GOLF
The Range: Travelers Championship
Welcome to my new column, The Range! Every week I’ll be going over the previous event’s results while getting you ready for the upcoming tournaments right here on WIN DAILY.
Recap of the U.S. Open – Until that last birdie putt on 18, I don’t know if I have ever seen a smoother win. No real highs or lows from Woodland throughout the tournament, just a focused energy to bring home the U.S. Open Championship Trophy.
For DraftKings, the Insight Sheet had an impressive outing itself. With 30 players in my personal player pool, 26 made the cut (87%). Out of the players to make the cut, 10 finished inside the Top 20 (four sitting at T21). I had four finish inside the Top 10 including winner Gary Woodland, at 10% ownership.
Not only were we able to find the eventual winner, but we also had a few low-owned guys pop as well.
T3 – Rose (9%)
T12 – Wallace (3%)
T12 – Willett (3%)
T16 – An (5%)
There was also Reavie (6%), Hovland (4%) and Rooyen (8%) who I liked coming in and quickly mentioned, but unfortunately did not play myself.
Let’s keep the green screens coming as we move east to the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
The Basics
Course : TPC River Highlands
Par: 70
Length: 6,841 Yards
Greens: Poa w/ Bent, 5,000 Square FT, Up to 12 Stimp
Fairways: Bentgrass with Bluegrass Fescue Roughs (4″ tall)
Architect: Pete Dye (1982), Bobby Weed (1989)
For a full hole breakdown, please visit https://travelerschampionship.com/course-info/
Course Fit
Unlike the rotating courses for the U.S. Open, the Travelers Championship has been played at TPC River Highlands since 1984 (originally TPC of Connecticut). While bombers have done well at the site in the past (I’m looking at you, three-time winner Bubba Watson) it’s not a necessity. In fact, driving distance is technically two yards shorter at TPC than tour average, while driving accuracy is almost 10% higher than tour average.
The shorter, classical golf courses generally has golfers thinking about their shots, strategically placing the ball. As noted above, the rough is thick and it will be one of TPC River Highland’s main defenses against golfers this week.
Here is a look at the Top 10 golfers in the field and how they’ve performed at the Travelers Championship in years past. They are ranked based on average SG:TOT (Strokes Gained: Total) and the DK Points they have scored. Please take note of the rounds each golfer has played at the course.
| Player Name | Salary | Rnds | SG: TOT | DK Pts |
| Paul Casey | 9500 | 16 | 2.5 | 21 |
| Bubba Watson | 8900 | 26 | 2.2 | 21.2 |
| Russell Henley | 7500 | 8 | 2.2 | 19.8 |
| Charley Hoffman | 8100 | 24 | 2 | 20.9 |
| Anirban Lahiri | 6900 | 8 | 2 | 20.7 |
| Jordan Spieth | 10700 | 8 | 1.7 | 21.3 |
| Beau Hossler | 7300 | 8 | 1.7 | 19.2 |
| Marc Leishman | 9100 | 26 | 1.6 | 18.8 |
| Kevin Tway | 7400 | 12 | 1.6 | 20.3 |
| Boo Weekley | 6200 | 6 | 1.6 | 19.2 |
Player Fit – Back End: (The part of the golfer’s ability where they excel in the smaller nuances of the game that might push them over the top to a win)
Let’s look at this week’s scorecard and figure out where we can attack the course. Below are the holes with an Average Return To Par (ARTP) score of zero or lower.
