I’m back with more PGA DFS picks for this weekend. We’ll dive into my Travelers Championship DFS core plays, which include notes for Collin Morikawa, Si Woo Kim and others.
Last week’s U.S. Open delivered in a big way. There were no shortage of storylines coming out of Pinehurst, with Scottie Scheffler showing he was human, Rory McIlory missing 3-footers, and Bryson DeChambeau claiming his second U.S. Open title. The golf world is still buzzing as we head into the season’s eighth and final elevated event, The Travelers Championship.
2024 Travelers Championship PGA DFS Core Plays
2024 Travelers Championship PGA DFS Course & Tournament Preview
This event has been a staple on the PGA Tour for decades. TPC River Highlands, located in Cromwell, Conn., plays host as it does every year. The 6,800-yard par 70 is one of the shortest courses these guys play on all season, in stark contrast to what we typically see on tour. Position and accuracy off the tee are vital to combat the thick rough and water hazards that litter the course. It’s a traditional Pete Dye setup that features intimidating visuals off the tee, doglegs in both directions and an emphasis on precise approach shots. Given the importance of finding the fairway, many will opt for ‘less than driver’ this week, with golfers hitting three woods or irons to ensure they are in a position to attack. Given the demands of the course, I’ll be targeting golfers who are accurate off the tee and have been in good form with their irons.
Thankfully, our PGA DFS Sims tool here at Stokastic does much of the heavy lifting in terms of strategy. Our hole-by-hole simulation technology allows me to take every golfer in the field’s range of outcomes into account, along with what I project the competition’s lineups to look like. By simulating the lineups against each other tens of thousands of times, the best plays on the slate reveal themselves.
The players that appear most in the highest ROI lineups are the ones I want to build my portfolio around. Our sim tool is the core of my weekly DFS process, and something I highly recommend for those looking to take the next step in DFS. For a limited time, you can take 20% off any of our PGA Sims packages using promo code BERRYMANSIMS.
As always, Scottie Scheffler will not appear on my list of core plays. He is always going to be the most expensive, highest-projected, and best golfer in the field every time he tees it up. For those reasons, he is always a popular play. How you handle him is a strategic preference based on your personal risk tolerance and contest selection.
2024 Travelers Championship PGA DFS Core Plays
Collin Morikawa – $9,800
Featured in this article in each of the past two weeks, Collin Morikawa has delivered with finishes of second and 14th. I’m going back to the well this week, and for good reason. He is one of the hottest players on tour right now, with seven straight finishes inside the top 16, including four top-5 finishes.
Morikawa’s elite ball striking, which eluded him through the early part of the season, has come back in a big way. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks fifth in this field in strokes gained from tee to green. He also ranks first in the field in fairways gained, second in birdie-or-better percentage, and third in strokes gained around the green.
Morikawa is checking every box for me this week and appears the most often in high-ROI lineups run through the Stokastic pre-contest simulation tool. I’m all in on Morikawa this week.
Sepp Straka – $7,900
Straka is one of my favorite raw course fits in the field this week. As one of only three players to rank inside the top-11 in both strokes gained on approach and fairways gained, he is set up extremely well to attack this layout.
He has been playing some incredible golf lately as well. Since his 16th-place finish at the Masters in April, Straka has four top-10 finishes, including three top-5s in six total events. As a popular click in last week’s U.S. Open, he gained over five strokes with his ball striking.
Unfortunately, he lost it all and then some on and around the tricky Pinehurst greens, leading to a disappointing 56th-place finish. Since he burned a lot of people last week, we may get Straka at reasonable ownership this week at a course that suits his game extremely well. He is a great play at the top of the $7,000 range.
Si Woo Kim – $7,500
Si Woo Kim is having an excellent 2024 campaign thus far. He has made the cut in every event outside of the PGA Championship with 10 finishes inside the top 25 over his 17 total starts.
Over the years, Si Woo Kim has acquired a reputation as a Pete Dye specialist due to his consistent success on courses designed by the legendary architect.
It makes sense that he thrives on courses of this style: He is accurate off the tee, hitting nearly 70% of his fairways on the year. He is also excellent on approach, ranking ninth in this star-studded field over the last 24 rounds. Given his mid-$7,000 price tag on DraftKings this week, he is one of the best value options on the board.
GPP Flier: Tom Hoge – $7,000
Hovering around the single-digit ownership projection cutoff for this section, Tom Hoge jumped off the screen this week. As I’ve highlighted above, I’m looking for golfers who are accurate off the tee and in good form with their approach game. Hoge checks these boxes with a top-10 ranking in fairways gained and a top 20 rank in strokes gained on approach amongst this field over the last 24 rounds.
Before last week’s missed cut at the U.S. Open, Hoge was on a streak of 15 made cuts in a row dating back to January. Over that stretch, he had eight finishes inside the top 20. With an average driving distance short of 300 yards, he struggles to compete on the longer courses prevalent on the PGA Tour.
As we know, TPC River Highlands is a short course and one that should fit Hoge’s game well. If he does end up with single-digit ownership when the cards turn over Thursday morning, I’ll be doing backflips.
