This week’s PGA DFS slate is the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut — just outside Hartford. Coming the week after the U.S. Open on Long Island, this signature event draws nearly the full slate of stars, but the course is one of the easiest players will face all year: a short, scoreable par 70 that historically produces low numbers and rewards elite iron play and birdie-making. Keegan Bradley is the defending champion, and Scottie Scheffler enters as the clear betting favorite at +400. Our Travelers Championship DFS picks below cover the top plays, value golfers, GPP leverage options, and finish projections for both DraftKings and FanDuel, backed by our projection and simulation models.
Last updated: 6:00 AM CT · First-round tee times begin [WEATHER/TEE: FILL] ET
Course preview: TPC River Highlands
TPC River Highlands is a 6,800-yard par 70 that plays as one of the shortest and most birdie-friendly venues on Tour. Driving distance matters less here than precision approach play and putting, with several reachable scoring holes down the stretch.
The tournament has a rich recent history, and several past champions are among this week’s top plays — which makes the course-fit angle especially relevant. Recent winners:
- 2025 — Keegan Bradley (15-under) — the Vermont native and two-time Travelers winner edged Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley by one in a dramatic finish
- 2024 — Scottie Scheffler (22-under) — one off the tournament scoring record, won in a playoff over Tom Kim in just his fifth start here
- 2023 — Keegan Bradley (22-under) — a three-shot wire-to-wire-style victory
- 2022 — Xander Schauffele (19-under) — a closing tap-in birdie to win by two
- 2021 — Harris English (13-under) — a record eight-hole playoff over Kramer Hickok
- 2020 — Dustin Johnson (19-under)
- 2019 — Chez Reavie (17-under)
- 2018 — Bubba Watson (17-under)
- 2017 — Jordan Spieth (12-under)
- 2016 — Russell Knox (16-under)
Two takeaways for DFS this week. First, winning scores are consistently deep — 19-under or lower in three of the last five years, and 22-under or better in both 2023 and 2024 — confirming this is a birdie-fest where you want aggressive scorers, not grinders. Second, the recent champions list overlaps directly with the top of this week’s projections: Scottie Scheffler (2024 champ, and this week’s clear #1 play), Xander Schauffele (2022 champ, a featured top-tier play below), and Keegan Bradley (2023 and 2025 champ, the defending champion and a mid-tier target at $8,400 DK). Proven course form at a venue this specific is a meaningful tiebreaker.
Course-fit specialists: who’s gained the most strokes here
Beyond the champions, the strokes-gained leaders over the last five Travelers are the sharpest course-fit signal for roster decisions:
- Brian Harman ($7,800 DK) — has gained the most strokes at TPC River Highlands over the last five editions, with five straight top-10 finishes. His 2026 form is unremarkable (two top-10s, 70.4 scoring average), which is exactly why his projection is modest (80.5) and his ownership is low (6%) — making him a classic course-history-over-current-form GPP leverage play for anyone who trusts the venue track record.
- Scottie Scheffler — second-most strokes gained here in five years, including the 2024 win and a T-6 in 2025. Course fit reinforces his status as the top overall play.
- Patrick Cantlay — third-most strokes gained; no win yet, but his worst finish in eight appearances is a T-15, with two top-5s in the last three years. An elite floor play with course pedigree.
Vegas odds — top contenders
The betting market and our projection model largely agree at the top, with Scheffler a clear favorite:
- Scottie Scheffler — +400
- Tommy Fleetwood — +1800
- Xander Schauffele — +1800
- Cameron Young, Ludvig Aberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sam Burns — +2000
- Wyndham Clark — +2200
- Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay — +2500
- Justin Thomas — +2800
Top PGA DFS plays for the Travelers Championship
Our model sees a clear top option followed by a deep, tightly-packed tier of elite ball-strikers. Here are the golfers we’re building around.
Scottie Scheffler — $13,800 DK / $14,800 FD
Scheffler is the projection model’s runaway favorite, with a slate-high 107.3 projected DraftKings points, a 14.3% win probability, and a 59.5% top-10 chance — all comfortably the best in the field. His ceiling (135.0 at the 85th percentile, 150.0 at the 95th) is in a class of its own. The only question is roster construction: at $13,800 he eats a huge share of the salary, so pairing him forces value plays elsewhere. In cash he’s close to mandatory; in GPPs his sub-17% projected ownership is surprisingly playable for a golfer this dominant.