| Hole | Par | Yards | Rank | Avg Score | Avg RTP | Eagles | Birdies | Pars | Bogeys | Doubles/+ |
| 6 | 5 | 574 | 18 | 4.72 | -0.28 | 1.10% | 35.40% | 54.20% | 8.50% | 0.70% |
| 15 | 4 | 296 | 17 | 3.79 | -0.21 | 2% | 34.60% | 47.70% | 13.80% | 2% |
| 13 | 5 | 523 | 16 | 4.8 | -0.2 | 3.10% | 37.90% | 41.50% | 12.40% | 5% |
| 2 | 4 | 341 | 15 | 3.89 | -0.11 | 0.10% | 24.40% | 62.80% | 11.70% | 1% |
| 11 | 3 | 158 | 14 | 2.9 | -0.1 | 0.10% | 20.60% | 69.20% | 9.40% | 0.70% |
| 9 | 4 | 406 | 13 | 3.92 | -0.08 | 0.10% | 18.30% | 72.30% | 8.60% | 0.70% |
| 3 | 4 | 431 | 12 | 3.94 | -0.06 | 0.20% | 18.30% | 69.40% | 11.30% | 0.80% |
| 1 | 4 | 434 | 11 | 3.97 | -0.03 | 0.10% | 18.40% | 67.80% | 12.20% | 1.50% |
| 14 | 4 | 421 | 10 | 3.98 | -0.02 | 0.10% | 16.80% | 69.30% | 12.50% | 1.40% |
| 12 | 4 | 411 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0.10% | 19% | 65.50% | 12.80% | 2.60% |
From the illustration above, you notice that there are five Par 4 holes between 400 – 450 yards (eight total on the entire course). That’s where I want to begin, looking for golfers that perform well on that distance. Unlike many courses though, you see two holes below 350 yards that are Par 4s as well. Normally, I would only lock into one Par 4 scoring category but this week I’ll be adding 0 – 350. With two Par 5s that do not fall into one description. I’ll keep my Par Scoring general as opposed to fixating onto a singular yardage criteria.
Hole 13 is an interesting one as it yields the highest eagle/birdie rate, but also attracts the second-highest double bogey number as well. With water and out of bounds on both sides this hole could easily make or break a golfer’s round.
As always, I’ll be looking for Opportunity Gained and Bogey Avoidance along with the hole scoring, mentioned above. Here are the Top 10 ranked with the stats weighted evenly over the last 50 rounds.
| Player Name | Salary | My Rank | Opps Gained | Bogeys Avoided | P4: 0-350 | P4: 400-450 | SG: Par 5 |
| Patrick Cantlay | 11300 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 9 |
| Brooks Koepka | 11800 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 36 | 2 |
| Justin Thomas | 9800 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 31 | 19 | 1 |
| Paul Casey | 9500 | 4 | 14 | 10 | 32 | 30 | 3 |
| Russell Knox | 7700 | 5 | 29 | 7 | 43 | 25 | 25 |
| Jason Day | 10000 | 6 | 54 | 25 | 7 | 26 | 20 |
| Kevin Streelman | 8200 | 7 | 40 | 22 | 14 | 6 | 66 |
| Jason Kokrak | 8300 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 45 | 15 | 81 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | 9200 | 9 | 7 | 47 | 50 | 46 | 5 |
| Byeong Hun An | 7800 | 10 | 13 | 49 | 17 | 55 | 32 |
Final Recap
While this isn’t the U.S. Open, it certainly seems to shape up like it. It’s a shorter course where distance off the tee is nice (as long as accurate) but not a necessity. Design and setup of the course are its main defenses. Fast, Poa greens that are smaller than tour average. While I was a little surprised to the final score on Sunday (mainly due to weather or lack thereof) reaching double digits, that shouldn’t be an issue here. With an average winning score over the last five years of -15, I believe we will see plenty of scoring.
Course Setup:
Shorter than 7200 yards
Long rough
Poa greens
Player Efficiencies:
Opportunities Gained
Bogey Avoidance
Par 4 Scoring: 0- 350
Par 4 Scoring: 400 – 450
Par 5 Scoring
Thanks for reading and I hope this article is a great starting place for your DFS research. Look out for the Insight Sheet dropping Wednesday. It will include my model’s Top 50 with Data Golf World Rankings, Vegas Odds, and analysis on my personal player pool.
While The Range article will remain FREE, the Insight Sheet will only be free for a limited time.
Please leave a comment below if you found this helpful and any questions you may have.
