Travelers Championship
Course: TPC River Highlands (6,844 yards, par 70)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 700 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
Wyndham Clark enters the final Signature Event of the 2026 season on the strength of his second U.S. Open title in four years. Clark battled an incredibly hard Shinnecock Hills Golf Course and thousands of rowdy Long Island fans who were all cheering for him to choke it away. Clark was able to stay calm, cool and collected to outduel the likes of Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim down the stretch.
TPC River Highlands will be a much different test to the absolute grind that Shinnecock was. The Cromwell, CT course is almost 600 yards shorter on the card and presents players with a lot of quality birdie and eagle opportunities. This is a tournament known for fireworks, amazing crowds and electric finishes. There have been nine playoffs at the Travelers Championship since 2004, and seven others that were decided by just a single stroke.
Given the sheer purse and all the FedExCup points on the line, this is a very difficult event to skip for the best players even with last week being a major championship. Every qualified player is in the field this week, with the exception of Rory McIlroy who will be skipping his third Signature Event of the season. That's a whole other topic within itself, as Signature Events were developed to get ALL the best players to compete against each other more often, McIlroy of course was a big part of making that happening. Now he seems to be taking a step back and just worrying about making sure he is at his best for major championships. McIlroy has played in just nine PGA Tour events all season and doesn't even have enough rounds to qualify on the stats page. Technically to be considered a full PGA Tour member you are required to play at least 15 events in a season. The Scottish Open, Open Championship and three FedExCup Playoff events would bring him to 14, but McIlroy skipped the first playoff event last year in Memphis. Just a nugget to keep an eye on down the stretch of the season.
Enough talk about the one player who is not here this week, let's focus on who is. Keegan Bradley is the defending champion of the Travelers Championship and has won this event in two of the last three years. Last year's victory created quite the discussion about whether or not Bradley should pick himself to play in the Ryder Cup. Ultimately he did not and the U.S. would lose to the Europeans on home soil. Scottie Scheffler was the meat in the Bradley sandwich in terms of winners over the last three years here. The World No. 1 will be going for his first win since January at The American Express and his seventh career victory at a Signature Event.
Sam Burns will be in the field after coming agonizingly close to winning his first major championship last week. Burns is also seeking his first win anywhere since 2023. Tommy Fleetwood was also in contention for a bit at Shinnecock and will be looking to erase the demons from a year ago at TPC River Highlands where he was in control on the back-nine and let it slip away with bogeys at 16 and 18. Matt Fitzpatrick will be looking to take back the top spot in the FedExCup standings from Scheffler with a strong showing this week. Cameron Young (3rd), Russell Henley (5th), Justin Rose (6th) and Collin Morikawa (9th) are the only Top 10 ranked players I haven't mentioned yet who will be trying to go low at this course.
Players will be pleased to know that the wind will not present much problem at all this week. Most of the holes at TPC River Highlands are protected by trees and mounds, as compared to Shinnecock which was incredibly exposed and right on the ocean. Temperatures in Cromwell should net out in the low-80s during the tournament. We probably will have to dodge some rain on Friday and Saturday it appears, however. Expect this course to be plenty receptive for the players. We've seen -22 and -23 win here in two of the last three years.
Recent Champions
2025 - Keegan Bradley (-15)
2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-22)
2023 - Keegan Bradley (-23)
2022 - Xander Schauffele (-19)
2021 - Harris English (-13)
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-19)
2019 - Chez Reavie (-17)
2018 - Bubba Watson (-17)
2017 - Jordan Spieth (-12)
2016 - Russell Knox (-14)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting/Putts per GIR
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling from Rough
- Driving Accuracy/Proximity 100-150 Yards
Champion's Profile
The main defense of TPC River Highlands in the thick bluegrass rough which is over four inches in places this week. This is not a course where players can bash drivers around and get away with it. It is much more of a positional golf course that players have to think around. We'll see a lot of different clubs off tees this week. You can really attack out the fairway, but things get difficult very quickly if you're consistently playing out of the rough.
Since it is a shorter course, players will see a lot of wedges and short irons into holes this week. Your top players in the proximity buckets around 100-150 yards are going to strong targets in DFS. These are the fifth-smallest greens on the PGA Tour and spin control should end up being very important. That same thick bluegrass rough that challenges players off the tee is present around most of these greens. A poor swing on approach will leave a challenging up-and-down for par more often than not.
