PGA The First Tee: Travelers Championship

Recap

U.S. Open was one that we'll never forget! First the winds switched on Thursday making it harder to play in the afternoon. Friday was a cut sweat and a half with Tiger; Spieth; and Rory trying to make it for the weekend. That didn't happen, and with that, it was tough to get 6/6 guys through. Saturday was the day to forget with Phil's stupidity and then the winds picking up in the afternoon to make it very difficult to play in. On Sunday, you had the U.S.G.A. over correcting the course and made it very gettable for the players. It was an exciting tournament to watch and hopefully the U.S.G.A. will get one of these U.S. Opens right with no controversy involve.

For DraftKings, it was not the week that I wanted. I had the correct player pool, but didn't create the lineup necessary to have 6 guys on Sunday and with a chance to have a good R.O.I. I had a lot of Tiger and Shane Lowry in my lineups who ended up missing the cut. Here's a quick look at my player pool and my best lineup. I made 5 lineups total.

The total points for this lineup was 272.00 points. What I should've done was to drop Tiger for Stenson who had 63 points and finished 6^th and drop Lowry for Cantlay who finished 45^th and had 38 points for a total of 101 extra points for a 373. That wouldn't have won, obviously, but that's the difference for having a positive R.O.I. and not.

This Week

Now having a hangover from the U.S. Open, we're back to a normal PGA tour event. We're headed to Cromwell, Connecticut for The Travelers Championship. The course is TPC River Highlands and it's a Par 70; and 6,841 yards. Jordan Spieth is the defending champion and have Rory and Thomas in the field as your top headliners. For stats, I'm looking at DK points; Strokes Gained: Off the Tee; Strokes Gained: Approach the Green; Proximity; Strokes Gained: Par 4 scoring and as a tie breaker, I'm looking at Strokes Gained: Putting.

Cash Plays

Webb Simpson ($9,100) – Webb is on form entering this week where he seems to play well at River Highlands. In his last 9 starts this season, he has 6 top 20 finishes, including the win at The Players. He has 2 top 10s in his last 3 starts here. For stats, he's 6^th in SG: Par 4 scoring; 8^th in the field for DK Points; and 17^th in the field for SG: Putting.

Emiliano Grillo ($7,700) – This course feels like it will suit well for Grillo. For stats, he's 6^th in the field for not only DK Points, but for also SG: Approach the Green and SG: Putting. He has only missed cut this year, and that was week, which was only by 1 stroke. He has made the cut here last year, finishing 43^rd. He'll be my dark horse this week.

Abraham Ancer ($6,800) – Ancer is a nice value who has played here before and made the cut, finishing 56^th. For his stats, there's nothing that stands out, but he's 19^th in the field for SG: Off the Tee and virtually average for all the other stats I'm looking at this week. He's only missed 2 cuts in his last 9 starts with a top 10 at the Shell Houston Open. The fact that he has a top 10 potential, I'll take a stab with Ancer.

GPP Plays

Justin Thomas ($11,500) – Going off the board with this one, but you must go to the top when most people won't pay the top guy. We saw that last week with Dustin Johnson being around that 20% mark and in some cases, he was less than 20%. He has a 3^rd place here back in 2016 and a couple miss cuts around that. For stats, there's no one better. He's in the top 5 in the field for SG: Par 4 scoring; DK Points; and SG: Off the Tee. With his recent form, you must have a look. Since the WGC – Bridgestone of last year, he has made every cut, has 4 wins in that stretch, and has 9 top 10s. He's the player to beat this week.

Sam Ryder ($6,800) – Ryder might a be good pivot play for GPPs. He hasn't done much this season, he does have a 5^th place finish at the Shell Houston Open. For stats, he's 17^th in Proximity and about average for the other stats that I'm looking at this week. He has no history here, so if you're building around 5 lineups or so, maybe put him in 1 and you're building more than 20, I say no more than 20%.

Exposure

Cash Games: For cash games, I like to play the small field 50/50s, for example, anything less than 100 entrants. I tend to make just 1 lineup and that lineup will have the 6 golfers who I think will have the best chance of making it to the weekend and have the upside of a top 10 finish.

3 Entry Max GPPs: For these tournaments, think of it as one lineup for cash, one for leagues and one that is completely different from the first 2. This technique is very common among the DFS community and even the DFS pros. Just start of with your cash lineup then use a “2 vs. 2" strategy for the other lineups.

20 – 150 Max GPPs: With these, you can have a player pool anywhere from 15-100 players. For 20 max GPPS, I tend to stay closer to 15-18 golfers in my pool. For 150 max GPPs, I recommend using around 25-30 golfers.

Weather

As of Monday evening, there doesn't seem to be a huge advantage for any wave. The only potential would be late/early tee times since they are calling for winds gusting up to 15 mph on Friday afternoon. However, as we saw last week, the winds can switch on us. So, if there are any changes by Wednesday night, I will update them via twitter.

Good luck everyone!!