The PGA Tour is now moving to events taking place at their original slots in the 2020 calendar with this weekend’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.Sungjae Im will look to grow his led in the FedExCup standings, while the entire top ten from that table will take part in the tournament. Chez Reavie returns as the defending champion. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson are the top five Official World Golf Ranking players and will all be in this field. Phil Mickelson won this tournament back to back in 2001 and 2002 and now will play his first tournament after turning 50. Sahith Theegala, who won the Haskins Award as college golf’s top player, got an exemption and will enter this event as a pro for the first time. Peter Kuest, a college star for BYU, will make his pro debut as well. Take a look at the Golf Betting Odds for the contenders (100/1 or better) and our thoughts on the course and the field.
2020 Travelers Championship Odds & Preview
Travelers Contender Odds
- Justin Thomas +1000
- Rory McIlroy +1100
- Bryson DeChambeau +1200
- Jon Rahm, Webb Simpson +1400
- Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele +2000
- Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose +2500
- Abraham Ancer +2800
- Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson +3300
- Paul Casey, Sungjae Im +4000
- Jordan Spieth +4500
- Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann, Gary Woodland +5000
- Viktor Hovland, Marc Leishman +5500
- JT Poston +6000
- Brian Harman, Ian Poulter, Kevin Kisner, Corey Conners, Scottie Scheffler, Joel Dahmen +7000
- Ryan Palmer, Jason Day +8000
- Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Jason Kokrak +9000
- Kevin Na, Brandt Snedeker, Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman, Shane Lowry, Billy Horschel, Keegan Bradley, Patrick Rodgers +10000
Bubba Watson has three career wins at TPC River Highlands. So if you’re looking for course history as a key metric, that’s a place to begin.
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson are starting to trickle down the odds boards. It took them a while to start showing solidity to their game, and their odds soared as high as 45/1 for the Charles Schwab Challenge. Now that they have played a solid tournament, those odds are on the way down.
Abraham Ancer can blame his putter for walking away from Fort Worth without a win at the Charles Schwab Challenge. He led the entire field in Strokes Gained: Approach at Harbour Town, and his striking was terrific at Colonial Country Club as well.
Sungjae Im offers a lot of value at the Travelers Championship after missing the cut at Harbour Town.
Rory McIlroy is a favorite, but he has not played particularly well since the PGA Tour resumed. He is one of those players who can catch fire in a hurry, though, so the odds are deserved, but I’m not sure I dump a lot of money on him.
Webb Simpson won the RBC Heritage and has been creeping down the odds lists in 2020. He’s a sleeper to consider here.
Paul Casey has not played since the cancellation of The Players Championship. This has been a great course for him, with three top-five finishes in the last three years and a second-plac finish in 2015. He gained 2.46 strokes per round on the field, more than any other player in the field who has played at least five rounds here.
Marc Leishman missed the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge but was the runner-up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational just before the COVID-19 hiatus and won the Farmers Insurance Open. He leads this field in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking and Par Efficiency: 400-450 yards on courses with bentgrass greens and with less than 7,200 yards in total distance.
Jason Kokrak had a T3 at the Charles Schwab Challenge but then missed the cut at the RBC Heritage last week. In 19 career rounds at this course, he has not played well, and he missed the cut here in 2018 and 2019.
