 1982 Pete Dye renovation followed by a 1989 Bobby Weed renovation, tries to choke off the longest hitters by pinching the fairways around the 300-yard mark.
Along those lines, they made some changes to six holes since last year in an effort blunt scoring after Bradley won at 23-under, without adding distance to one of the shortest tracks of the year. They narrowed some fairways and shrunk some greens, though they didn't touch the final five holes, including one of the most fun holes on Tour, the drivable par-4, 296-yard 15th, which is among five holes with water.
Overall, there are tree-lined fairways with four-inch-plus rough leading to smallish 5,000 square foot Bermuda/poa greens running about 12 on the Stimpmeter. The greens are also surrounded by high rough.
As for lineup construction, many of these same golfers will be playing for at least the fifth time in seven weeks and you have to consider fatigue. After this, many of them will break till the Scottish Open in four weeks. It's hard to avoid the big names in your lineup in such a small field but not impossible.
As for the weather, it will be steamy as a heat wave hits the Northeast. Highs will be in the mid-90s on Thursday before dipping into the 80s the rest of the week. There is a significant chance of rain those final three days of the tournament.
Travelers factoids: River Highland was the scene of the lowest score ever recorded on the PGA Tour: Jim Furyk shot a 12-under 58 in the final round in 2016. Cantlay holds the record for an amateur at 60 set in 2011. Three years ago, Mackenzie Hughes opened with a 60 en route to a tie for third. ... The tournament is more than seven decades old, yet there have been only two host courses. From 1952 to 1983, they used Wethersfield Country Club. In 1984, they moved about six miles to TPC Connecticut (renamed TPC River Highlands in 1991), and they've played there ever since.
Key Stats to Winning at TPC River Highlands
The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.
• Strokes Gained: Approach/SG: Tee-to-Green
• Approach shots from 125-150 yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Driving Accuracy
• Par 4 Efficiency 400-450
Past Champions
2023 - Keegan Bradley
2022 - Xander Schauffele
2021 - Harris English
2020 - Dustin Johnson
2019 - Chez Reavie
2018 - Bubba Watson
2017 - Jordan Spieth
2016 - Russell Knox
2015 - Bubba Watson
2014 - Kevin Streelman
Champion's Profile
Over the past decade, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson have won this tournament and so have Chez Reavie, Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman, illustrating how challenging it is fit a champion into one profile.
Bradley is not known for being overly long, but he did rank sixth in driving distance last year. But what really determined the outcome were approach play and tee-to-green play. Nine of the top-10 guys in each category finished in the top 15 on the leaderboard. We almost always see a strong correlation between those two stats and overall success, but this was especially so.
Bradley ranked first in SG: Approach and seventh in SG: Tee-to-Green. What won him the tournament by two strokes over Brian Harman and Zac Blair, however, was his putting. He ranked first in the field for the week, buoyed by the overwhelming fan support for the native New Englander. Blair ranked fifth in Approach but was hurt by poor putting. Harman was balanced -- not in the top-10 in any of Approach, Tee-to-Green or Putting, but top-15 in all three.
Two years ago, Schauffele, definitely in the long-hitter camp, took his foot off the gas and ranked only 31st in driving distance. But he led the field in greens in regulation, and that is the biggest key on this second-shot golf course. Schauffele also ranked fourth in putting for the week in winning at 19-under.
In Spieth's 2017 victory, he had one of the oddest/worst stat lines you'll ever see for a winner. He did not finish inside the top-30 in the field in driving distance, driving accuracy, greens in regulation, proximity to the hole or putting. It's a marvel that he won. Even his "best" stat, scrambling, was only T19. This was the tournament remembered for Spieth's famous chest-bump with caddie Michael Greller after his 60-foot hole-out from a bunker on the first playoff hole defeated Daniel Berger.
The over/under on the winning score on golfodds.com is 261.5 -- 18.5 under par. That's one stroke lower than in the past three years.
DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS
Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap
$10,000+
Scottie Scheffler - $12,500 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +360)
Scheffler will be a pick here for the foreseeable future, no matter the previous week's result. And at $12,500, this is his lowest price in weeks. If McIlroy had bowed out before pricing came out, Scheffler surely would've been higher.
Xander Schauffele - $11,200 (+750)
Schauffele won here two years ago, ending a long drought. He finished top-10 last week at the U.S. Open, but he wasn't in contention on Sunday so his fatigue level shouldn't bee that great. With McIlroy's WD, Schauffele is best in the field in SG: Off-the-Tee over his past 24 rounds. Not that he's bad in any other area.
$9,000-$9,900
Patrick Cantlay - $9,600 (+2000)
It's always risky jumping on a guy after one good week, and Cantlay had not been playing well before finishing tied for third at the U.S. Open. But he has shown an affinity for River Highlands. Besides shooting that 60 as an amateur in 2011, he tied for fourth last year and had five straight top-15s before that.
Hideki Matsuyama - $9,200 (+2200)
Matsuyama's outstanding season continued last week with a solo sixth. He did that with a putter that lost strokes, but overall this season his putting has been decent, or at least decent for him. And that makes him a good option this. Matsuyama had never played River Highlands before it became a Signature Event last year, and he tied for 13th.
$8,000-$8,900
Russell Henley - $8,600 (+2500)
Henley checks off every box, just like he does almost every week now. Not sure how he's still only $8,600, so he's bound to be a popular pick this week. He ranked first in the field in putting at Pinehurst, and that was always his biggest shortcoming. Henley tied for 19th here in his past two visits and has a best of T6 aback in 2018.
Brian Harman - $8,300 (+4000)
Actually, Harman could even be more popular than Henley. He's $300 cheaper, is coming off a runner-up last year and has finished top-10 five of the past six years. It all start off the tee, and Harmon is among the most accurate drivers in the field.
$7,000-$7,900
Shane Lowry - $7,800 (+6500)
Lowry has not had the best season, so this price isn't a complete surprise, especially with DraftKings placing fewer guys at $8,000 and up. He looks favorable in our model, notably because he plays short par-4s (400-450) better than most of the field. Lowry tied for 19th here a year ago in just his third start in the tournament.
Denny McCarthy - $7,500 (+5500)
We've seen how this tournament can turn into a putting contest. After five years of poor play in this tournament, something clicked for McCarthy last year and he tied for seventh. The shorter track should definitely help this short hitter, though he did pretty well last week in tying for 32nd at Pinehurst.
Akshay Bhatia - $7,200 (+7000)
Bhatia continues to rank very high in our model week after week. And last week's t16 in the U.S. Open won't hurt that. Bhatia is the only player in the field to rank in the top-25 in all our key stats over his past 24 rounds.
$6,000-$6,900
Michael Thorbjornsen - $6,500 (+30000)
If nothing else, Thorbjornsen should be fresh, maybe the only player in the field who could make that claim. This will be his third go-round at River Highlands and, as mentioned above, he tied for fourth two years ago when he was only 20. Thorbjornsen played one tournament this season outside of college, and he tied for 11th in Dubai on the DP World Tour in January.
Andrew Putnam - $6,400 (+20000)
Putnam's best finish this year (T8) came at Harbour Town, a track short just like this one. He tied for 13th here three years ago. Putnam is good at getting the ball in the fairway and he's one of the better putters in the field.
Webb Simpson - $6,200 (+15000)
There really is a not a lot we like in the $6,000s. So we might as well go super low and take a guy who can compete better on shorter tracks and has not played as much of late as most of the guys in the field. Simpson tied for 13th here two years ago, and he's missed only one cut in 11 Travelers -- when there were cuts to be missed.
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