This week the PGA Tour takes the hour journey from The Country Club to TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship. While the Travelers is not a major, this week’s field is still strong, with nine of the World’s top 20 golfers. Headlining the field are World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and World No.6 Patrick Cantlay. Cantlay is making his eighth appearance at this event. Cantlay made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur at this event in 2011.
TPC River Highlands is a short par-70 course measuring just 6,841 yards. The Pete Dye-designed course features fast greens and fairways that are difficult to hit. Golfers who succeed here are accurate off the tee, hit a lot of GIR, and can get hot with the flat stick. There were three placement bets on PointsBet Sportsbook that caught my attention:
Scottie Scheffler to Finish Top-10 (+130)
Justin Thomas has withdrawn from this week’s event citing back soreness. This instantly provides value to Scheffler’s top-10 odds. Thomas always threatened to finish top-10, opening another spot in the top 10. I have Scheffler as the second golfer in my primary model. While he’s not the most accurate off the tee hitting just 59% of the fairways, he should see an uptick in driving accuracy. Due to his length off the tee, just like at TCC, he will club down on plenty of holes.
Scheffler is first in SG: APP and fifth in SG: T2G. His game is nearly spotless. His biggest issue has been the run of what I like to call blowup holes. When you reach the top, sometimes the pressure of being perfect is so great you make yourself worse. However, Scheffler has one of the best on the bag in Ted Scott. He always brings him back down when his emotions might be the best of him. For plus odds and no Thomas in the field, I like the value I’m getting.
Xander Schauffele to Finish Top-20 (+115)
Backing Schauffele’s top-20 last week was a rollercoaster. Honestly, at the start of the 4th round, I had already crossed that bet out and considered it a loss. After a 2-under-68 4th round, he ended up T14. A T14 was a bit unfair after his 8th hole debacle on Saturday. He went for the green in two, rolled up to the fringe, rolled back 40 feet from the green, and made a bogey. He showed that he was able to hang tough and finish top-20.
Schauffele fighting through adversity isn’t something that should come as a surprise. He’s finished top-20 in four straight events and has eight top-20 finishes on the season, including his win at the Zurich Classic.
It’s hard to ignore getting these odds for a guy who is this dominant. He’s solid off the tee, a great ball striker, and his short game is good enough to content.
Tony Finau to Finish Top-40 (-125)
Oh, Finau. There was much promise in backing him last week at the US Open. Plenty of that promise was with the expectation that he would keep his ball in the fairway and not have his game hindered by the penal rough. That didn’t happen. This week, I’m backing him with the thought process that he will keep his driver in the fairway. The shorter holes where he doesn’t have to hit the driver, he won’t. Like his experience at the Canadian Open, the shorter course should benefit him much more.
Finau models out well here because he’s top-10 in SG: OTT, SG: APP, and SG: T2G. I generally avoid Finau in the placement market due to his volatility. However, this week there’s value on the price for the top 40.