TPC River Highlands Key Fantasy Stats

Travelers Championship

June 24th – 27th, 2021

TPC River Highlands

Cromwell, CT

Par: 70 / Yardage: 6,841

Purse: $7.4 million

with $1,332,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Dustin Johnson

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 2021.
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 Dustin Johnson, 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 Brad Faxon, Woody Austin, and Olin Browne have 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 Dustin Johnson won by a shot. Johnson’s game was in flux due to injury. After the break from the pandemic, Johnson missed the cut at Charles Schwab and then was T-17th at Hilton Head. So it wasn’t shocking to see Johnson win, but after that had some problems with his game before that got fixed and he finished up the year on a high. In 2019 Chez Reavie won by four shots. He 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 now and showing some promise.
The field for this year isn’t as good as last year, but still pretty good with five of the top-ten in the world ranking. This is a fun event, in past years they have had massive crowds of 80,000 on the weekend. Last year they had no gallery and this year will have 10,000 each day.

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 68.63 average making it the 32nd hardest course on tour (out of 41 on tour last year). Hitting it long is essential, last year it ranked 17th on tour with an average of all drives being 289.8. But you don’t have to be accurate, it ranked 29th on tour last year with a 64.462 average so driving it straight isn’t important. Now making birdies is important as 1,774 were made last year making it the 37th 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 3.95, it ranked T-34th on tour. 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 a significant advantage. Last year’s winner Dustin Johnson ranked 6th for the week while 2019 winner Chez Reavie ranked 1st, 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 27th hardest on tour as the winner Dustin Johnson ranked T-2nd, 2019 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 20th hardest as winner Johnson was T-33rd, 2019 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 the 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-23th in this stat, Johnson was 14 under and best while in 2019 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 seven 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 the 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, 140 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2021.

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