DFS Golf Picks: the Travelers Championship
Make the most of the data, predictions, and insights from this article to help with your fantasy golf picks for the Travelers Championship, and check out our PGA Optimizer to make more informed player selections for your DFS lineups. Best of luck this week!
The Travelers Championship
Preview for the Travelers Championship: This tournament has been a fixture on the PGA Tour since 1952 or some 70 years, beginning its journey as the Insurance City Open. This is the second-most attended event annually, second only to the Phoenix Open. The record score at this event and also on this course was -22 – shot by Kenny Perry in 2009. Winners of the Travelers Championship over the past five years include Harris English in 2021, Dustin Johnson in 2020, Chez Reavie in 2019, Bubba Watson in 2018, and Jordan Spieth in 2017.
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Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is $8.3M, the winner collects $1.494M and also earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: TPC River Highlands is only 6,852 yards in length, is a par 70, and the greens are a combination of bentgrass and poa annua. The winning score at this tournament over the last decade ranges from -12 to -19, so despite the course being short, it can still be challenging. Some key stats to focus on this week are strokes gained: tee to green, strokes gained: approach, driving accuracy percentage, strokes gained: off the tee, and strokes gained: putting.
The field: We again have a full 156-player field in action this week, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 on Friday will play rounds 3 and 4 on the weekend. We have six of the top 10 ranked players in the world golfing this week and some of the big names in the field include Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Sam Burns, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay, and others. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a B.
Three questions I have about the Travelers Championship:
1. Tee to green is the most important key stat this week, which 10 players have been the biggest gainers over the last 24 rounds? Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Mito Pereira, Jordan Spieth, Brendan Steele, Justin Thomas, Davis Riley, Xander Schauffele, Sungjae Im, and Harold Varner III.
2. Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total at the Travelers Championship over the last 5 years? Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Kevin Streelman, Chez Reavie, Jason Day, Brendan Steele, Brendon Todd, and Xander Schauffele.
3. Who are the top 10 players from my custom model this week? Davis Riley, Sam Burns, Aaron Wise, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Mito Pereira, Seamus Power, Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, and Tony Finau
DraftKings lineup construction strategy this week: It’s another big field and it’s fairly top-heavy, so you may want to stack 2 or 3 big dogs into your lineups and look for cut makers down the board. Take a look at projected ownership on Wednesday if you got the means to do so, pivot where possible, and be sure to leave a few hundred dollars on the table to be unique in the large GPPs.
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are my 15 DFS golf picks which feature my top 3 players from each tier on DraftKings (DK) in no particular order, plus I include player salaries for DK, as well. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last 5 years, and add in some tasty pieces of information, also.
The $10K+ Range
Rory McIlroy (Salary: DraftKings – $11.0K) – Rory has been on a mission since mid-April with five top 8’s in his last six starts including winning the Canadian Open two weeks ago, he had a runner-up at The Masters, and is coming off a 5th at the U.S. Open. His game is incredibly strong now – my only concern is that this is his fourth straight week of play, so he may show some degree of fatigue at some point this week. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2020 – T11, 2018 – T12, and 2017 – T17.
Patrick Cantlay (Salary: DraftKings – $10.2K) – I really like Cantlay’s track record at this tournament – finishing no lower than T15 over the last four years and he has gained strokes across the board each time except for two small losses on putting in 2018 and 2019. He has been strong over his last few events with three top 3’s in his last five starts including winning the Zurich Classic with Xander Schauffele, a 2nd at the RBC Heritage, a T3 at the Memorial, and had a T14 at the U.S. Open last week despite losing 1.33 strokes on approach. He’s safe and has upside, and should be on some of your core lineups this week. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T13, 2020 – T11, 2019 – T15, and 2018 – T15.
Sam Burns (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – I have huge respect for Burns as he has won twice in his last eight starts, had a 2nd at the Zurich Classic, and a T4 at the Canadian Open – not bad at all since late March. His results keep getting better and better at this event, and I expect to see him inside the top 10 this week. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T13, 2020 – T24, and 2019 – T43.
The $9K Range
Seamus Power (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K) – Power has had a good stretch over his last four starts with three top 17’s including a 9th at the PGA Championship and a 12th last week at the U.S. Open. He has played fine at this tournament over the years and should be considered a threat to top his T19 from a year ago. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T19, 2019 – T66, 2018 – T36, and 2017 – Cut.