Course history backs the projection: Scheffler won this event in 2024 at 22-under (a playoff over Tom Kim), one off the tournament scoring record, and finished T-6 in 2025. He’s also gained the second-most strokes at TPC River Highlands over the last five years. Current form seals it — he leads the entire PGA Tour in 2026 scoring average (68.4) with eight top-10s in just 13 starts. He’s the model’s top play, a proven course fit, and the hottest golfer in the field.
Tommy Fleetwood — $10,300 DK / $11,900 FD
Fleetwood headlines the second tier at 93.7 projected points and a 9.10 value, with a 4.7% win probability that trails only Scheffler. He’s been excellent in 2026 — six top-10s in 13 starts with a 69.7 scoring average — and is a strong ball-striker whose profile fits a precision course like River Highlands. At just over $10K he anchors builds that also fit Scheffler. He was also runner-up here in 2025, falling one short to Bradley.
Xander Schauffele — $10,200 DK / $12,100 FD
Schauffele projects nearly identically to Fleetwood (93.2 points, 9.14 value) with the best top-10 probability in the tier (35.1%). He’s the 2022 Travelers champion, so there’s proven course fit behind the projection, and his 2026 has been steady (five top-10s in 13 starts) — making him one of the most reliable finishers in the field, a high-floor option for cash and a core piece in tournaments.
Value plays and salary savers
Rostering Scheffler means you’ll need cheap golfers who can still produce. These sub-$6,600 options posted the best projected value in the field.
- Ryan Fox ($6,600 DK) — highest projection of the value tier (77.7) at an 11.77 value
- Sungjae Im ($6,500 DK) — 76.7 projected at an 11.80 value; a steady, high-floor salary saver
- Andrew Novak ($6,300 DK) — 76.5 projected at a 12.13 value, one of the best points-per-dollar plays on the board
- Matthew McCarty ($6,200 DK) — slate-best 12.16 value; pure salary relief to fit the studs
Mid-tier targets ($7,000–$8,500)
The middle of the board is where most lineups are won or lost. These golfers offer the best blend of projection and value in that range.
- J.J. Spaun ($7,900 DK / $9,200 FD) — top mid-tier projection (85.6) at a 10.83 value and a strong 39.8% top-20 chance
- Aaron Rai ($8,000 DK / $9,000 FD) — 84.8 projected at a 10.61 value; an accurate ball-striker who fits the course profile
- Min Woo Lee ($7,800 DK / $8,900 FD) — 83.6 projected at a 10.72 value with upside that plays well in tournaments
GPP leverage plays
For tournaments, these golfers pair a high ceiling with lower projected ownership — the combination that wins large-field GPPs.
- Collin Morikawa ($9,200 DK) — an elite 108.0 ceiling (85th percentile) at just 9% projected ownership; the top leverage play among the studs
- Wyndham Clark ($9,400 DK) — 107.0 ceiling at a field-low 7.7% ownership for his salary tier
- Viktor Hovland ($8,500 DK) — 84.6 projected at 8.7% ownership; a sub-9% mid-tier option with top-20 upside
Finish projections — top contenders
| Golfer | DK Salary | Win % | Top 10 % | Proj. (DK) | Own % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | $13,800 | 14.3% | 59.5% | 107.3 | 16.3% |
| Tommy Fleetwood | $10,300 | 4.7% | 34.8% | 93.7 | 18.3% |
| Xander Schauffele | $10,200 | 4.5% | 35.1% | 93.2 | 19.2% |
| Ludvig Aberg | $9,800 | 4.2% | 32.0% | 91.4 | 17.9% |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | $10,000 | 3.2% | 28.9% | 90.3 | 11.7% |
| Cameron Young | $9,600 | 3.2% | 28.7% | 90.1 | 15.2% |
| Sam Burns | $9,300 | 2.7% | 26.6% | 88.8 | 12.7% |
| Russell Henley | $9,000 | 2.5% | 24.6% | 88.4 | 14.1% |
Full PGA Vegas odds and outright prices here.
FTA projections for the Travelers Championship
Our full PGA DFS projection and sim models are updated throughout the week with the latest tee times and conditions. Access them below:
- PGA DFS DraftKings projections — projected points for every golfer in the field
- PGA DFS FanDuel projections — FD-scoring projections
- PGA DFS sim models — run thousands of tournament simulations
Good luck this week!
These picks reflect our best analysis as of 6:00 AM CT. Always check weather and tee times and confirmed fields before locking in your roster. Follow @advisors_team on Twitter for last-minute updates.
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