Patrick Waters 
The Range is a course breakdown for the upcoming PGA tournament with a DFS perspective. This week the tour heads north to Connecticut as the players face off in the Travelers Championship.
The Basics
Course: TPC River Highlands
Par: 70
Length: 6,844 Yards
Fairways: Undulating Bentgrass (Rough is thick)
Greens: Poa (5,000 sq ft Average)
Architect: Robert Ross (1928); resigned by Pete Dye (1982) and again by Bobby Weed (1989)
Past five winners: ’19 Reavie (-17), ’18 Watson (-17), ’17 Spieth (-12), ’16 Knox (-14) & ’15 Watson (-16)
For a hole by hole breakdown, visit the PGA Tour website here!
Course Breakdown
Last week wasn’t suppose to be a scoring fest but it turned into one. Like the week before at the Charles Schwab Challenge, scores were up despite the history suggesting otherwise. I have zero proof of this but I wonder if the PGA Tour is making the courses easier, knowing that more eyes are on the sport. It could also happen to be the fact that the fields are loaded, more talent, lower scores. This week at the Travelers Championship, scoring was already easy to begin with so I don’t know if the course needs to be eased in any way.
What we do know is that the field is once again stacked, with bigger names Cantlay and Casey making their debut since the break. Pricing of the golfers has shifted back to it’s more normal rigorous standards. This change, I believe, gives the Win Daily family an advantage.
With previous scores hovering around the mid teens, golfers who score well on easy tracks should be your first stop. If the wind does pick up, it can hinder golfers a bit. Looking at players who perform well in the wind, couldn’t hurt. Fairways overall are easy to hit but the rough is gnarly. Look for golfers who do well off the tee. This weeks’s greens (Poa) at the Travelers Championship are bigger and softer then last week.
Here are the top golfers who have performed well under all three conditions.
Player Fit
TPC River Highlands has a variety of holes throughout the course. Usually we would focus on two groups of holes: the easiest and the hardest. While the easiest is missing most of the course falls into the Par 4 400 – 450 yards range. Second shot course like the last two weeks and looking for golfers that can stick it close from 125 – 175 yards on their approach.
Most weeks I will weigh both Bogey Avoidance and Birdie or Better, but our golfers need to score this week. I will only be using BOB this week in conjecture with opportunity scored.
Ball striking will once again make its return with the Travelers Championship. Last week we went heavy with approach over off the tee but this week, golfers who perform well in both areas will be key.
Putting is always in discussion among the PGA DFS community. While the stat carries the most variance among the major categories, I feel it’s important. With the softer and slower greens that we’ve seen in the last few weeks, weighing it heavy might be the move. Yes “bad” putters might play better, it should also make “good” putters play very well.
Here are the top ten golfers who have performed well when combining all these stats.
Final recap of the Travelers Championship
Like most weeks, see if there is a possible advantage to a weather draw. Another loaded field and like Isaiah has said in the discord chat, heat will play a factor. Once again golfers who have teed it up before this week might be the smart way to go (though Hatton tore it up last week).
Course Setup
Easy/Average to score
Easy to hit fairways
Poa (Bent Mix) greens
Player Efficiencies
Par 4 Scoring: 400 – 450
Proximity: 125 – 175
Poa Putting
DK Scoring
Birdie or Better
Opportunity Gained
Ball Striking
Thanks for reading and I hope this article is a great starting place for your DFS research for the Travelers Championship. Look out for the Insight Sheet dropping Wednesday. It will include my personal player pool and reasoning why each golfer was chosen. Also Wednesday night you can find me in the Win Daily Discord helping members with their lineups and last-minute questions.
Stat Source: Fantasy National GC
