Travelers Championship Prediction, Betting Odds & Picks

The PGA Tour resumes Thursday with the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, CT, following a dramatic finish to the 2022 U.S. Open last weekend – and seemingly-endless drama surrounding a Saudi-backed tour LIV Golf. 

This event will be covered by Sporting News all week, but for now, we’re focusing on the betting side of things.

Matt Fitzpatrick was a good pick at +2200 in both our US Open preview and betting columns last week. Let’s capitalize on this trend and pick some winners today!

But before that, let us look at the history of The Travelers Championship and have a view of the recent champions.

History Of Travelers Championship

The Travelers Championship is a professional golf tournament in Cromwell, Connecticut, on the PGA Tour. The field is situated in a suburb south of Hartford. TPC River Highlands has hosted the tournament since 1984. 

It is managed by The Greater Hartford Community Foundation. The Travelers Championship commenced 70 years back in 1952 with the title “Insurance City Open”. 

Then the tournament was renamed “Greater Hartford Open” in 1967. It held on to that title till 2003. From 1973 to 1988, the Greater Hartford Open was also known as the Sammy Davis Jr. Hotel, after the entertainer who frequented the pro-ams. 

From 1985 until 2002, Canon was a title sponsor, and their employees frequently took vacation time during tournament week to volunteer at the event. From 2004 to 2006, the title sponsor was Buick. Then The Travelers Companies took over in 2007.

List Of Champions

The Course: All You Need To Know For 2022

TPC River Highlands is a par 70, 6,841-yard course located 10 miles to the south of Hartford in Cromwell, Connecticut. 

The golf course is well-balanced, with a good combination of long and short holes. Nos. 15-17, which plays around a four-acre lake, is by far the most remarkable stretch. 

The field report says that there will not be any strong blows of wind. The temperatures will remain at about 20° C. 

Now that we have everything out of the way, let’s talk about what we all are here for-the odds and bets.

Outright Winners

Davis Riley (+4000)

He’s on the same trajectory as his pal Will Zalatoris and some of the game’s other young twenty-something up-and-comers, just a year or two behind on the chronology, as you’ve surely observed. Perhaps a little less.

Riley’s last six starts have yielded a stratospheric ceiling/floor combination: 31st-13th-4th-13th-9th-5th — and that doesn’t include a Valspar Championship playoff loss a few months back.

It’ll be a difficult order to beat those huge names, but Riley has proved in a limited sample size that he plays his best golf when birdies are plentiful, as they will be this week. At this price, I’m all for taking a chance.

Justin Thomas (+1100)

Thomas has shown a wide range of abilities on the PGA Tour this season, and that level of strength will be useful at TPC River Highlands. 

Although he struggled in difficult conditions at the US Open and missed the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the 29-year-old has been in superb form recently. 

He won the PGA Championship, tied for third place in the RBC Canadian Open, and stood in fifth place in the AT&T Byron Nelson. In addition, Thomas tied for eighth place at the Masters.

Other Odders (One-And-Done) Choices

Jordan Spieth (+2000) is a professional golfer who has won several major tournaments.

Some may view this event as an opportunity to avoid “squandering” one of the top players. The truth is, the victory equity — not to mention the likelihood of being in contention — is stronger here than it is at a major championship or another important event.

Spieth has clearly won here before, indicating that he is familiar with the course. I like the idea of getting a guy who appears to be on his second wind in the aftermath, assuming he’s fully recovered from his pre-tournament ailment.

Top 5

Webb Simpson

I am certain that big things are on their way this summer for Simpson even though he hasn’t proved it yet. 

When we enter the dog days, there’s an interesting pattern of players who were injured for part of the early part of the year having more gas in the tank than their contemporaries. I’m not opposed to taking a gamble on him winning the tournament at 80-1 on DraftKings.

Top 10

Aaron Wise (+450) and Keith Mitchell (+500) are two players to watch. Given how many times I’ve written about these people this year, I should have each of their names saved as a duplicate option. 

They’re no longer entirely undervalued — they’re only somewhat undervalued — but they’re still two of my favorite picks for a quick win.

Top 20

Brendan Steele (+200)

Steele is near the top of the list of players who perform well at the same tracks year after year. 

When you consider that he followed up his best career major finish, a T9 at the PGA Championship, with a T10 at the Memorial, I think he’s worth a look in all formats this week.

Top 30

Aaron Rai/David Lipsky

I’m lumping these Zurich Classic partners together once more. They play similar games and prefer shorter courses, so the 6,800-yard TPC River Highlands layout should be right up their alleys.

Top 40

Max McGreevy (+500)

I’ll never recommend a huge favorite as a top-40 pick. That’s not a lot of fun. This is a good place to take a safe bet on a plus-money play.

Despite the fact that McGreevy hasn’t finished in the top 40 in his last eight outings, he has played some excellent golf during that time. Let’s hope he can put four rounds together once more.

Free Bingo Square DFS

Patrick Cantlay is an American Professional Golfer.

I’m not going to talk you out of Rory, Scottie, or JT this week if you truly like them — and I’ll probably have a couple of lineups with each as well.

Cantlay, on the other hand, has recently been outstanding in non-majors and has a strong track record in this course. With all of the other major names in the field, I’m guessing (or hoping) that ownership will be a little lower here and we’ll be able to earn some clout.

DFS’ God

Emiliano Grillo

Grillo has now reached the weekend in five consecutive outings after missing the cut in seven of his first nine starts in 2022. None of them have finished higher than T28, but if he’s on, he’s an above-average ball-striker who only needs a couple of strong rounds with the putter to push himself into contention.

First Round Leader

Patrick Rodgers (+10000)

I was tempted to go back to the well and utilize Harold Varner III again — he’s still a great FRL player — but I believe Rodgers is starting to find his stride, and this should be a terrific location for him. However, he hasn’t shown the capacity to stay in serious contention for an entire weekend, so I’ll make the wager for just Thursday.

Match-Up Man

Brian Harman (+5000)

Brian is a good combination of a person who plays well on short courses and one who doesn’t miss many cuts, which I always appreciate in H2H matches because it offers us two chances to cash. Harman’s performances have been heading in the right direction for a long, but he hasn’t yet gotten the required outcomes. This is one he should have marked on his schedule for a while.

Other players, you should keep an eye out for.

Here are some golfers who I haven’t talked about in this blog post but you should also consider them as a substitute if you please. First up are Scottie Scheffler (+1000), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (+7000). Next up are the American duo Maverick McNealy (+7000), and Cameron Tringale. And here’s a list of players that I think might do well at TPC River Highlands- K.H. Lee (+9000), C.T. Pan (+10000), Kevin Streelman (+10000), Doug Ghim (+12500), Patton Kizzire (+25000)

And that is all for my picks for The Travelers Championship 2022. The TPC River Highlands is a great field and I’m sure it’ll be a pleasure for the golfers as well. With calm winds and the course being on the shorter side, it will be a comparatively less physically straining play for the players.

On the ending note, Golf is a gentleman’s game at the end of the day and all these young men are out there for winning. 

The weather forecasts for tomorrow predict that it’ll be a fine day for golfing. Just the perfect amount of wind and the perfect temperature for the players to enjoy the play as well. Regardless of the results in the end, we must still support, paise, and constructively critique the plays. Here’s me wishing the players and you all good luck!

Do let me know your picks in the comments section!