Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2017 Travelers Championship

The Sleeper Report: Fantasy Golf Sleepers, Long Shots, and Undervalued Picks for the 2017 Travelers Championship

The 2017 Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Preview

So here we are then: two majors down and into the second half of the PGA TOUR campaign.

The next big point of interest will be the British Open in July, but for the time being it’s back to a normal schedule for the Tour. This week’s tournament, the Travelers Championship, should offer plenty of opportunities for those who played in the US Open to exorcise the demons of what was a supremely tough test of skill.

The average winning score at TPC River Highlands, our host venue this week, is -14, and so there will be no fescue-based nightmares in Connecticut.

Mind you, that’s not to suggest that this course will be completely blown away by the field. It’s incredibly short by modern day standards at 6,841 yards for its Par 70, and allowing for wind it will probably play around 1,000 yards shorter than Erin Hills!

The track has been tweaked and changed since the 1920s by Pete Dye and Bobby Weed, but the general consensus is that this is short track that rewards strategic shot placement and sensible course management. Recent winners here include Russell Knox, Kevin Streelman, and Ken Duke, while Jim Furyk became the first man in PGA TOUR history to shoot a 58 here 12 months ago. Short is very much sweeter here at River Highlands.

It’s no surprise to learn then that Knox was circumspect off the tee last year in his winning run, and if we told you that he beat Jerry Kelly by one shot you might get a clearer impression of what is required to get the job done in this corner of Connecticut.

Hit greens….and lots of them: that’s how you will win the Travelers Championship. Knox ranked fifth for GIR 12 months ago and eighth for Putting Average; that’s always going to be a winning combination.

So who de we expect to get groovy on the dancefloor in Connecticut? Here’s the pick of the fantasy sleepers this week.

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The Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

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The Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Mix and match these players with your usual rosters (or play them separately) to get the most out of your picks this week.

David Lingmerth – Vegas Odds  70/1: Despite missing the cut at THE PLAYERS, Lingmerth has notched Top 21 finishes in his last five of six events played (including three Top 15s). He’s a solid player on the greens (which we all know will be important this week) with a TOUR rank of 28th in SG: Putting and a field rank this week of 12th.

From a fantasy golf standpoint, David has been a performer over the last three weeks and comes into TPC River Highlands with an average of about 75 fantasy points per game.

Kevin Streelman – Vegas Odds 90/1: Streelman is another player who did not have to make the travel arrangements from Erin Hills to TPC River Highlands.  After sitting last week out Streelman has been preparing for what may be another historic run on a course that he has dominated in the past.  He’s accurate off the tee (44th in driving accuracy) but occasionally struggles with the flat stick.  We’re hoping his recent trend of T18-T3 will transition over to a Top 10 or better this week for the returning 2014 champion.

This is a sleeper spot that fantasy players may opt to run with Knox instead of Streelman and we don’t think you can go wrong either way, but we’re giving the edge to Streels this week.

Adam Hadwin – Vegas Odds 80/1:  Not long ago (Dean & DeLuca) Hadwin had an $8,400 price tag and this week he’s dropped to a $6,800.  Here’s a guy with four Top 10s this season and seven Top 25s with 16 of 18 cuts made so obviously we think he’s been undervalued by DraftKings.

Hadwin is a horse and usually makes it to the weekend, which is all you can ask for out of a sub-$7,000 player.  But we feel Adam can give fantasy players much more than just a cut made this week.  As far as key stats go, he ranks 8th in the field (14th on TOUR) in scrambling and sits at 28th on TOUR in SG: Total.

His putter is usually hot and we’ll certainly take a guy like Hadwin who ranks 36th on TOUR with an average drive of 292 at TPC River Highlands for $6,800.

Vaughn Taylor – Vegas Odds 175/1:  We’re going to offer you two ‘super-sleepers’ this week and the first pick starts with Vaughn.  VT ranks 33rd on TOUR in driving accuracy and is 19th in the field this week for that crucial stat.  The veteran comes in this week with six Top 25 finishes on TOUR this season but there may be some doubt surrounding this guy due to his inability to play well in big name fields.  But guess what…we’re not buying that.  Yes he played poorly at THE PLAYERS (MC) and the Memorial (T73) but this course plays more like the courses he’s fared well on in the past including the Dean & DeLuca (T18) and the Wells Fargo (T12).

Taylor is a player that you can look to score 70-75 fantasy points from at a $6,700 price tag this week.  Anything more than that would be gravy.

Michael Thompson – Vegas Odds  300/1:  Talk about a ‘Super-Long Shot’ Sleeper…here’s the horse in the race with the broken leg but somehow still has a chance to make people a lot of money.

So why Thompson?  Well first off, he costs $6,500 which frees up tons of roster space for three big names up top.  But it’s not just Thompson’s price tag that we’re after.  He also ranks 2nd on TOUR in SG: Putting and 1st in this week’s field.  Given how important putting will be this week you can’t argue with that stat for $6,500 can you?

Despite the hot putter, his ‘off-the-tee’ stats are not impressive but we don’t think that should matter on such a forgiving course like TPC River Highlands.  He hasn’t made much noise this year but like we said, anything can happen with a hot putter on a course that produced a score of 58.  Use him if you need to create roster room and are looking for a little lightning in a bottle this week.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the Travelers Championship here.

Cover photo via Instagram