All these things are great, but at the end of the day you have to make a lot of putts to win at this golf course. We saw this show up last week at Shinnecock. Wyndham Clark, especially on the weekend, was making one clutch 5-10 footer after another to hold that advantage. The same could happen at TPC River Highlands. This isn't the most difficult course to create a lot of opportunities at, but those who convert on those the most consistently are usually battling down the stretch over these thrilling closing holes.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Scottie Scheffler ($14,800)
Scheffler gave it a good run in his first attempt to complete the Career Grand Slam, but now it's time to turn the page and get back in the win column for the first time since January. TPC River Highlands is an excellent spot for him to do just that. Scheffler has been one of the most accurate drivers in the world since THE PLAYERS and also leads the PGA Tour in GIR percentage, scrambling, birdie average and par-4 scoring. He's gone T13-T4-1st-T6 the last four years at this event. Scheffler is absolutely due and worth every penny this week.
Tommy Fleetwood ($11,900)
I expected a little more out of Fleetwood last week, but T11 certainly isn't terrible. Fleetwood ranks second in my model this week thanks to how strong his game has been all the way through the bag. The Englishman hits a lot of fairways, has great distance control, is elite scrambling out of the rough and has putted very well on similar courses in his career. Fleetwood has three top-15 finishes in five career starts here and eight top-11 finishes in 2026 without a win. He's also due.
Sam Burns ($11,300)
Putting is going to be very important, and not many have been better over the last few years than Burns. He has gained more strokes than any player in this field on Bent/Poa over the last three years, which is the surfaces the guys will be playing off of at TPC River Highlands. Burns has also seen dramatic improvements in his iron play, which was particularly strong in his recent top-5 finishes at the Memorial and U.S. Open. He has also gained strokes around the greens in his last five starts. There'd be no better way to get over a close loss than to win the very next week.
The Middle Tier
Russell Henley ($10,400)
Henley was third in my model because he is one of the most accurate drivers on Tour and one of the strongest wedge players in this field. Henley finished T2 last year at TPC River Highlands ranking second for the week in SG: Around-the-Green and first in scrambling. He has four other top-20s here and has played Pete Dye courses very well throughout his career. Henley is a recent winner at Colonial and I'm hoping people overlook him here after a disappointing showing at the U.S. Open.
Patrick Cantlay ($10,300)
Despite missing the cut at Shinnecock, Cantlay is one of the safest options in the field. He has finished inside the top 15 in eight consecutive starts at the Travelers Championship. Prior to the MC, Cantlay had finished T17 or better in five of six starts, three of those being Signature Events. The ball striking has been really strong this season, and he's top-30 in both SG: Around and scrambling this season, but the putter has been very up-and-down. That said, Cantlay loves these greens and should be prime for another great showing in Hartford.
Si Woo Kim ($10,100)
Kim might not be able to figure out the majors this year, but he has crushed it at these Signature Events. Kim has finished top-15 in four of the last five Signature Events, and also has a recent runner-up at the Byron Nelson. His history at this event hasn't been great outside of a T11 in 2020, but on paper this is an elite course fit. Kim ranks third in driving accuracy, third in SG: Approach, second in par-4 scoring, and second in birdie average. He also thrives when there is long grass around the greens.
The Long Shots
Jacob Bridgeman ($8,300)
Even though Bridgeman hasn't played his best golf since that incredible start to the season that saw him rack up eight straight top-20 finishes, including a win at Riviera, he has the kind of upside that not many other players have in this range given his incredible putting ability. With there being no cut, upside is the name of the game this week and Bridgeman gives us that. He is top-20 on Tour this season in par-4 scoring, birdie average, Prox. 100-125 Yards, Prox. 125-150 Yards, scrambling from the rough, SG: Putting and putts per GIR.
Eric Cole ($8,100)
You're getting excellent value here from Cole who was my No. 8 ranked golfer this week. He's been playing so well the last few months with five top-15 finishes in his last seven starts. Over that stretch the iron play, short game and putting has been fantastic. On the season he ranks sixth in birdie average, third in proximity from 125-150 yards, seventh in SG: Around and sixth in SG: Putting. As long as Cole keeps it in play off the tee, which should be easier on this shorter golf course, he will be a contender come Sunday.
Brandt Snedeker ($7,100)
I usually never go down this low, but with this being a stacked field with no cut, I'm doing it. There are some decent options down here, and Snedeker is definitely my favorite of the bunch. He does everything a player is going to need to do at River Highlands. Snedeker ranks top-30 on Tour in driving accuracy, SG: Approach, proximity, SG: Around, SG: Putting and putts per GIR. He has a ton of experience around this course even though it has been awhile since he's played it, but the added rough should only play further into his favor.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
You'll notice I featured zero players in the $9K range this week. That's because that is a dead zone for me. It is usually one of the most popular ranges, but there are only 11 golfers there and none of them were very high in my model. The best was Aaron Rai ($9,000) in 19th. I think there are enough quality options in the $8K range to be able to skip the $9K range entirely, even if you roster Scheffler. Akshay Bhatia ($8,600), Shane Lowry ($8,300), Harry Hall ($8,200) and Sepp Straka ($8,000) would be a few others not named above I would consider down there. The $10K range and $8K range is where this will be decided for DFS purposes.
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