Jordan Spieth (Salary: DraftKings – $9.9K) – He won here in his first look at this track in 2017, and has been solid since mid-April with a win at the RBC Heritage, a 2nd at the Byron Nelson, a 7th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, and his worst finish over his last six starts was a 37th last week at the U.S. Open despite gaining modest strokes across the board except for a 0.28 loss on putting. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2020 – T54, 2019 – Cut, 2018 – T42, and 2017 – Won.
Joaquin Niemann (Salary: DraftKings – $9.6K) – I really appreciate his consistency as he often finishes in the 20’s and 30’s and pops from time to time including a T3 at the Memorial three weeks ago where he gained an insane 11.03 strokes ball-striking in a fairly strong field. He has played well here including a T5 three years ago where every part of his game was on full display. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T36, 2020 – T63, and 2019 – T5.
The $8K Range
Davis Riley (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – Riley was the top player in my custom model and has been cranking out superb finishes since March with five top 9’s if you count the Zurich Classic, and he’s doing it through excellent ball-striking, and a good short game – especially on the putting side of things. He could be in contention to win, and should finish in the top 20 if his solid play continues – expect more of the same. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Aaron Wise (Salary: DraftKings – $8.8K) – His stats resemble Riley’s above, and he has been rewarded with good finishes including five top 27’s in his last six starts – two of them were top 6’s including his 2nd at the Memorial. His finishes here have been a bit better than average, but his game has never been better and I’m expecting a top 25 this week with a decent probability to finish top 10. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T66 and 2020 – T46.
Brian Harman (Salary: DraftKings – $8.6K) – Harman has had a great track record at this event with three top 8’s in the last four years, and he also had a 3rd in 2015. His short game has led the way on this track, but his ball-striking has also been well above average, as well. He has six top 35’s over his last nine starts including a T9 at the Wells Fargo Championship where he gained strokes across the board including 7.99 ball-striking. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T5, 2020 – Cut, 2019 – T8, 2018 – T6, and 2017 – T35.
The $7K Range
Brendan Steele (Salary: DraftKings – $7.7K) – He was ignited with a 4th at the Zurich Classic in collaboration with his partner, has three top 10’s in his last four starts, and has made seven consecutive cut lines thanks to lofty ball-striking. His results here are also quite attractive with eight top 25’s since 2011 including a T5 and a T6. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2020 – T6, 2019 – T21, 2018 – Cut, and 2017 – T14.
Brendon Todd (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Driving accuracy matters on this course and Todd is one of the most accurate off the tee blocks, so he holds a lot of intrigue for DFS users. He has five top 26’s in his last seven starts including a 3rd at the Charles Schwab Challenge and a T8 at the Texas Open. He has three top 30’s here in his last four looks at TPC River Highlands including a T11 two years ago when he gained 7.63 strokes ball-striking. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T30 and 2020 – T11.
Mackenzie Hughes (Salary: DraftKings – $7.4K) – Hughes has really fixed up his ball-striking play over his last two starts and it helped him to finish T28 at the Canadian Open and 24th at the U.S. Open last week. He has never missed the cut here in five tries and had a T3 two years ago thanks to gaining 11.92 strokes with his short game. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T76, 2020 – T3, 2019 – T51, 2018 – T42, and 2017 – T17.
The $6K Range
Austin Smotherman (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – I would recommend staying out of the $6K range as much as possible this week, but Smotherman has some intrigue as he has made six straight stroke-play cut lines and has two top 25’s in his last four starts. He’s very good off the tee, decent on approach, and has gained strokes with his putter in four straight starts. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Callum Tarren (Salary: DraftKings – $6.6K) – He was superb with his approach play at the U.S. Open last week gaining 6.69 strokes and finished 31st for his efforts. He has only failed to play the weekend once in his last six starts and also had a T7 on the Korn Ferry Tour in mid-April right before joining the PGA Tour. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: None.
Adam Svensson (Salary: DraftKings – $6.8K) – Svensson has made four consecutive cut lines and had a strong showing in his most recent start at the Canadian Open where he gained strokes in every major stat category including 4.58 ball-striking. Travelers Championship finishes over the last five years: 2019 – Cut.
