PGA Tour Picks – Odds to Win Travelers Championship

Some of the top golfers in the world competing on courses they don’t normally play led to some unexpected results in the first two tournaments since the PGA Tour restarted. We should soon see things return to a level of normalcy. That actually starts Thursday with the Travelers Championship, one event that wasn’t affected by the coronavirus going off on its regularly scheduled dates at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.  Bookmaker is offering a generous welcome bonus with a maximum of $1000.

The top six players in the OWGR and nine of the top 10 are set to peg it up with world No. 1 Rory McIlroy the current betting favorite at online sportsbooks. We’ve watched the odds fluctuate since hitting the board with Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau wagered to the top of the list at one point. McIlroy closed as the favorite in each of the first two tournaments only to finish outside the top-30 both times. For a complete list of updated odds and matchups visit BookMaker.eu.

Travelers Championship
Dates: Thursday, June 25 - Sunday, June 28, 2020
Location: TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, CT
Opening PGA Tour Odds: Rory McIlroy +1056
Travelers Championship TV Coverage: Golf Channel, CBS

Odds Analysis

The odds for the favorites have spiked considering the wackiness that has surrounded the Tour since its restart. Daniel Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge going off at 80/1 at some books. Webb Simpson was around 30/1 before taking home the hardware last week at the RBC Heritage. There is another strong and full field on tap this week making the potential for another upset winner possible.

A few heavy dogs that stand out include Scottie Scheffler, who had a nice tournament going at Colonial until a final round meltdown dropped him down the leaderboard. We’ve seen big hitters have success here and Scheffler is definitely a big hitter with a driving distance of nearly 312 yards. J.T. Poston missed the cut in three previous visits but he is one of only four players with top-10s in the first two events of the restart.

It was eight years ago when Marc Leishman took to the TPC River Highlands track, shot a final round 62 and claimed his first Tour victory. He has three top-20s in return trips and also has a win, second and third-place finish this season. Phil Mickelson has missed more cuts than he’s made this season, but he’s the only player to go back-to-back in this tournament. Can Lefty rekindle the magic? If so it’s a nice payday. Max Homa and Doc Redmond are relative unknowns that are on the verge and consistently undervalued.

TPC River Highlands plays short at 6,841 yards from the tips and can yield some impressive scores. As an amateur Patrick Cantlay shot a 60, which was the course record until Jim Furyk carded the Tour’s only 58 in 2016. We’ve also witnessed big comebacks on this course. Two years ago Bubba Watson overcame a six shot deficit with a final round 63 to win this tournament for a third time.

Odds to Win Travelers Championship at BookMaker.eu

Rory McIlroy +1055
Bryson DeChambeau +1111
Jon Rahm +1178
Justin Thomas +1286
Brooks Koepka +2051
Abraham Ancer +2203
Webb Simpson +2401
Dustin Johnson +2526
Xander Schauffele +2800
Patrick Cantlay +3143
Collin Morikawa +3152
Justin Rose +3325
Bubba Watson +3362
Sung-Jae Im +3474
Patrick Reed +3814

Travelers Championship Preview

We’re going to see the big boys return to the top of the leaderboard soon. Playing a course that’s more familiar to a number of players will help even things out. It has been exciting and the Tour has reaped the benefits of having different longshot winners. It’s too bad there weren’t fans in the gallery to witness the excitement.

Pin-pointing an outright winner with the collection of talent assembled isn’t easy. I expect McIlroy to assume his normal spot on the leaderboard after a pair of uncharacteristic finishes. At least Jon Rahm played the weekend at Harbour Town, though that was in doubt after a first round 71. The Spaniard rallied to shoot 11-under over the final 54 holes.

One player who stands out is Watson with the success he’s had here. He won for the first time in 2010, picked up his second five years later and stunned everyone with a final round 62 to capture the 2018 edition. His restart got off nicely with a T7 at Colonial followed by a T52 last week. But as we saw previous tournament results are meaningless. Webb Simpson missed the cut at the Schwab only to turn around and set a tournament scoring record at the RBC Heritage.

Joaquin Niemann and Abraham Ancer are a couple of mid-range players on a run of form looking to make some noise. Niemann’s iron play last week was sharp keeping him in contention. He ended T5, the same result he managed last year in his Travelers debut. It’s hard to imagine Ancer duplicating his performance from Sunday when he hit every green in regulation. He was a few missed putts away from claiming his maiden PGA Tour win, but there is a lot to like about his game. He carded a first round 64 here last year settling for a T8.

Travelers Championship Pick: Bubba Watson
Top-5 Lock: Bryson DeChambeau
Top-10 Lock: Justin Rose

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- Phil Simon, Gambling911.com