FanDuel Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions – 2017 Travelers Championship

2017 Travelers Championship FanDuel Fantasy Preview

It’s going to be tough for the PGA TOUR to follow up an impressive week by Brooks Koepka at the U.S. Open where he was able to match the tournament record with a score of 16-under-par and take down runners-up Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman by four strokes.

They will next be heading to Cromwell, Connecticut for the Travelers Championship; an event that dates back to 1952 and boasts some impressive champions over its history. It has been held at TPC at River Highlands since 1991 and the par-70, 6,841-yard course has become the second-most attended event behind the Waste Management Open.

Last year, Russell Knox finished the week as the victor despite needing to fend off a history making 58 put up by Jim Furyk on the final day of play. It was Daniel Berger that held the 54-hole lead, but a rough stretch as he hit the back-nine allowed for Knox to net his second career PGA TOUR victory; defeating Jerry Kelly by just a single stroke behind a 14-under score. It was the seventh consecutive installment of this tournament in which the winner took home the trophy by only a single stroke or after extra holes in a playoff.

Knox will be in attendance once again as he attempts to become the eighth multiple-time winner and first back-to-back champion since Phil Mickelson did so in 2001 and 2002. Other notable names you’ll see on the trophy more than once include Billy Casper (1963, 1965, 1968, 1973), Arnold Palmer (1956, 1960), Paul Azinger (1987, 1989), Peter Jacobsen (1984, 2003), Stewart Cink (1997, 2008), and most recently Bubba Watson (2010, 2015).

The field will be a tough one to get past, though, with 12 players from the top-50 in the Official World Golf Rankings vying for the top prize. Fans will be excited to see the sixth-ranked golfer in the world, Jordan Spieth, leading the pack with 8/1 odds, while being closely followed by No. 3 Rory McIlroy, No. 4 Jason Day, No. 12 Justin Thomas, and No. 16 Paul Casey.

Both McIlroy and Day will be attempting to shake off the disappointing showing at Erin Hills last week where they failed to make it to the weekend. Also out of the top-50 players in the world are No. 17 Patrick Reed, No. 27 Brian Harman, No. 28 Daniel Berger, No. 32 Brandt Snedeker, No. 37 Marc Leishman, No. 40 Bubba Watson, and No. 49 Charley Hoffman. Both Knox and Furyk, the big headliners from last year’s outing, are getting 66/1 odds as they gear up for a repeat performance.

FanDuel features eight roster spots for golfers with a $60,000 salary to use. This allows for players to create a balanced lineup that they can run throughout the entire four days (if they make the cut). It will be vital to get golfers who have a good shot at finishing within the top-25, can put together strings of holes under par, and can bounce back from a poor hole with a birdie or better.

Below is a sample of fantasy roster choices at all different price ranges who should be able to perform well this week at the Travelers Championship.

2017 Travelers Championship FanDuel Picks

Kevin Streelman – $5,900 – Streelman has two PGA TOUR victories to his name, and one of them just so happened to come at this event back in 2014 when he shot 15-under-par and defeated KJ Choi and Sergio Garcia by a single stroke. It was his second top-10 here with the other being a sixth back in 2011.

The 38-year-old has missed the cut in the past two seasons, but is playing some solid golf right now with top-20s in each of his last two starts and four such finishes in his last 10 events played. His driver is a solid asset while hitting 65.01% of fairways (44^th on TOUR) and holding his own in distance (292.5 yard per, 79^th on TOUR).

Overall he has gained 0.324 strokes off the tee (52^nd on TOUR) and this has led to a par four scoring average of 4.02 (40^th on TOUR); something he will see plenty of this week. Watch for Streelman to keep his recent success going when he gets to Connecticut.

Chad Campbell – $6,000 – Campbell is a real wildcard going into this event. The last seven years on this course has seen him net three top-25s, including a fifth and a seventh, as well as a 70^th and three missed cuts; one which came last year. But, he has also been playing some inspired golf over the last month, coming in off the heels of a 10^th in the St. Jude Classic, 34^th in the Colonial, and 11^th in the Byron Nelson.

Adding to his wildcard status once again, though, was his three missed cuts prior to that stretch. What we think gets him to the weekend and into the top-25 is an all-around game, which has him in the top-60 in strokes gained approaching the green (0.409, 41^st on TOUR), around the green (0.181, 53^rd on TOUR), and from tee-to-green (0.692, 43^rd on TOUR). Campbell will stay out of trouble with a steady driver (66.84% fairways hit, 26^th on TOUR) and the ability to scramble around the greens (66.17%, 3^rd on TOUR).

This is by no means a sexy pick, but we like him to put up some scoring while keeping the blow up holes to a minimum and sneaking towards the top come Sunday.

Chez Reavie – $6,400 – Things were looking to be coming off the hinges for Reavie in the middle part of the season as he failed to make the cut in 6-of-7 events between early February and mid-april, but he has turned things around with a visit to the weekend in all but one of his past seven tournaments. The most recent showing was just this past week at Erin Hills and he brought some true grit in one of the year’s toughest tests, grinding through the four days and tying for 16^th after 3-of-4 rounds at par or better.

