DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: Travelers Championship Cash and GPP Strategy

TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Purse: $20M
Winner's Share: $3.6M
FedEx Cup Points: 700 to the Winner
Location: Cromwell, Conn.
Course: TPC River Highlands
Yardage: 6,844
Par: 70
2025 champion: Keegan Bradley

Tournament Preview

We have some questions:

• Will Scottie Scheffler ever win again?
• Will anyone cheer for Wyndham Clark this week?
• Can Keegan Bradley -- who will receive plenty of cheers this week -- make it three Travelers titles in four years?
• What will we ever do with no more Signature Events after this week?

Yes, this is the eighth and final Signature Event of the season, indicating we are entering the home stretch of the 2026 PGA Tour season. It's only three weeks till the final major and seven till the playoffs.

The Tour has gotten a lot of heat for front-loading all the Signature Events, cramming them right next to majors, as the Masters, PGA Championship and now U.S. Open have all been followed by limited-field tournaments. But here is the Tour's reasoning: It wants to clear the decks and allow as many of the rank-and-file to get into the remaining, bigger fields in their attempt to qualify for the playoffs. Only 70 get in, so it will be a very tight squeeze.

Scheffler heads the 72-man, no-cut field this week, still looking for his first win since January, though he continues to come close almost every week, most recently T4 last week at the U.S. Open. He is leading the FedExCup Standings. Again.

Bradley is the defending champion who also won in 2023. The New England native has been the overwhelming fan favorite, with the galleries all but willing him to victory last year over 54-hole leader Tommy Fleetwood.

But Bradley might face some competition for fan affection this week. Connecticut native (which trumps New England native) Ben James received a sponsor's invite for his third professional start after gaining Tour membership via PGA Tour University. The four-time all-America from Virginia tied for 54th at the Canadian Open and, quite impressively, for 23rd at the U.S. Open.

How big of a deal is James this week? There are two people of the official interview schedule for Tuesday. One is PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp. The other is James.

As for Clark, people might still be standing outside Shinnecock Hills Golf Club booing him. He fought through all the derisiveness there to capture his second U.S. Open. We suspect the Connecticut galleries will be more supportive/less mean-spirited than the Long Islanders.

Sixty-one of the 72 golfers in this week's field played in the Open last week. Rory McIlroy is not one of them -- yes, he was in the Open but, no, he is not in the Travelers. Others of note this week include Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele, the 2022 Travelers winner. Schauffele is the only golfer to finish in the top-11 this season in THE PLAYERS, Masters, PGA Championship and U.S. Open.

There are three other sponsor's invites besides James. Keith Mitchell turned his best major ever last week (T4) into guaranteed cash this week. Sponsor-invite poster boy Tony Finau is here, along with 2017 Travelers winner Jordan Spieth, who for the first time this season didn't qualify for a sig event (he would've been first alternate).

The Travelers Insurance Company has been affiliated with this tournament since its inception way back in 1952. It became the title sponsor in 2007 -- after years of Sammy Davis Jr. being the "title host" in the 1970s and '80s -- and has re-upped to continue at least through 2030.

TPC River Highlands came on the scene in 1984. It checks in at a mere 6,844 yards, the shortest course on Tour. The 1928 design by Robert J. Ross and Maurice Kearney, with a 1982 Pete Dye renovation followed by a 1989 Bobby Weed renovation, tries to choke off the longest hitters by pinching the fairways around the 300-yard mark. (Unfortunately, golfers now hit it more than 300 yards. Way more.)

They made some changes to six holes in an effort blunt scoring, after Bradley won in 2023 at 23-under. They did it without adding distance. They narrowed some fairways and shrunk some greens, though they didn't touch the final five holes, including one of the most fun holes on Tour, the drivable par-4, 296-yard 15th, which is among five holes on the course with water.

The jury is still out on whether the changes achieved their goal. Scheffler won at 22-under in 2024 but Bradley came back last year and won at only 15-under, one better than Fleetwood and Russell Henley.

Overall, there are tree-lined fairways with four-inch-plus rough leading to smallish 5,000 square foot Bentgrass/poa greens running about 11 on the Stimpmeter. There are a mere 68 bunkers.

Nine of the holes are par-4s under 450 yards, another diametric opposite to what we normally see. That includes the first three on the course and the last two. There are just two par-5s and one of them is the 523-yard 13th.

River Highlands was the scene of the lowest score ever recorded on the PGA Tour: Jim Furyk shot a 12-under 58 in the final round in 2016.

As a reminder, there is no cut in this Signature Event, offering an opportunity to be a little more daring in lineup construction. Some of the golfers will be playing for at least the sixth time in nine weeks and you have to consider fatigue, if not a little bit of disinterest. After this, there are only two weeks till the Scottish Open and three till the Open Championship. It would not be a surprise to see a bunch of top guys sit out the Scottish.

As for the weather, the golfers should see some rain on Tuesday, Friday and especially Saturday, with highs in the upper 70 to 80s across the week. The wind is forecast to be light.

Ben James factoid: The Virginia Cavalier standout became only the fifth golfer in collegiate history with four all-America first-team honors. The others were Gary Hallberg (1977-80), Phil Mickelson (1989-92), David Duval (1990-93) and Bryce Molder (1998-2001)

Fun Travelers factoids: The tournament is more than seven decades old, yet there have been only two host courses. From 1952 to 1983, they used Wethersfield Country Club. In 1984, they moved about six miles to TPC Connecticut (renamed TPC River Highlands in 1991), and they've played there ever since. ... The 2017 tournament is remembered for Spieth's famous chest-bump with caddie Michael Greller after his 60-foot hole-out from a bunker on the first playoff hole defeated Daniel Berger. 

