Travelers Championship Odds & Golf DFS Picks: 4 Longshot Bets, Including Denny McCarthy
With the PGA Tour’s best congregating together for yet another signature event, there are slimmer pickings to choose from for golf DFS picks. This week’s festivities bring us to the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn. It’ll be a tough act to follow after J.J. Spaun’s improbable survival at Oakmont CC, but TPC River Highlands is up to the task with a longstanding history of climactic finishes in front of one of the most electric crowds the tour has to offer.
It’s the fans who make this event so special. Serving as the Northeast’s only regular tour stop each year, these fans are always starved of the tour’s best. Because of that, players who feed into the crowd atmosphere have relished the spotlight at TPC River Highlands. The course features Pete Dye’s quirky bunkering but plays a bit less positional in modern days than Dye intended. Overall, we should expect to see a true birdie-maker’s paradise rewarding hot iron play and a streaky putter.
Ahead, we’ll look to dig for some diamonds in the rough in this article ahead of the 2025 Travelers Championship, including a triple-digit longshot.
Travelers Championship Betting Odds
TPC River Highlands: Course Introduction
A classic Pete Dye design, TPC River Highlands compares well to his other positional venues like TPC Sawgrass, The Stadium Course, and Harbour Town. Standing under 6,900 yards, TPC River Highlands is annually one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour, which has opened the door for plodders like Tom Hoge, JT Poston, and Chez Reavie to hang around as surprise longshot contenders in recent years.
Water threatens throughout TPC River Highlands’ routing, rewarding the most precise ball-strikers who are daring enough to take on its many risk-reward holes. Now positioned immediately following the U.S. Open on the schedule, this will serve as a nice buy-low spot for those who struggled their way through Oakmont CC, as TPC River Highlands requires a different set of skills to navigate.
With that said, driving accuracy, short iron approach play, and scoring in easy conditions will prove most fruitful this week.
Travelers Championship Course Specs
For a deeper dive into the course, check out my Travelers Championship betting preview.
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Travelers Championship: Golf DFS Picks & Longshot Bets
To identify “value” any given week on the PGA Tour, I find it’s best first to understand the consensus key stat profile. Then, take a stance on the elements of the tournament that may go overlooked. At the Travelers Championship, Recent Form, SG: APP, and Course History are consensus key areas factored into each player’s price.
From a golf DFS picks perspective, I will take a stance primarily on the importance of Birdies or Better Gained and Comp Course History to diversify my player pool. We’ve been in the teeth of some tough scoring venues over the last two months, so it may be fruitful to look further back to the start of this year to reference players who are better suited for easier scoring venues as a buy-low opportunity coming out of the Memorial and U.S. Open.
Below, find my favorite value PGA golf fantasy picks and longshots for the 2025 Travelers Championship. These stats were pulled across the last 36 rounds unless otherwise noted. Their odds of winning the event are also shown.
Si Woo Kim:
Known as one of the most dangerous players in the world on Pete Dye courses, with wins at TPC Sawgrass and The Stadium Course under his belt, the lack of a top-10 finish at TPC River Highlands on Kim’s resume seems like a glaring omission. On paper, a short and positional venue which rewards precise ball-striking and an aggressive game plan to take on its many risk-reward holes should be right up Si Woo’s alley. In that regard, he seems to be due for a breakout soon, which presents great buy-low value in fantasy formats.
Kim’s form has been solid of late, tallying four top-15 finishes over his last eight starts. He ranks top-10 in terms of SG: T2G and SG: TOT (Easy Scoring Conditions), leading into this event, making for a great ownership leverage candidate in fantasy formats if he’s able to buck the poor course history trend this go around.
Brian Harman:
When it comes to course history at TPC River Highlands, you’ll find none better in the value range of Travelers Championship odds than Harman. He’s finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven starts at TPC River Highlands. Positional venues like this, where club-down tee shorts tend to funnel to the same short iron range, tend to bring out the stickiest course history trends. And when you put the 2023 Open Champion on a venue that removes distance advantage in favor of accuracy and short game, those are the situations that Harman tends to fare best.
His form has looked average over the last month, but made cuts in seven of his last eight starts would suggest he carries a high floor back to one of his favorite courses. Harman has flashed his upside with a win already this season at the Valero Texas Open. He’s also proven he still has the chops to navigate a positional Pete Dye venue, finishing T3 at the RBC Heritage six starts ago.
Denny McCarthy:
Scoring continues to get easier at TPC River Highlands, with technology advancing and more players bringing an aggressive approach off the tee to a once-positional layout. That trend has tipped the scales in favor of putting skill over recent years, as a higher green-in-regulation rate forces the best putters in the field to separate. That is all very good news for McCarthy, the best putter in the field.
He’s done a great job of transcending his putting specialist reputation of late, as he is currently in the midst of his best statistical season from a SG: TOT standpoint. He has not missed a cut since the 2024 Open Championship and has posted 10 top-25 finishes in his 20 starts since. It’s interesting to see that his best results over that span have come on longer venues (Quail Hollow, Torrey Pines).
However, a return to one of the tour’s shortest venues should play in his favor. He’ll look to improve on a career-best T7 finish at the 2023 Travelers Championship.
Nick Taylor:
Like Kim, it’s hard to believe just how poor Taylor’s history at this event has been, given the profile fit on paper. Taylor has a history of elevating his game in high-energy crowd environments, picking up wins at the RBC Canadian Open and WM Phoenix Open. A winner at the top of this season at the Sony Open, Taylor has continued to thrive on shorter courses that reward accuracy and iron play. He’s now finished in the top 25 in five of his last six starts, including a T23 at last week’s U.S. Open.
There is no doubt his course history will keep his ownership in check this week, as he has failed to finish inside the top-40 over his first eight appearances. But, if we’re looking at his prospects with a glass half full, he’s coming off of his best showing yet with a T42 at the 2024 Travelers Championship. I’m willing to side with recent form over course history in his case, as 2025 has been one of the best seasons to date for the Canadian.
Best of luck if you choose to roster these Travelers Championship golf DFS picks!
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