Model Musing's: Traveler's Championship

The Team brings you under the radar golfers for PGA DFS

(Editor’s note: Link to the player pool & initial thoughts at the bottom of this article.)

Bombers and gougers can certainly win at TPC River Highlands. But the place is first and foremost a technician’s course, which is another way of saying it’s good for low-T bros who can’t hit it all that far but are deadly accurate with their irons. This tournament often becomes a wedge and putting contest. 

Below are four players whose games fit River Highlands quite well, and should not be all that rostered in large-field DFS tournaments this week. 

Byeong Hun An ($7,500): Coming in 16th in the Topher model for this week, An has been hot with short irons and wedges over the past couple months. Only nine players in this week’s field have been better than An from 100-125 yards over the past 16 rounds. He’s made seven of his past eight cuts thanks mostly to solid tee to green play. An’s ball striking has been tremendous of late; a mere nine guys in the Travelers field have gained more strokes in ball striking over the past 16 rounds. I don’t see a scenario in which An gets steamed up to chalk status with so many low-priced options in play this week.

Seep Straka ($7,100): Straka, 19th in this week’s Topher model, ranks 17th in accuracy from the fairway over the past 16 rounds, though most of his success has been from 125-175 yards while struggling inside 100 yards. Nevertheless, he enters the Travelers in good form despite missing the cut by two strokes last week at the U.S. Open. Zoom in a little bit and Straka is 18th in driving accuracy over his past eight rounds. Most importantly for large-field DFS purposes, Straka will be all but ignored by lineup builders at the Travelers.

Lucas Glover ($6,400): Glover is seventh among players in this week’s field in good drive rate over the past 16 rounds. That’s a long way of saying Glover has peppering the fairways with tee balls of late -- an important factor at a River Highlands course that reportedly has 4-5 inch rough. Glover hasn’t been bad with the irons either. He ranks tenth in accuracy from the fairway over the past 16 rounds, and he’s been downright elite from the 100-125 yard range in that span. There’s a reason he’s priced at $6,400 though. Glover has been an abomination on the greens for much of 2023. No one on tour, in fact, has been worse than Glover on the greens over the past 16 rounds. 

Justin Thomas ($8,800): Why would we not highlight a guy who was 145th in approach just last week at the U.S. Open on his way to missing the cut by a cool dozen strokes? Thomas, who is not in this week’s Topher player pool, is a disaster right now, and he should in no way be used in smaller field or cash game lineups at the Travelers. But man, his rostership is going to be in the single digits (maybe as low as 5 percent) and his game is (usually) well suited for a course like this. Thomas ranks seventh in proximity from 100-125 yards on the season, and he’s top-30 from 125-175 yards out. In short: JT is usually really good with a short iron in his hand. If he can keep it in play off the tee -- something he definitely did not do at the U.S. Open -- Thomas can be a valuable contrarian option in DraftKings tournaments while similarly-priced guys like Rickie Fowler and Matsuyama soak up chalky rostership numbers.