PGA DFS Core Plays: Travelers Championship
Top-ranked grinder, Notorious, breaks down his favorite daily fantasy golf plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
U.S. Open Review
First of all, the USGA and Torrey Pines both deserve credit for setting up an amazing U.S. Open. I heard many complaints about the course throughout the week, but we got one of the best back nine leaderboards we’ve ever had at a major. At one point, all five of the top golfers in the world were within a shot of the lead. The ending was a tad painful for yours truly, as I had a sizable outright on Louis Oosthuizen at 50-to-1. While he has now finished runner up at a major on six different occasions, it’s not fair to say he choked on this occasion. While the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, and Collin Morikawa were crumbling around him, he played a great back nine until he reached the 17th hole. His one-shot lead over Jon Rahm turned into a one-stroke deficit thanks to two incredible left-to-right putts from Rahm. Louis then pulled his tee shot on 17 into one of the few hazards on the course. He nearly saved par thanks to a good approach shot and then he birdied his final hole. Golf is a game of very slim edges, as Rahm could have easily missed both of those putts and we could be talking about how steady Oosthuizen was down the stretch to win his second major.
As for Rahm, I can’t say enough about the way he handled himself after what happened at the Memorial Tournament two weeks ago. He took the forced withdrawal in stride, kept his eye on the goal, and took home his first major. Even in his post-round interview, he was incredible humble and again was all class. He caught a break on the ninth hole when his drive flew the fence on the left, but he found out that it wasn’t out of bounds over there and he got a free drop on the other side of the fence. He went on to make birdie and was a green-hitting machine on the back nine. For what it’s worth, Oosthuizen also caught a big break on the 13th hole when his approach shot could have easily rolled back down the hill 30-40 yards. My only complaint of the course is that it was much better to miss fairways by 30 yards than it was to miss them by one yard. Speaking of, I didn’t love Bryson DeChambeau intentionally hitting drives into the crowd while picking up his tee early and not even caring to yell fore, but that’s not going to take away from a great week. We have been spoiled with three great majors so far in 2020.
Travelers Championship Preview
We now turn our attention to one of my favorite non-major events of the year — the Travelers Championship. TPC River Highlands is a Par 70 that measures just over 6,800, which is extremely short by PGA Tour standards. The course is located in Cromwell, Connecticut and features a mix of bent and poa grass on the fairways and greens. While there will be a lot of birdies made this week, this course isn’t exactly a pushover. We typically see the winning score in the mid to upper teens. It was designed by Pete Dye and like most of his courses, this one can’t be overpowered off the tee. This is evident in the type of golfers we’ve seen succeed here over the years — a mix of bombers, elite iron players, and elite short game golfers. Ultimately, this is one of the few events on the schedule where you don’t need one specific skillset to contend.
The course only features two par fives, but they should be reachable by the entire field with a drive in the fairway. The 15th hole is a risk-reward drivable par four (reminds me of number 17 at the Waste Management Open) and the second hole could be reachable by the longest drivers of the ball. Looking at past statistics from this event, golfers don’t hit as many drivers as they would at most courses. This leads to more fairways being hit on average. The greens themselves are small (5,000 square feet on average), but are easier to hit than tour average. While saving par is critical anytime you miss greens, this is the smallest weight I’ve had for strokes gained around the green in quite some time. If you are constantly missing greens, you likely aren’t going to contend this week. Ultimately, you have to hit your wedges well and find success on these poa/bent greens in order to contend this week.