Travelers Championship 2024: Course & Field Preview, Key Stats, + Odds

With three of professional golf's four major championships in the rearview mirror now for the season, the PGA Tour heads from iconic Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut for the 2024 Travelers Championship. Designed by legendary golf architect Pete Dye, TPC River Highlands is celebrating its 41st year as a PGA Tour venue, offering a raucous New England crowd and a unique layout compared to most courses on the schedule. TPC River Highlands is also home to the only 58 in PGA Tour history, as Jim Furyk accomplished the legendary feat in 2016.

Despite landing immediately after the U.S. Open again on the schedule, this year's Travelers Championship is the final Signature Event for the second consecutive season. With one final $20 million purse on the line, 18 of the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking are teeing it up in Cromwell, including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, and Patrick Cantlay. Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Sahith Theegala, and defending champion Keegan Bradley are also part of this week's field. Min Woo Lee and Nicolai Hojgaard are the only eligible players who bypassed the event.

TPC River Highlands has also been a spot for countless up-and-coming stars to step onto the scene, and this year's 2024 PGA Tour University winner Michael Thorbjornsen will make his professional debut. Thorbjornsen, 24, just finished up his senior season of college golf at Stanford, and he finished fourth in his debut at this tournament in 2022.

THE FIELD/ODDS

Scottie Scheffler (+500), Rory McIlroy (+700), and Xander Schauffele (+700) enter the week as the betting favorites, according to BetRivers Sportsbook.

Collin Morikawa (+1600), Ludvig Aberg (+1600), Viktor Hovland (+2000), Sam Burns (+2200), Patrick Cantlay (+2200), Tommy Fleetwood (+2500), Russell Henley (+2800), and Hideki Matsuyama (+2800) are the rest of the players listed below 30/1 odds.

Corey Conners (+3300), Sahith Theegala (+3500), Keegan Bradley (+4000), Tony Finau (+4000), Brian Harman (+4500), Justin Thomas (+5000), Jordan Spieth (+5500), Tom Kim (+5500), Sepp Straka (+5500), Max Homa (+6000), Sungjae Im (+6000), Matthew Fitzpatrick (+6000), Shane Lowry (+6000), and Adam Scott (+6600) fill up the middle tier of the betting board.

Byeong Hun An (+7000), Denny McCarthy (+7000), Wyndham Clark (+7000), Cameron Young (+7000), Si Woo Kim (+8000), Jason Day (+8000), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (+8000), J.T. Poston (+8000), Taylor Pendrith (+9000), Billy Horschel (+9000), Thomas Detry (+9000), Akshay Bhatia (+9000), Will Zalatoris (+9000), Harris English (+9000), and Robert MacIntyre (+9000) are the rest of the players below 100/1.

For the complete tournament odds board, click here .

*Odds subject to change*

PAST WINNERS

2023: Keegan Bradley (-23)

2022: Xander Schauffele (-19)

2021: Harris English (-13)

2020: Dustin Johnson (-19)

2019: Chez Reavie (-17)

KEY STATS

SG: Approach

Good Drive Percentage

Birdie or Better Percentage

SG: Around The Green

Green In Regulation Percentage

SG: Putting (Bent/Poa)

Par 4s: 400-450 Yards

Proximity 125-150 Yards/150-175 Yards

SG: Pete Dye Designs

Course History

THE COURSE

TPC River Highlands (par 70) is the shortest track on the PGA Tour, stretching just 6,835 yards with Bentgrass/Poa Annua fairways and greens. The Parkland-style course also features five strategically-placed water hazards, four-inch Kentucky Bluegrass rough, 69 sand bunkers, 38-yard-wide fairways (on average), and the sixth-smallest green complexes on Tour.

First established as Middletown Golf Club in 1928, the course was purchased by the PGA Tour in the early 1980s, where Pete Dye was tasked with redesigning the property to fit TPC standards. The newly-named 'TPC of Connecticut' reopened in 1984 but underwent further remodeling in 1989, led by the great Bobby Weed with help from Tour pros Roger Maltby and Howard Twitty. The course was then renamed TPC River Highlands following the remodel.

With the course's lack of distance, all player types can compete at the Travelers Championship. The list of past winners in recent years couldn't include more different styles of golfers, as we've seen Dustin Johnson and Chez Reavie win in consecutive seasons, while Bubba Watson has won here three times. Most approach shots come from inside 175 yards at TPC River Highlands, the opposite of nearly all other courses on the PGA Tour. Players will hit wedges into the greens on almost half the holes, which presents numerous scoring opportunities for the entire field.

Among the 12 par-4s this week, eight range between 400-450 yards. Another two par-4s are shorter than 400 yards, leaving only two (Nos. 4 & 10) over the 450-yard marker. The driveable 296-yard 15th hole is a crucial scoring chance before the grueling closing stretch.

Two of the four par-3s reach over 200 yards this week, with both coming on the front nine (Nos 5 & 8). Three of the par-3s played over par in 2023, with No. 11 (158 yards) being the exception. The average distance of the par-3s is 188.5 yards.

Both par-5s are sure-fire birdie opportunities and were the two easiest holes last year. The 523-yard 13th-hole will be reachable in two shots for most players and could see a few eagles throughout the tournament. The average distance of the par-5s this week is 548.5 yards.

Many of Dye's designs have similar features and tend to have a relatively sticky course history year after year. TPC River Highlands is no different, with many of the same players consistently popping up at the top of the leaderboard. Whenever one of Dye's tracks comes into play, it's worth looking at who tends to perform the best historically on ALL of his courses.

There have also been crossovers with the leaderboards at the WM Phoenix Open, The Genesis Invitational, and the Valspar Championship in the past handful of years. Watson and Johnson are past Travelers champions to have won at Riviera, while Jordan Spieth and Kevin Streelman have each accrued victories at Innisbrooks' Copperhead Course. While TPC River Highlands plays much shorter and simpler than those three courses, there have been too many connections between them all in the last decade to ignore.

All in all, I'll target elite wedge players who typically tear up short par-4s and have a sturdy history at TPC River Highlands/comp courses. Even though the fairways have been narrowed a small amount this year, I expect players to still find them with relative ease, making wedge play the primary separator. Riding a hot putter is also crucial this week, as the winning score has reached 17-under in five of the past six years. Winners of this tournament typically rank in the top ten for putts per green in regulation on the week.

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