River Highlands Fantasy Stats

Travelers Championship

June 22nd – 25th, 2017

TPC River Highlands

Cromwell, CT

Par: 70 / Yardage: 6,841

Purse: $6.8 million

with $1,188,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Russell Knox

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from TPC River Highlands, based on data from last year’s Travelers and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2017.
The most important thing to realize about TPC River Highlands, its a course that is very forgiving, you don’t kill a lot of brain cells in getting your way around it and if you drive it long and reasonably straight you can win. Just look at the roll call of past champions, guys like Bubba, Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Streelman, Marc Leishman and J.J. Henry, guys that hit is far and go chase it for their next shot. Now this doesn’t eliminate short hitters, guys like Brad Faxon, Woody Austin and Olin Browne have won and they are not long hitters. Last year Russell Knox won, he is classified as being in the middle, a person that can give it some stick, but is in the middle of the pack.
So your first choice should be guys that hit it a long way, guys that are hot right now and guys that showed some promise at Erin Hills.
The tournament is back to it’s regular date the week after the U.S. Open, last year it was played two months later which frankly may of changed the character of the course because it was hotter than normal and the grass was more mature being later in the year. So in a way I would throw out any the results from last year, it was just totally different. Last year the field wasn’t the great because it was the week before the Olympics, so the point is things are back to normal this week.

In looking at our four categories, we have to go outside the box. Remember this isn’t a tough course, last year it played to a 69.37 average making it the 26th hardest on tour. Hitting it long is important, making birdies are important as 1,534 were made last year making it the 39th hardest on tour, not bad for a course that only has two par 5s. To score low you have to play good on it’s 12 par 4s, last year the par 4s average was 4.01, only a half dozen full field tournaments had lower par 4 averages. So our first category is Strokes Gained Off the tee because those that do well on the course does well and has big advantage. Last year Russell Knox ranked 16th in this stat Next is Par Breakers which is a combination of birdies and Eagles, you have to make a lot of them this week to have any chance. Last year TPC River Highlands was 19th toughest on tour in this stat while Knox ranked T-5th. Our third category is scrambling, that is getting it up and down when you miss a green last year the course was the 12th hardest while Knox was T-19th last year while 2015 winner Bubba Watson led this stat. Our last category is par 4 average, last year TPC River Highlands was T-31st in this stat, Knox was 10 under last year while Bubba was 12 under on the par 4s and led that stat in 2015.

*Strokes Gained off-the-tee: Combination of distance off the tee and accuracy

*Par Breakers: Who makes the most birdies and eagles per round.

*Scrambling: The percent of time a player misses the green in regulation, but still makes par or better.

*Par 4 averages: Players that do the best on par 4s.

Of the 156 players in the field, 138 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2017. For those looking for stats on Rory McIlroy, he hasn’t played enough rounds in 2017 to qualify.

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.