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The final designated event of 2023 has drawn an elite field for the cross-country trip from the U.S. Open in Los Angeles to Cromwell, Conn., for this week's Travelers Championship.
Well, that, and a $20 million prize pool certainly helps.
The tournament begins Thursday at TPC River Highlands, and our golf experts provide key event notes along with their favorite prop picks and best bets to win this week.
TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Cromwell, Conn., June 22-25
Course: TPC River Highlands (Par 70, 6,852 yards)
Purse: $20M (Winner: $3.6M)
Defending Champion: Xander Schauffele
FedEx Cup leader: Jon Rahm
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
Streaming on ESPN+: Thursday-Friday, 6:45 a.m.-6 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Twitter: @TravelersChamp
PROP PICKS
Andrew Putnam to Beat Wyndham Clark (+115 at DraftKings): While Clark has been basking in the glow -- and the media commitments -- following his first major victory, Putnam made the same cross-country trip this week in relative anonymity. He finished T43 at LACC -- a full 15 shots back of Clark. But Putnam has put together a solid first half of 2023, including a T5 at the Memorial two weeks ago and a T9 at the Match Play. Clark has two wins and a T12 in his past four starts, but he also has to be running on fumes.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout Top South African: (+100 at BetMGM): This prop also includes Garrick Higgo at +160 and Erik van Rooyen at +400. Bezuidenhout and Higgo missed the Travelers cut last year while van Rooyen wasn't in the field. Bezuidenhout does have four top 25s in his past nine worldwide starts and enters in better form than Higgo, who has missed three of his past six cuts and hasn't finished better than T29 since February. Meanwhile, van Rooyen hasn't even sniffed the weekend while missing four consecutive cuts.
Cameron Young to Win Tournament 3-Ball (+170 at DraftKings): Justin Thomas (+170) is coming off his second consecutive missed cut and finished better than only three players in the 156-player field at the U.S. Open. Harris English did post a T8 at LACC and won the Travelers two years ago in an epic eight-hole playoff. Young has been inconsistent since a runner-up at the Match Play and a T7 at the Masters, but we like his chances of gobbling up birdies at TPC River Highlands.
2023 Prop Picks Record: 26-36-2
BEST BETS
Scottie Scheffler (+600 at BetMGM) has finished T12 or betting in each of his past 16 starts and has 13 top 10s this season. His best result in three previous event starts was a T13 last year. Scheffler is third at the book with 6.4 percent of the outright winner bets and 9.0 percent of the money since opening at +650. He leads the way by a large margin at DraftKings with 22 percent of the money at +650.
Jon Rahm (+1000) has four wins among his nine top 10s this season and said he feels fresh coming off a T10 at the U.S. Open, in part because he wasn't grinding in contention over the weekend. Rahm opened at +900 at BetMGM, where he leads the field with 10.3 percent of the money backing him to win.
Rory McIlroy (+1000) is coming off a second-place finish at the U.S. Open but does not have a top 10 in four previous starts at the Travelers. McIlroy also opened at +900 and his odds have lengthened slightly despite leading the book with 7.0 percent of the total bets.
Xander Schauffele (+1400) is defending his second of three titles from last season. He finished T10 last week after opening with a 62.
Tommy Fleetwood (+2800) nearly claimed his first PGA Tour win two weeks ago in Canada. He's BetMGM's biggest liability this week, drawing 6.8 percent of the bets and 9.3 percent of the money since opening at +3300. Fleetwood has also been popular at DraftKings, where he is second with 6 percent of the action in both markets at +3500.
Tom Kim (+3500) is always popular with the public and this week is no different. The young South Korean is up to 22nd in the world following his T8 at the U.S. Open, and Kim is BetMGM's second biggest liability this week.
NOTES
The field for the final elevated PGA Tour event before the FedEx Cup Playoffs includes each of the top six players in the world.
Clark (+4000 at BetMGM) made his professional debut at the Travelers Championship in 2017 and will attempt to become the first player to win on tour the week following a major victory since Tiger Woods in 2006.
Rahm will make another attempt to become the first player to win five times in a season since Thomas in 2016-17.
Amateur Michael Thorbjornsen (+30000), whose fourth-place finish last year was the best by an amateur on the PGA Tour since 2016, is in the field on a sponsor's exemption along with Ludvig Aberg (+12500) and Sam Bennett (+20000), former star amateurs who've recently turned pro.
World No. 25 Sahith Theegala (+5500) posted one of his two career runner-up finishes at last year's Travelers, and he is one of three players ranked in the top 25 in the world yet to win on the PGA Tour (No. 17 Young, No. 20 Fleetwood).
Kenny Perry holds the tournament scoring record of 258 set in 2009.
More must-reads:
- Best bets for the Travelers Championship
- Travelers Championship best bets: 3 juicy longshots to target
- The '100 catches in an NFL season' quiz
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