PGA DFS: First Cut Tournament Preview for the Travelers Championship

The return to some normalcy is likely going to be a gradual process rather than a sprint. Being able to sit down and write this article every Sunday sets my entire PGA DFS week. We’re two weeks into the return of the PGA season with the Travelers Championship on tap. Let’s get into a course breakdown of TPC River Highlands for your DraftKings + FanDuel PGA DFS lineups.

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If this is your first time reading the article, or you’ve simply forgotten all about PGA DFS, then I’ll give you a quick summary of what’s to come:

Tournament Intro
Course Breakdown and DFS Sweatsheet
Player Preview
Statistical Preview

Tournament Intro: Travelers Championship

In back-to-back weeks we’ve had a very tight leaderboard with a ton of golfers that could have won the tournament come Sunday evening.

Now we turn our attention to the third tournament since the restart, and it’s a great one. Hosted just outside of Hartford, Conn. in Cromwell, the Travelers Championship is a tourney that most of the best players attend regardless of when it’s on the schedule. In fact, it ranks as one of the best from a fan and player perspective year in and year out. The proximity to major metro hubs like Boston and New York typically makes it one of the most exciting all year. Sadly, we won’t have that this year.

This tournament also recognizes some of the brightest young players in the game, typically ones that just turned pro after the college season. Their season usually ends at the end of May, and this tournament is held in the middle of June almost every year. A couple of the names getting the nod this week are:

William Gordon
Peter Kuest
Sahith Theegala

The tournament has always had an insurance company sponsor it but has been played in the area since the 1950s. It’s been played at TPC River Highlands since the beginning of the 1990s, so we’ve got over 20 years of data to analyze.

Tournament Format

There are 156 players with the top 65 and ties making the cut after 36 holes.

Course Commentary: TPC River Highlands

Winding through the dense Connecticut forest, TPC River Highlands boasts the typical northeast golf game: find the fairway and you’ll be at a big advantage. Although it doesn’t play long, even some of the biggest hitters don’t mind, as the course setup allows for bigger hitters to take advantage of some of the shorter holes. It plays similar to the last two weeks in that regard, as a huge driver doesn’t necessarily give you a huge advantage, or at least not as much as we’ll see next week at least. Let’s take a look at the full course profile.

Course Profile

Par and Yardage

Par 70: 6,900

Course Difficulty 2019

19/49: just over three-quarters of a stroke over par.

Hole Dispersion

Four par 3s: 223, 202, 158, 171
12 par 4s: 434, 341, 431, 481, 443, 406, 462, 511, 421, 296, 420, 444
Two par 5s: 574, 523

Grass Types

Bent

Designer

Peter Dye — at least the redesign in the early ’90s along with Roger Maltbie and Howard Twitty.

Facts and Figures

The front nine plays about a quarter of a stroke easier than the back.

Off the Tee: For the third week in a row, the big hitters won’t be able to utilize that aspect of their game fully. In terms of driving distance, it ranked 10th on Tour last year with an average drive of 278 yards. However, these fairways were some of the easiest to hit on Tour with an average of almost 70%, ranking 42nd out of 49 courses last year.
Approach to the green: Some of the easiest fairways to hit should lead to some of the easiest greens to hit, and that’s kind of the case here, ranking 27th on Tour last year at just shy of 67.5%. The proximity to the hole ranked 20th last year.
Around the Green: Continuing with the tricky greens, scrambling ranked 21st last year, converting 58% of the up and downs last year, and boasts some of the hardest bunkers, ranking 15th in sand save percentage.
On the Green: No surprise to see the greens as one of the top-15 hardest. The longer the putter, the harder it becomes, ranking second-hardest on putts from 15-20 feet, seventh from 20-25 and ninth in over 25 feet.

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PGA DFS Sweatsheet and Commentary

The two par 5s add up to 25% of the total scoring for the week. That’s probably about average for a par 70. The second and 15th are two very scoreable holes, but as is normal with Pete Dye designs, danger lurks all over the place on 15.

Player Preview for PGA DFS Lineups

The Expected Top-30 Players in the Field by OWGR and Corresponding Odds:

Finally, Patrick Cantlay returns to action, leaving only Tiger Woods as the only top-10 golfer not here to compete since the restart. I suspect we’ll have to wait two more weeks as Tiger returns to play at The Memorial, the first time fans are allowed back on the course. Paul Casey makes his return to the course, coming back to a place he has some good results, but probably not-so-great memories. A couple of other names appearing on the tee sheet for the first time since the Tour has returned are Lucas Bjerregaard, Sam Burns and Jamie Lovemark. Last week, four of the five previous winners were able to make the cut.

Previous Winners

2019: Chez Reavie: -17
2018: Bubba Watson: -17
2017: Jordan Spieth: -12 (Playoff vs. Daniel Berger)
2016: Russell Knox: -14
2015: Bubba Watson: -16 (Playoff vs. Paul Casey)

PGA DFS Statistical Comparison

Driving Accuracy vs. Driving Distance: A great mixture of long hitters and accurate ones, thanks to Watson. The other five guys listed, including the playoff partners, have an average driving distance of under 100 with Reavie ranking 161st as the shortest of the bunch. Other than them, the winner averages at least 1.5 strokes ball striking for the week.
Strokes Gained Tee to Green Analysis: Two outliers here from the winners over the last five years. Spieth in 2017 lost stroke off the tee, while Watson in 2015 lost strokes on the approach. Other than them, winners gained at least 1.8 strokes ball striking for the week.
Putting; How good do they need to be here?: A little bit of a mixed bag here as well, with Watson and Casey being known more for their ball striking than their putting prowess. Reavie and Knox aren’t typically known as some of the best putters, while obviously Spieth bucks that trend.