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Hello PGA DFS family and welcome back to Horse For The Course! The year's third major championship provided us with another great event, as Matt Fitzpatrick emerged from a final-round battle with Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler to win his first major championship at The Country Club.
While the Travelers Championship is always a rock-solid PGA Tour event, this year's edition will be kicked into overdrive thanks to its relatively close proximity to last week's U.S. Open at Brookline.
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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2022 Travelers Championship Overview
A long-standing and rock-solid fixture on the PGA Tour schedule, the Travelers Championship always draws a strong field to Cromwell, Connecticut, but thanks to the event's rather close proximity to last week's U.S. Open at Brookline, this year's edition offers DFS fans a truly supercharged field that includes Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Justin Thomas among many other quality golfers.
As professional golf's landscape continues to shift beneath our feet almost daily (Peace out, Brooksy), the Travelers - like the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago - represents another opportunity for the PGA Tour to put forth an event that should highlight the true quality of its product. Whether the TV coverage actually allows that to happen remains to be seen, but this TPC River Highlands layout was designed by Pete Dye and is a fun golf course that can provide an exciting finish.
When we start digging into course history at the Travelers, we find a fairly eclectic bunch of recent winners that includes players on the spectrum from Bubba Watson to Chez Reavie. That said, I believe this Dye layout comes down to ball-striking at the end of the day, with accuracy off the tee and sharp iron play being necessities and a hot putter often being the catalyst for victory. There are several players in this year's field that have amassed strong records at TPC River Highlands...let's dive in!
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The Course: TPC River Highlands
Par 70 - 6,841 Yards, Greens: Bent/Poa Mix, Designed By: Pete Dye
TPC River Highlands is a course with Pete Dye's fingerprints all over it. Its most famous stretch of holes (#'s 15-17) is played AROUND a huge 4-acre lake, which is very on-brand for the legendary Dye.
While the course can be 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 few years ago. That said, I would stop just short of calling this event a pure birdie-fest, as the average winning score over the past five years has been 15.6 under par.
At just over 6,800 yards this is one of the shorter 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. I'll be targeting sharp ball strikers with complete skill sets that can pile up birdies this week.
I always recommend checking out RotoBaller's PGA Premium Course Breakdown by Josh Bennett for an in-depth breakdown of this week's golf course!
Recent Travelers Winners
- 2021: Harris English (-13)
- 2020: Dustin Johnson (-19)
- 2019: Chez Reavie (-17)
- 2018: Bubba Watson (-17)
- 2017: Jordan Spieth (-12)
The Horse
Patrick Cantlay
- Event Scoring Average: 68.04
- Notable Event Finishes: T13 (2021), T11 ('20), T15 ('19), T15 ('18), T24 as an amateur ('11)
- DraftKings Price: $10,200 FanDuel Price: $11,600
Another major come and gone last week with Patrick Cantlay nowhere in the mix, though his T14 at Brookline was an improvement on his first two major championship results of the year. That lack of success in the game's biggest events has the public's perception of Cantlay down pretty low at the moment, but there's plenty of reason to be bullish on his prospects this week.
The UCLA product has a long history with the Travelers Championship, recording a round of 60 at TPC River Highlands as an amateur back in 2011. Cantlay has been a consistent presence in this event over the last few years and has now logged top-15 results in four consecutive Travelers appearances while amassing an impressive career scoring average of 68.04 at the Connecticut layout.
While a player of Cantlay's caliber is to an extent judged by what he does in the majors, if we are willing to push a couple of those disappointments aside, we find a player that's had an otherwise excellent year. The Californian could realistically have (I hate saying could have, but the point rings true) as many as three wins this calendar year with a few different bounces. He's gained an average of 5.9 strokes total per start over his last five and has now gained strokes T2G in three of his last four.
The Ponies
Sam Burns
- Event Scoring Average: 68.17
- Notable Event Finishes: T13 ('21), T24 ('20), T43 ('19)
- DraftKings Price: $10,400 FanDuel Price: $11,500
Sam Burns' Travelers resume isn't as lengthy as some in this week's field, but it is impressive. Burns has improved in every one of his three career trips to TPC River Highlands with an event-best T13 result in last year's edition.
The 25-year-old possesses a legit superstar-in-the-making skill set and we've seen him put everything together on multiple occasions over the last year or so, as he's now won four times on the PGA Tour since last May with his most recent victory coming at Colonial just weeks ago. Burns is consistently one of the longest drivers on the Tour, while also being an excellent putter - traits that in and of themselves are enough to be very competitive - but what truly spurs these winning binges is an uptick in his iron game. He's on a heater at the moment and has gained an average of 4.5 strokes on Approach per start over his last five. If he can continue with that level of performance on approach this week, he should once again be in the mix come Sunday afternoon.
Brian Harman
- Event Scoring Average: 68.50
- Notable Event Finishes: T5 ('21), T8 ('19), T6 ('18), T3 ('15)
- DraftKings Price: $8,600 FanDuel Price: $10,100
Anytime we're talking about the schedule's shorter layouts, Brian Harman seems to pop into the course history conversation. That was the case a few weeks ago at Colonial when Harman absolutely busted as a popular salary saver, but the veteran has bounced back to put forth very solid outings at the Memorial and the U.S. Open in two subsequent starts. I look for him to once again be a popular option this week on a TPC River Highlands where he's tallied a 68.50 career scoring average. The little lefty has logged top-eight finishes in three of his last four Travelers appearances. That course history - in addition to the recent display of form - make it appear as though the veteran is primed for another run in Connecticut.
Brendan Steele
- Event Scoring Average: 68.08
- Notable Event Finishes: T6 ('20), T21 ('19), T14 ('17), T5 ('14)
- DraftKings Price: $7,700 FanDuel Price: $9,500
A real "sweet spot" type of play for us this week, as Brendan Steele heads to Connecticut with an elite combination of course history and recent form. Steele has put together an impressive Travelers resume over 11 career appearances, tallying a 68.08 scoring average. The veteran has made the cut in eight of those 11 starts at TPC River Highlands and - get this - has never finished outside the top-25 when he's made the cut in the Travelers. In addition to that juicy factoid, he comes into this year's edition on the heels of his two best ball-striking performances of the year, which resulted in strong finishes at both the PGA Championship (T9) and the Memorial (T10). Steele's sub-$8k price tag on DraftKings will make him one of the most popular value options on the slate, but he's in strong consideration for cash and single-entry formats.
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