RADIO
Hello PGA DFS family! The year's third major championship didn't disappoint, as the U.S. Open went down to the wire Sunday evening. A bunched-up leaderboard provided plenty of drama, but Jon Rahm eventually emerged from the pack at Torrey Pines South. The Spaniard birdied his last two holes of the final round to finish at six-under par and capture the first major championship of his career. A major victory felt almost inevitable for Rahm and it will be interesting to see if this opens up the major-championship floodgates for the talented 26-year-old.
While there is plenty from the U.S. Open that we'll be chewing over for the next couple of days, the PGA DFS grind doesn't stop. This week we head to Connecticut for the Travelers Championship, one of the longstanding events on the PGA Tour schedule.
Horse For The Course is an article that highlights players in this week's field with elite course history and is part of our free PGA DFS content here at RotoBaller. For my favorite DFS plays of the week check out my Core Four article here at RotoBaller every Wednesday. It's part of our amazing PGA Premium package that includes an all-new PGA Research Station, Lineup Builder & Optimizer, and some of the best articles in the PGA DFS industry! You can sign up now using Promo Code: NICE for an extra discount at checkout!
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2021 Travelers Championship Overview
Much like the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town after the Masters, the Travelers Championship's identity comes in large part from traditionally being held the week following the U.S. Open. TPC River Highlands has been a PGA Tour host course for 38 years and the Pete Dye layout will offer a very different set of challenges from the one's players faced at Torrey Pines last week, as the Connecticut course comes in at just over 6,800-yards on the scorecard.
The Travelers is one of the Tour's most well-attended events, so maybe it shouldn't be a huge surprise that this week's field is very strong. However, the quality of this turnout is quite eye-opening. Dustin Johnson will be back to defend his 2020 Travelers title and he'll have to hold off the likes of Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, and a host of others.
With the Travelers being such a fixture on the golfing calendar, we have course history galore this week and we've seen several players consistently perform well on this unique Dye layout. Let's tee it up!
You can also find out who the smart money is on by checking out Spencer Aguiar's PGA DFS: Vegas Report every week. And be sure to read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS articles to help you win big!
The Course: TPC River Highlands
Par 70 - 6,841 Yards, Greens: Poa Annua/Bent Mix, Designed By: Pete Dye
The Pete Dye hits keep on coming, as we seem to continuously run into the legendary architect's work on the PGA Tour schedule. TPC River Highlands is a course with Pete Dye's fingerprints all over it. Its most famous stretch of holes (#'s 15-17) are played AROUND a huge 4-acre lake.
While the course is tricky, we will still see plenty of birdies this week, as TPC River Highlands relinquished the only 58 in PGA Tour history to Jim Furyk a couple of years ago, and the last three winners have finished the week at 17-under par or better.
At just over 6,800 yards this is one of the shortest tracks on the schedule, but players won't necessarily be able to overpower this course, as the layout requires less than driver off the tee in multiple spots. As with basically every Dye layout, this is indeed a second-shot golf course. I'll be targeting sharp ball strikers that can pile up birdies this week.
For an in-depth breakdown of this week's course, check out RotoBaller's PGA Premium Course Breakdown by Josh Bennett!
Recent Travelers Champions
- 2020: Dustin Johnson (-19)
- 2019: Chez Reavie (-17)
- 2018: Bubba Watson (-17)
- 2017: Jordan Spieth (-12)
- 2016: Russell Knox (-14)
The Horse
Paul Casey
Notable Course History: T32 (2020), T5 ('19), T2 ('18), T5 ('17)
DraftKings Price: $9,900 FanDuel Price: $11,600
Paul Casey falls in that sweet spot of "certainly better than a 'regular' Tour player, but also not quite a true top-five elite player either". So while there are bigger names available in this week's surprisingly-stacked Travelers field, I'm content to ride the workman-like Casey as my horse.
The Englishman has been brilliant in previous trips to TPC River Highlands, highlighted by a T5-T2-T5 run between 2017 & '19. He's the leader of this week's field by a fairly wide margin in Strokes Gained: Total (+41.22) at the Connecticut layout since 2016.
