Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – Travelers Championship

2022 Travelers Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

While it wasn’t exactly the shot heard around the world, Matt Fitzpatrick’s 48-foot putt on the thirteenth hole in the final round of the U.S. Open is one that will stay with him no matter what he goes on to achieve. 

It brought him a famous victory – a first ever win on American soil, and what a time to do it. The Brit downed another maiden, Will Zalatoris, on an intoxicating final day in which Scottie Scheffler also loomed like the predator he has become on the leaderboard.

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But Fitzpatrick, slightly odd cross-handed chipping stroke and all, was not to be denied, and he became the first player since Jack Nicklaus to win the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open on the same course.

Some have taken the decision to put their feet up this week, but others are hoping to parlay the confidence gained at The Country Club into a sustained effort at winning the Travelers Championship this week.

Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Sam Burns, Brooks Koepka….this is a high quality field that will meet at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. Have the great and good of the PGA TOUR decided to come together to help ward off the threat of LIV Golf? This is McIlroy’s sixth start in the last eight weeks, which is unusually busy for one of the best in the business.

Either way, the patrons at TPC River Highlands – one of the PGA TOUR’s most idiosyncratic designs – are in for a treat, as are the players at this mere 6,852 yard layout….officially amongst the shortest in the modern history of the TOUR.

The tight fairways and doglegging angles help to make up for a lack of length somewhat, while the Bentgrass/Poa mix greens are not to everyone’s liking. But this is an event that is routinely won with a score of late teens under par, and given a benign weather forecast there’s no reason to expect anything different this week.

Correlating courses, like the short, doglegging Colonial, the tight, Poa-laden Riviera and the mid-range iron testing TPC Southwind, are all of interest, as is TPC Sawgrass – that bears more than a passing resemblance to TPC River Highlands.

Sadly, there’s no single identikit profile of player that performs well at this stretch – the likes of Chez Reavie and Dustin Johnson, two more un-alike players you could ever wish to see, have their name on this trophy.

Even so, a decent case can be made for this selection of five betting picks for the 2022 Travelers Championship.

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Brian Harman – 60/1 – A hapless weekend of 75-76 saw Brian Harman tumble down the U.S. Open leaderboard, after he opened so impressively with 68-69.

Having been around for a long time now, you suspect Harman is experienced enough to take the positives out of the week, which can be filed alongside his top-10 at the Wells Fargo and solid T18 at the ever-challenging Muirfield Village.

With four top-10s in his last seven trips to TPC River Highlands, Harman is the definition of a course horse, and with a solid record at other correlating venues these are clearly conditions that suit him down to a tee.

Harold Varner III – 60/1 – He keeps banging his head on the door of winning his maiden PGA TOUR title, so you wonder if that slight abyss the week after a major might just be Harold Varner’s best chance of glory.

Why do we like him this week? Because he’s uber consistent, is in decent ball-striking form and has a canon of form at correlating courses to his name – not least the T6 he returned at TPC Sawgrass earlier this season.

A quality operator who putts pretty well on Poa Annua greens, Varner III could seize his opportunity this week.

Jason Day – 60/1 – The old saying that ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’ springs to mind when discussing the chances of players like Jason Day.

The Aussie can go weeks and even months on end without doing anything, and then he’ll just show up with signs of his old quality – he was the 54-hole leader at the Farmers Insurance Open, for example, finished T15 at the Wells Fargo despite a round of 79 and posted an excellent round of 68 in wretched conditions at the Memorial last time out.

Day has a happy knack for putting well on Poa Annua greens, and in winning the PLAYERS Championship he also ticks one of a number of correlating course boxes – and did we mention his two top-10s within his last three trips to TPC River Highlands?

Jason Kokrak – 66/1 – A three-time winner since the start of the 2020-21 season, we know that Jason Kokrak certainly has the goods to contend in these events.

He’s a premium shot-shaper too, as anyone who wins at Colonial has to be, and while he doesn’t have a fantastic record at TPC River Highlands this is a typical set-up in which he has thrived before.

Kokrak’s formline may not read that edifying on paper, but delve a bit deeper and we have a top-20 finish at The Masters, T17 at the AT&T Byron Nelson and an opening round of 69 at the U.S. Open to fall back on.

Brendan Steele – 75/1 – For such an excellent driver of the golf ball, it’s something of a surprise that Brendan Steele hasn’t been a more prolific winner during his career.

Consecutive top-10s at the PGA Championship and Memorial Tournament offer a glimpse into his talents, and his quest for a hat-trick at the Travelers is aided by the fact that Californians tend to feel right at home on Poa Annua greens.

With form to his name at the correlating TPC Sawgrass, Steele’s record at TPC Highlands is also something to behold – in his last nine trips, he’s only missed two cuts and has delivered six top-25 finishes (including two top-10s) in the others.

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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 (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”3.03%” bar_text=”5 out of 165 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “15.75%” bar_text=”26 out of 165 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”20.60%” bar_text=”34 out of 165 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”6.06%” bar_text=”2 out of 33 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”3.03%” bar_text=”1 out of 33 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”53.33%” bar_text=”88 out of 165 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram