TPC River Highlands is set to host this week’s Travelers Championship.
This Pete Dye design is one of the shortest on TOUR at just 6,852 yards on the scorecard.
While the rough is somewhat manageable, there is a big penalty at the course for missing the fairway, with lots of penalty strokes lurking on wayward shots.
Let’s take these two angles and see if we can find some DFS value nuggets for our FanDuel squads.
Short Course Success
This week’s course is less than 6,900 yards on the card and it’s not deceptive in its length, either. There are just two par 4s over 460 yards. For TOUR pros, that means a lot of wedges and short irons.
“There’s a lot of holes you can be aggressive with and get shorter irons in your hand, if you want.” -Matt Jones
“This course is great for me. I’m not a bomber, so it’s nice to be able to have a lot of short irons into the greens.” -Chris Stroud
Here are the top performers in adjusted strokes gained per round on other short courses, over the last two years:
Patrick Cantlay
Sam Burns
Jordan Spieth
Harris English
Justin Thomas
Webb Simpson
Tony Finau
Rory McIlroy
Scottie Scheffler
Si Woo Kim
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Joaquin Niemann
Maverick McNealy
Jason Day
Seamus Power
We can also look at a golfer’s performance versus their baseline to see who over-performs most. Here is that list:
Dylan Wu
Trey Mullinax
Garrick Higgo
John Huh
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Patrick Cantlay
Matthias Schwab
Greyson Sigg
Brian Stuard
Jim Herman
Maverick McNealy
Andrew Landry
Taylor Moore
Seth Reeves
Sam Burns
Overlap List: the names that appear on both lists are Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, and Maverick McNealy.
Burns faded on Sunday last week but can he hop right back on the horse and play himself back into contention like he’s done so often this year?
Editor’s Note: Dominate daily with our premium DFS Tools that are packed with our lineup optimizer, a salary tracker, projections and much more. And don’t forget to use promo code WELCOME10 to get 10% off. Click here to learn more!
Precision Preferred
TPC River Highlands does not require power and precision is actually preferred.
Looking at penalty stats, roughly 8% of missed fairways have resulted in penalty strokes here at TPC River Highlands. That is one of the highest rates out on TOUR.
So, even with some manageable rough (even more manageable this year as they had a cold spring) the penalty for missing a faiway can still be very high in Cromwell.
Here are the top performers on other courses with a big penalty for missing the fairway, over the last two years:
Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
Justin Thomas
Rory McIlroy
Patrick Cantlay
Brooks Koepka
Webb Simpson
Jason Day
Sam Burns
Mito Pereira
Tony Finau
Brian Harman
Jason Kokrak
Jordan Spieth
Davis Riley
We can also look at a golfer’s performance versus their baseline to see who over-performs most. Here is that list:
Davis Riley
Mito Pereira
Stephan Jaeger
Richy Werenski
Adam Svensson
Sahith Theegala
Brooks Koepka
Jason Day
David Lipsky
Denny McCarthy
Brendan Steele
Aaron Rai
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Brendon Todd
Scottie Scheffler
Overlap List: the names that appear on both lists are Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Mito Pereira, and Davis Riley.
Riley is riding a big wave of momentum over the last few months. Can he maintain this pace and cement himself as a star out on the PGA TOUR?
FanDuel Focus
Mito Pereira ($10,200): The Chilean has gained at least 2.5 strokes over the field in eight of his last 12 rounds played. He shows up on the overlap list for performance on courses with a big missed-fairway penalty. Add that up and you have a very affordable mid-tier option this week at TPC River Highlands.
Maverick McNealy ($9,400): He twirled a 65 in round one of his tournament debut last year, to find himself in a share of fourth place. McNealy settled for a T30 finish by week’s end, still a solid effort for the first time playing an event. What stands out most with McNealy is his performance on short courses. It’s where a lot of his early PGA TOUR success has been found and he’s also very comfortable on poa annua greens, having spent his college days at Stanford.
Good luck with your lineups this week and check back tomorrow for some more course-fit analysis.
