Take a look at our Daily Fantasy Sports – PGA Tour Lineups for the Travelers Championship starting June 21:
The Course:
We’re at a 6800 yard, par 70 golf course this week, which is one of, if not the, shortest courses on the PGA Tour. This is a Pete Dye course, which generally means that there are certain angles and course knowledge that are beneficial to know while playing. This is one of the easier Pete Dye courses on tour, but it can still produce a little of the challenge. Distance isn’t much of an advantage but it also isn’t exactly a disadvantage. You can play aggressive or lay up on most holes to decide how long the second shot will be. Hitting woods or irons off of the tee would force a slightly longer approach but also be easier to hit accurately for most guys. Whoever is hitting the ball best tee to green should produce here and the distance should not become too important. This is a par 70 that can give up good rounds if a golfer is on. It features a very driveable par 4, which does help scoring a decent amount. I am mainly targeting good T2G players and par 4 scoring.
The Players:
Justin Thomas is the king of birdies on par 4’s and that is what it will take to win this golf tournament. I project a winner around -15 and that would mean you really have to score on the par 4’s when golfers will only see 8 par 5’s all week. I think Thomas has the best win equity at the top and the highest ability to run away with a LOT of birdies this week.
The rest of the top end is filled with golfers that have a flaw but are all guys I expect to make the cut. The people I will play based on equity/ownership will most likely be Spieth, Reed, and Casey, but I think all of these make the weekend besides MAYBE Jason Day and to a lesser extent, Rory.
Bryson DeChambeau was my guy two years ago and then he was terrible all of last year, to my detriment. Once I saw the form returning, I have hopped on and never looked back. Now, at such a high price tag, he will be hard to stomach, but remember, he was a top amateur just 2 years ago and now look at the game logs. He has become borderline elite in the past 3 months and I don’t expect him to trend downward any time soon. Maybe this time next year, this price or higher will be the norm for Bryson. I like Bryson because he will be hard to roster and difficult to stomach for most.
Bubba Watson has the course history to make everyone turn their head this week. Now, he may become popular for that reason, but when Bubba likes a course, he just always plays it well. We’ve seen it at the Masters even when he was trending down. Now, Bubba looks to be back to better form after ditching his sponsorship golf balls. I like Bubba this week in all formats.
J.B. Holmes, Luke List, and Keegan Bradley are all going to be core plays for me this week and are great in all formats. They have been good this year and have the tools to dominate this type of golf course. You need to strike the ball well and be able to get on a roll. All three of these golfers go on these runs where they appear to be elite within golf tournaments or even throughout a few months where they put together great results. This is the kind of golf course that should benefit better play more than most. What I mean is that I think the best overall golfers will see success this week and I think these guys outclass most in their range.
Just below that tier is another group of golfers that seem like they can really make a run at it this week. Emiliano Grillo, Kyle Stanley, and Jamie Lovemark all have the ability to get it done. That is what I am looking for and they are too cheap. Grillo’s recent form has been outstanding. Stanley and Lovemark both have consistently shown the ability to put up results good enough to be in winning lineups and can score.
Beau Hossler is talented and just underpriced for his upside. He is one of the most talented golfers in the field and he is waiting to breakthrough. This is a perfect spot for the rookie to show up and dominate. He doesn’t have a clear weakness in his game and is able to score on any track.
Chez Reavie is another one of my favorite guys that is always in this lower tier. Reavie is rather short off the tee, but that should not penalize him much this week and he has a lot of ways to get to the top of the leaderboard. His game is rather polished and he can take advantage of a course that requires everything in the bag.