Reavie will have plenty of chances at scoring with a deadly accurate tee shot (70.81% driving accuracy, 5^th on TOUR) and the best average proximity to the hole (32’7”) on the entire circuit. Also, the 35-year-old knows how to turn it on when the pressure is up, ranking 16^th in second round scoring (69.74) and 8^th in final round scoring (69.25).

Although he has yet to crack into the top-10 here over his four attempts since 2012, he has an 11^th (2012) and 25^th (2015) and has made the cut in each outing. We believe he is someone who has a huge week coming and will pay back his FanDuel owners in a big way.

David Lingmerth – $6,700 – Lingmerth has never been a world beater over his 117 events in four plus seasons on the PGA TOUR, but he has improved and become more consistent over the last few years.

Since the start of 2015, he is 46-for-68 (68%) in cuts made and finished in the top-50 of the FedExCup in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Although he sits well behind that position this year at 114^th, he has moved up from 170^th after six consecutive cuts made dating back to the end of April; including all five of his top-25s on the year.

Lingmerth is obviously back to form and it would be wise to avoid looking less at his overall stats on the year, and more at what he has done of late as well as the one area where he has continued to stay strong; putting (0.425 strokes gained putting, 28^th on TOUR).

He has proven to be a very capable player with the ability to compete at the top of the leaderboard as evidenced by a win, three runner-ups, and a third over his time as a professional and will prove a great asset at TPC at River Highlands.

Brendan Steele – $8,200 – Steele has been one of, if not the most, consistent golfers on the PGA TOUR this season and it has allowed him to sit in the top-15 of the FedExCup standings. Over his sixteen starts, the only tournament that he has failed to play the weekend at was the Zurich Classic. He also earned his second career victory, and first since 2011, at the Safeway Open.

He has been playing very well against some of the toughest competition, placing sixth in THE PLAYERS Championship and then 13^th just last week at Erin Hills. Across the board, it is difficult to find an area where Steele really struggles, and the reason he is able to make so many cuts is because of his strokes gained from tee-to-green (1.105, 19^th on TOUR) and around the green (0.324, 24^th on TOUR). He is earning a birdie or better on 23.24% of his holes played (14^th on TOUR), knows how to make up for a bogey with 27.08% bounce back (10^th on TOUR), and is in the top-20 in birdie or better percentage on par fours (18.95%, 18^th on TOUR) and par fives (48.15%, 15^th on TOUR).

If you need more to get him into your lineup, just look at his past results at this event, earning tickets to the weekend in 6-of-7 visits while averaging a finish of 15^th-place when playing all four rounds.

Charley Hoffman – $8,300 – Hoffman just keeps on trucking along at the age of 40, currently settling in as the 49^th ranked player in the world and 30^th in the FedExCup standings. The four-time PGA TOUR winner also gets to come back to a course which has allowed him plenty of success in recent years and he is a perfect 6-for-6 in cuts made over his past six visits; nearly winning it in 2012 with a runner-up finish.

Some stellar results this year have also put him in the spotlight as he was the runner-up in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and held his own in both The Masters (22^nd) and the U.S. Open (8^th). The key for Hoffman is to continue gaining strokes off the tee (0.597, 12^th on TOUR) and being aggressive (62.67% going for the green, 25^th on TOUR) in his approach.

Overall, he has made the cut in just 14-of-21 tournaments, but is nine for his last ten and has tallied a top-25 in nine of his 14 cuts made. Hoffman often flies under the radar, but should not be overlooked here.

Marc Leishman – $8,300 – Leishman has always been a phenomenal presence on the world’s greatest golf tour, ranking in the top-90 of the FedExCup standings each year since joining in 2008, but is currently in the midst of a career campaign. Through 16 events played, he has just a pair of missed cuts and was the champion in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Since the win, he hasn’t exactly torched the field, but does have two top-15s at the Byron Nelson and Memorial and is now attending a tournament where he has dominated in the past.

Leishman took home his first trophy when playing here back in 2012 and has posted another three finishes in the top-11 since 2009. There are no holes in his game as he ranks 10^th in total strokes gained (1.388); leading to a scoring average of 69.881 (7^th on TOUR), and is going for the green on nearly every shot (70.68%, 5^th on TOUR).

Simply put, Leishman has the talent to put up a very low score this week and go home the winner for a second time.

Justin Thomas – $9,800 – It looked as if Thomas was poised to win his first major last week in Wisconsin after posting a miraculous Saturday score of 63, but faltered down the stretch and ended up finishing in a tie for ninth. JT’s play has certainly solidified him as one of the elite in the game, though, and a victory this week would add to the other four (three in 2017) that he has already won at the young age of 24.

His combination of driving distance (305.3, 11^th on TOUR), greens in regulation (69.16%, 16^th on TOUR), and birdie or better conversion percentage (38.82%, best on TOUR) has allowed him to net the fourth-best scoring average (69.614) and rank first in par four scoring average (3.91), birdie or better percentage (27.78%), and late scoring average (68.58). Throw in the fact that he put up a third here last year and you’ll see why we are putting our money on this young man to win for a fourth time in 2017 and take over the top spot in the FedExCup standings

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