River Highlands Key Fantasy Stats

Travelers Championship

June 25th – 26th, 2020

TPC River Highlands

Cromwell,, CT

Par: 70 / Yardage: 6,841

Purse: $7.4 million

with $1,332,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Chez Reavie

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 2020.
The most important thing to realize about TPC River Highlands, it’s 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 Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Streelman, Marc Leishman, and J.J. Henry, guys that hit it far and chase it for their next shot. Now, this doesn’t eliminate short hitters, guys like last year’s winner Chez Reavie along with Brad Faxon, Woody Austin, and Olin Browne they have all won, and they are not long hitters. In 2016 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 (in 2016 he ranked 108th in driving distance). Last year Chez Reavie won by four shots despite ranking T-54th in driving distance during the week and ranking 158th in driving distance for the year. Reavie was hot coming into the week, he was T-3rd at the U.S. Open at Pebble. Now playing well may not be a clue when you consider that in 2018 Bubba Watson won, the week before he missed the cut at the U.S. Open shooting rounds of 77-74. The year before in 2017, Jordan Spieth won, the week before he finished T-35th at the U.S. Open. So it doesn’t really matter how a player is doing coming into the Travelers.
In looking at characteristics of players who could win the Travelers, of course, your first choice should be guys that hit it a long way, guys that are playing well right by showing some promise at Harbour Town
As we pick up on the third event back from the break from COVID-19, the Travelers were to be played this week anyway, so we don’t have to look at the course differently like we did Colonial and Harbour Town that was played in different time slots.
Again the field for the third event in a row is super, not only do we have nine of the top-ten rated players off the Official World Golf Ranking and 33 of the top-50, there are 60 of the top-100 in the field. A more astonishing stat of the 154 players listed in the field now (suppose to be 156), 109 of those in the field have won at least once on the PGA Tour

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 69.72 average making it the 25th hardest course on tour. Hitting it long is essential, last year it ranked 10th on tour with an average of all drives being 278.7. But you don’t have to be accurate, it ranks 42nd on tour last year with a 69.43 average so driving it straight isn’t important. Now making birdies are important as 1,579 were made last year making it the 36th hardest on tour, not bad for a course that only has two par 5s. To score low you have to play good on its 12 par 4s, last year the par 4s average was 4.02, it ranked T-24th on tour last year. So our first category is Strokes Gained Tee-to-green because those that do well on the course do well in this stat and have had a significant advantage. Last year’s winner Chez Reavie ranked 1st for the week while 2018 winner Bubba Watson ranked 2nd 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 15th hardest on tour as winner Reavie ranked T-5th. In 2018 the course was the 23rd toughest on tour in this stat while Watson ranked T-1st. Our third category is scrambling, that is getting it up, and down when you miss a green last year, TPC River Highlands was the 21st hardest as winner Chez Reavie was 2nd as he got it up and down on 15 of the 18 greens he missed. In 2018 the course was the 13th hardest while winner Watson was T-44th. In 2015 Bubba won and he led that stat. Our final category is par 4 average, last year TPC River Highlands was T-24th in this stat, Reavie was 13 under in this stat not only the best in the field but the only player in double digits. In 2018 Watson was 11 under the same that Spieth was the year before that. In 2015 when Bubba won he was 12 under on the par 4s and led that stat. In looking at the winners, the last six champions have been in double-digit numbers in par 4s which means it’s a very important element in winning the Travelers.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-green: Combination of distance off the tee, accuracy and the ability to hit greens in regulation.

*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, 143 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2020.

Be aware that there have been a lot of withdrawals this week

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