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We are off to Cromwell, Connecticut, where TPC River Highlands will host the Travelers Championship. The course is a very short par 70, measuring at 6,841 yards with greens consisting of a bentgrass/poa blend.
We’ll start at the top Scottie Scheffler gets the slight nod over Rory McIlroy for me this week. The way he played over the weekend at the U.S. Open was remarkable and had he gotten a few breaks here or there it easily could have been him hoisting the U.S. Open Trophy instead of Matt Fitzpatrick. McIlroy did not do anything of note to lose his top spot; it just feels like Scheffler is on another planet right now and has a gear that no other professional golfer can get to. Both of these studs are +900 this week on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Patrick Cantlay will enter the top-five this week after an extremely quiet T14 last week at the U.S. Open. He’s played extremely well at TPC River Highlands in his career, finishing inside the top 15 in each of his past four starts here. Cantlay does a lot of his damage on shorter tracks, and with a 6,800 yard par 70 on tap this week I would expect his recent success to continue. He’s one of the best daily fantasy plays on the board and is a decent outright as well at +1400 on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Sam Burns has played TPC River Highlands three times in his career, making the cut in each, while improving on his finishing position every time. He’s playing the best golf of his career right now, already having posted three wins on the 2022 season. He was also in contention at the U.S. Open last week, but a poor final round torpedoed his chances. We should fully expect a bounce back performance this week at a track he fancies. Burns checks in at No. 6 in the power rankings this week.
If you didn’t already know, Davis Riley is well on his way to superstardom. He faded a bit over the weekend at the Country Club, but still finished a very respectable T31 in his first career U.S. Open start. Prior to that he had finished T13 or better in each of his past six starts, with four top-10’s in that stretch. It feels like it will not be too long until we start putting him in the same class as the Scheffler’s, Hovland’s and Morikawa’s of the world. He vaults into the top 10 in the power rankings this week.
Let’s get to a few longer shots now who have a real chance to play well this week. Both Brendan Steele and Brendon Todd have been in great form and have strong course history at TPC River Highlands. Steele has seven top-25 finishes at this event since 2012, and has three top-10s in three of his past four starts overall. Todd is in similar form, having posted a T13 and T3 across his two starts. He also has a pair of top-15s at this track as well. Both of these Brendan’s (Brendon’s?) are firmly within the top 25 in the rankings this week.
Editor’s note: Justin Thomas has withdrawn from the Travelers Championship.
PGA TOUR Power Rankings
| RANK | GOLFER | PRE-TOURNAMENT ODDS |
|---|---|---|
| RANK | GOLFER | PRE-TOURNAMENT ODDS |
| 1 | Scottie Scheffler | +900 |
| 2 | Rory McIlroy | +900 |
| 3 | +1000 | |
| 4 | Patrick Cantlay | +1400 |
| 5 | Xander Schauffele | +2000 |
| 6 | Sam Burns | +1800 |
| 7 | Sungjae Im | +3500 |
| 8 | Joaquin Niemann | +3500 |
| 9 | Davis Riley | +4000 |
| 10 | Aaron Wise | +5000 |
| 11 | Seamus Power | +2800 |
| 12 | Harold Varner III | +3500 |
| 13 | Keegan Bradley | +2800 |
| 14 | Tony Finau | +4000 |
| 15 | Mito Pereira | +3500 |
| 16 | Tommy Fleetwood | +4000 |
| 17 | Brian Harman | +4000 |
| 18 | Webb Simpson | +8000 |
| 19 | Marc Leishman | +5000 |
| 20 | Brendan Steele | +6500 |
| 21 | Brendon Todd | +10000 |
| 22 | +4000 | |
| 23 | Maverick McNealy | +8000 |
| 24 | Denny McCarthy | +6500 |
| 25 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | +6500 |
Odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook
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