Following the U.S. Open won by J.J. Spaun, the PGA TOUR is hosting the Travelers Championship, which is the eighth and final Signature Event of the season. As a Signature Event, there will be 72 of the PGA TOUR’s best players competing for a $20 million purse this week and there will be no cut. Before 2024, the Travelers Championship was a full-sized event that featured a standard cut. The Travelers Championship will be played at TPC River Highlands (par 70, 6,385 yards, bentgrass/POA annua greens) in Cromwell, Connecticut, which has been the home of this tournament since 1984. Scottie Scheffler (-22) is the defending champion of the Travelers Championship after he defeated Tom Kim in a playoff a year ago.
TPC River Highlands is a short Pete Dye-designed course that features narrow fairways, thick rough, small greens, 68 bunkers and water in play on five holes. Evident in each of the last two Travelers winners cracking -20, TPC River Highlands is a susceptible course that yields low scoring. Like most Dye creations, TPC River Highlands is a less-than-driver course – this is the shortest course to host a PGA TOUR event so far this season – where your approach play and putting are most critical for success. Of the last five winners at TPC River Highlands, three have finished the event top-six in both SG APP and SGP. Like all par 70s, being efficient on the par fours is most important at TPC River Highlands and with eight of the 12 par fours at this track falling between 400-450 yards, seeking out players who score well on this specific length of par four is smart. Scheffler ranked fifth in efficiency on the 400-450-yard par fours of TPC River Highlands during his Travelers win last season, making him the fourth Travelers victor over the last five years to finish top-10 in the category.
Below, I have featured four of my favorite DraftKings bargain plays for the Travelers Championship, which all cost less than $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $800K Summer Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Brian Harman ($7,200) – Harman has been exceptional at TPC River Highlands. In his last 10 starts at the Dye course, Harman has finished inside the top-10 seven times. The former Georgia Bulldog ranks eighth among this field in strokes gained per round at TPC River Highlands and Harman has made 14-of-17 cuts this season.
The course manager has produced five top-25 finishes, including a win at the Valero Texas Open and a T-3 at the RBC Heritage. That latter finish is very notable, as the RBC Heritage is also a Signature Event and this tournament was played at Harbour Towns Golf Links, which is another Dye-designed venue. Harman was priced at $8,300 on DraftKings for last year’s Travelers Championship and he is a steal at only $7,200 this week.
Harry Hall ($7,100) – Hall has only competed at TPC River Highlands once, with a T-56 finish two years ago, but he returns to the par 70 in terrific form and it’s safe to expect a much better result from him this time around. Hall has made 14-of-17 cuts this season and he finished T-24 at the RBC Canadian Open in his last start, marking his fourth straight top-25 finish.
This season, Hall ranks second in SGP and third in par four performance, making him a perfect match for TPC River Highlands. A fifth consecutive top-25 finish is on the table for Hall this week and he is a stellar bargain at this low price point.
Ryan Fox ($7,000) – Fox’s impressive play continued at the U.S. Open last week, with the 38-year-old finishing T-19 at the demanding Oakmont Country Club, which is his fifth top-30 finish in a row. Two of these top-30 finishes have come at major championships and Fox has won twice during this stretch, with victories at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic last month and at the RBC Canadian Open two weeks ago.
Fox has gained strokes on approach at each of these last five events and he has moved himself up 89 spots in the world golf rankings to No. 30 during this stretch. Fox ranks 17th in total strokes gained this season and while he hasn’t competed at TPC River Highlands before, Fox finished T-20 at the Dye-designed TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS Championship in March. The professional out of New Zealand is criminally underpriced for his current form and can’t be ignored at this low salary.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($6,600) – Bezuidenhout finished T-23 at last year’s Travelers Championship and the South African has finished T-16, MC and T-12 in his last three starts, with that final finish coming at last week’s U.S. Open. In the extremely challenging conditions at Oakmont Country Club, Bezuidenhout gained strokes in every major category, except with his driver. Plus, he didn’t shoot worse than 72 in any of his four rounds, which was an impressive accomplishment in the difficult conditions at Oakmont.
Bezuidenhout ranks 17th in SGP this season and his stellar work on the greens should help him thrive at the scoreable TPC River Highlands this week, possibly with a top-20 finish.