In addition to the elite course history, Casey heads to this edition of the Travelers in sharp form. He's posted a top-five and a top-10 in his last two American starts (oh, by the way, those came at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open!) and has gained strokes on Approach IN EVERY SINGLE START HE'S MADE IN AMERICA THIS YEAR! The vet has gained an average of 4.6 strokes with his irons over his last five tournaments and holds a +7.1 average SG: T2G over that same time period. Casey leads this field in SG: T2G over the last 24 rounds and grades out second in SG: Approach.
The Ponies
Bryson DeChambeau
Notable Course History: T6 ('20), T8 ('19), T9 ('18)
DraftKings Price: $11,100 FanDuel Price: $12,300
Bryson DeChambeau is the only player in this field that comes close to Paul Casey's SG: Total numbers for this event. DeChambeau has gained 35.22 strokes total at TPC River Highlands since 2016 en route to posting top-10 finishes in each of his last three Travelers starts. The Pete Dye layout doesn't seem like a natural fit for him - especially in his latest iteration - but the young bomber has repeatedly performed well on this track.
The real concern with DeChambeau this week isn't a style one, it's a mental one. He's a player that was the 63-hole leader of last week's U.S. Open before an absolute implosion on the back-nine sent him tumbling down the leaderboard into a tie for 26th-place. It's honestly not something everyone can bounce back from, so this is a bit of a risk. However, I expect him to come out focused and motivated this week, despite (perhaps because of) that horrible run at Torrey Sunday evening.
Kevin Streelman
Notable Course History: 2nd ('20), T15 ('19), T8 ('17), Win ('14)
DraftKings Price: $9,400 FanDuel Price: $10,600
Like this week's horse, Paul Casey, Kevin Streelman is a player that probably won't be raking in any PIP money at the end of the year but is consistently getting things done on the golf course. Streels is a "substance over style" type of player that's been downright elite at TPC River Highlands over the years, posting a win at the 2014 Travelers and recording a runner-up finish last year.
We also have some extremely solid recent form with the veteran. He's coming off a T15 in last week's U.S. Open, his fourth consecutive top-20 finish. Streelman has gained strokes on Approach in each of his last seven starts and has made the cut in six of those outings. He ranks eighth in this stout Travelers field in SG: Approach over the last 24 rounds and checks in at seventh in the SG: T2G category. Substance over style. The vet isn't a player that's flashy, but I love his ability to do quietly do everything really well.
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Bubba Watson
Notable Course History: Win (2018, '15, '10)
DraftKings Price: $8.900 FanDuel Price: $10,400
It wouldn't be much of a course history article if I didn't at least mention the man that's captured three Travelers titles since 2010. Bubba Watson is an interesting individual in lots of ways, but one pattern that we can find in his career trajectory is his penchant for repeatedly logging wins on the same handful of golf courses...Augusta National, Riviera, and TPC River Highlands just happen to be some of Bubba's "happy places".
The 2021 form hasn't been great for Watson, but he's not too far removed from back-to-back top-18 finishes on the heels of a T26 at the Masters. He also flashed a little form at Torrey (another one of his favorite courses) last week before faltering over the weekend. This isn't a play for the faint of heart, as Bubba's potential tournament-winning upside this week does come with a potential missed cut.
Brian Harman
Notable Course History: MC ('20), T8 ('19), T6 ('18), T3 ('15)
DraftKings Price: $8,800 FanDuel Price: $11,100
Another "Steady Eddie" type of player (btw, how awful was Paul Azinger on the U.S. Open coverage last week?), Harman possesses the sort of veteran consistency that I'm targeting this week. Yes, it's pretty vanilla, but will hopefully be effective.
Effective is a word that we can fairly use to describe Harman's history at the Travelers. The little lefty has posted finishes inside the top-eight in two of his last three trips to TPC River Highlands. He comes into this year's edition full of confidence, as he's had a legitimately great 2021 to this point that includes top-20 finishes in six of his last seven starts. Harman has been solid in all aspects of the game as of late and has averaged a SG: T2G mark of +3.8 over his last five tournaments.
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