Key Stats to Winning at TPC River Highland

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Approach/SG: Tee-to-Green
• Approach shots from 125-150 yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Driving Accuracy
• Par-4 Efficiency 400-450 

Past Champions

2025 - Keegan Bradley
2024 - Scottie Scheffler
2023 - Keegan Bradley
2022 - Xander Schauffele
2021 - Harris English
2020 - Dustin Johnson
2019 - Chez Reavie
2018 - Bubba Watson
2017 - Jordan Spieth
2016 - Russell Knox

Champion's Profile

You don't have to hit the ball far this week, though it rarely hurts to do so.

Bradley ranked only 29th in driving distance last year and 28th in driving accuracy. But he excelled everywhere else: 11th in SG: Approach, 10th in around-the-Green, third in Putting and 11th in greens in regulation.

Runners-up Fleetwood and Henley were ranked second and sixth, respectively in GIR, and were 1-2 in SG: Around-the-Green. Neither was a top-15 putter.

Two years ago, Scheffler ranked 30th in distance but third in fairways hit. From there, he ranked second in greens in regulation, eighth in SG: Approach and top-20 in both Around-the-Green and Putting. He won at 22-under, after a playoff with good friend Tom Kim, seven shots better than Bradley's winning score a year ago.

Over the years, bombers Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson have won this tournament but so have short hitters Chez Reavie, Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman.

The over/under on the winning score on golfodds.com is 259.5 -- 20.5 under par -- the same as last year. So they are expecting a bit of a significant bump from last year's 15-under winning score.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

$10,000 and up

Scottie Scheffler - $13,800 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +450)
We're running out of things to say here. Scheffler is in the mix almost every week. He tied for fourth last week at the U.S. Open and could barely make a putt. He finished sixth here last year, won two years ago and was fourth in 2023. After a six-month drought, Scheffler really will win one of these weeks. Even if he doesn't this week, the price is manageable (down almost $1,000 from its season high) and there is the luxury of playing low-priced guys without fear of a cut.

Tommy Fleetwood - $10,300 (+1750)
Fleetwood experienced PGA Tour heartbreak for the umpteenth time here last year. He carried a three stroke-lead into Sunday, only to be overtaken by Bradley, with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18, much to the deliriousness of the decidedly pro-Bradley crowd. Fleetwood wasn't exactly jeered like Wyndham Clark was last week. Let's just say the fans didn't really mind his bad shots. Fleetwood is ranked fifth on Tour in driving accuracy, SG: Tee-to-Green and even SG: Total. As long as he's not paired with young Ben James in the final group on Sunday ...

$9,000-$9,900

Justin Thomas - $9,100 (+2900)
We were surprised to see Thomas has finished in the top-10 here three years running. We said last week in our U.S. Open articles that Thomas is a must-play with wide fairways and an "avoid" with narrow fairways. TPC River Highlands has narrow fairways. But the caveat is, this course is so short that the golfers will often leave driver in the bag.

Russell Henley - $9,000 (+3400)
Henley was the runner-up here last year. River Highlands is a great fit for someone who doesn't hit it overly far but does hit it overly straight. Coming off a recent win at the Charles Schwab, Henley has nine top-25s this season.

$8,000-$8,900

Patrick Cantlay - $8,900 (+2700)
Nothing ever goes right when we pick Cantlay. He can't possibly screw up this week, can he? C'mon, he as played this tournament 11 times and carries eight straight top-15s into this week. He even shot a 60(!) at River Highlands as an amateur in 2011 (T24). Cantlay has finished in the top-20 in five of his past seven starts this season. His stats are outstanding everywhere but on the greens -- and every time but when we pick him.

Si Woo Kim - $8,800 (+2450)
Notice how Kim is priced in the $8,000s yet has significantly shorter odds than the three guys above him in this article? Kim turned in another big-tournament clunker with a missed cut at the U.S. Open. He's pretty much stunk up the joint in the three majors and THE PLAYERS. Other than that? He has eight top-10s, matching Scheffler for the Tour lead. We are not swayed by Kim's poor track record at the Travelers.

$7,000-$7,900

Brian Harman - $7,800 (+6800) 
Harman comes here every year and finishes in the top-10 every year. (Not literally every year, though he did make his tournament debut way back in 2004). Harman hasn't missed a start since 2012. He's finished in the top-10 five years running and 7 of the past 8. It's hard to beat that, especially at this price.

Ryan Gerard - $7,000 (+8000) 
Gerard recently notched his third runner-up of the season, in a heartbreaking playoff loss to Henley at the Memorial. He missed the cut at the Open, but that was just his third MC all season. Gerard is ranked eighth in SG: Approach and 26th in SG: Putting.

$6,000-$6,900

Ben James - $6,400 (+16500) 
James has played this tournament twice before, in 2022 and 2023. He missed the cut both times, but he was only 11 and 12 years old at the time. Kidding. But he's only 23 now, so you do the math. We see it every year now: Top college guys are ready to go from the jump upon turning pro. It doesn't get much more ready than a top-25 in a major in your second pro start.

Nico Echavarria - $6,100 (+29000) 
If you're gonna play Scheffler and, as we detailed above, there is a pathway to do so, you're gonna have to dig deep to complete your roster. There is no cut this week. Echavarria will be there on Sunday. He had a terrible start to the season, even though he won at PGA National. He's made six of his past seven cuts, including last week's Open (T56). Echavarria's season-long stats are not a pretty sight, but they are much more pleasing over the second half.

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