Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – The Travelers Championship

2019 Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

The Western movie Cool Hand Luke was an Oscar winner, with the swarthy Paul Newman playing the lead role.

If the movie had been called ‘Cool Hand Gary’ it probably wouldn’t have enjoyed such critical acclaim – Gary is not the coolest of names for high-level criminals, but it would be a good name to describe the efforts of Gary Woodland in winning the US Open on Sunday.

For a player with a rather checkered history of throwing away 54-hole leads, few were putting much faith in the 35-year-old getting the job done – especially with Justin Rose breathing down his neck and Brooks Koepka not a million miles away.

But Woodland showed that cool hand to not only stay strong in the face of adversity but thrive on it, birdieing two of the last five holes to stretch his lead with Koepka closing in on an extraordinary three-peat.

In the end, Brooks was waiting to shake Woodland’s hand on the eighteenth green as he completed a fourth PGA TOUR win and ended the phenom’s US Open streak.

We’re into the final furlong of the PGA TOUR campaign now, with the British Open on the horizon and the FedExCup race starting to take on more importance. That journey starts this week with the Travelers Championship from TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

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This is one of those rare weeks for bettors where there are few angles for us to explore. A short course with multiple doglegs and tree-framed sightlines off the tee, River Highlands is a tiny 6,841 yard Par 70 with just a pair of Par 5s to exploit, so the onus is very much on making red numbers on the Par 4s this week, with winning scores ranging from -12 to -17 here depending on how fearsome the wind blows.

And this week that appears to be pretty gently, with top speeds of around 10 mph expected. There’s rain about too from Tuesday through Thursday, which may just slow down these 10.5 on the stimp Bentgrass greens further. In which case, this will become a tournament where approaching close to the pin is all that matters.

With that in mind, who is on our shortlist of sleepers for the Travelers Championship this week.

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Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Emiliano Grillo – 70/1 – It’s been a bit better from Grillo of late, and his brilliance off the tee brings to mind another who has enjoyed success here: the three-time champion Bubba.

The Argentine’s strong tee-to-green game always brings him to mind in events when his form improves, and a happy recent run – Memorial Tournament (T9), Charles Schwab Challenge (T19) and the PGA Championship (T23) – means now is the time.

He has played well at two other Pete Dye tracks this term, and although T58 at Pebble Beach doesn’t sound that great he ranked second for SG: Approach and 18th for SG: Tee-to-Green, the basic building blocks of a good performance.

If the putter heats up – the switch to Bentgrass should suit – then Grillo can go much better on the east coast than the west.

Kevin Streelman – 70/1 – It’s been an excellent couple of months for Streelman, who has banked three top-10 finishes in his last five strokeplay starts.

Most surprising is that they have come at wholly disparate courses: TPC San Antonio (Texas Open), Muirfield Village (Memorial Tournament) and Harbour Town (RBC Heritage). What does that tell us? It confirms that Streelman is playing excellent golf that travels.

And we assume such good form will travel to River Highlands, where he won back in 2014. The sort of confidence a player gets from returning to the scene of a former triumph can often be the catalyst for another strong showing.

Charley Hoffman – 70/1 – We’re just waiting for the Hoff to finally break back into the winner’s circle.

Solo second at the Texas Open, he also finished inside the top-30 at the Masters as well as T13 at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

It’s likely that his fifth PGA TOUR title will come at a venue where he is comfortable, and few offer such levels of comfort as River Highlands. He’s made eight consecutive cuts, with seven top-30s and three of those being top-10; T2 in 2012 and T3 in 2017 his best efforts.

Could the Hoff finally return to the big time this week?

Jason Kokrak – 80/1 – It was a fantastic springtime for Kokrak, who recorded eight top-20 finishes in the period between the Desert Classic and the RBC Heritage.

Four of those were top-10s too, which indicates that he is capable of competing with the best in the business.

It’s been a fairly parlous spell since, but we have to go with the positives and assume that the Canadian is still in a good place psychologically.

And he should be heading to River Highlands: he’s a fantastic shot shaper off the tee, is comfortable on Bentgrass and ranks 23rd on Tour for Par 4 Birdie or Better Leaders, so the basic ingredients for success are there. 

C.T. Pan – 100/1 – We had expected a big showing from Pan at Pebble Beach, a course which in theory should have suited, but he really did struggle on the west coast.

Experience tells us not to ditch a player after one parlous week, however, and having won at a Pete Dye layout already this season the man from China Taipei is one who could go low once again.

Playing at an easier course than Pebble Beach helps, and his strong showing at Colonial a short while ago – a track not all too dissimilar to TPC River Highlands – certainly raises spirits.

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2018-2019)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”6.53%” bar_text=”10 out of 153 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”16.33%” bar_text=”25 out of 153 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”34.64%” bar_text=”53 out of 153 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”6.67%” bar_text=”2 out of 31 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”19.35%” bar_text=”6 out of 31 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”64.05%” bar_text=”98 out of 153 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram