2022 Travelers Championship: Golf Odds and PGA Betting Picks

This week Joe Cistaro breaks down the course and golf betting tips for the 2022 Travelers Championship. Here’s a closer look at golf odds across online sportsbooks.

Congratulations to Matt Fitzpatrick on breaking through and winning the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.  This week, several players from that field take the short trip to Cromwell, Connecticut to compete in an unusually stacked field for the Travelers Championship.  TPC River Highlands will host all of the action on the PGA Tour while most of the conversation still surrounds the LIV Tour poaching talent.  Might this be the reason this field is so stacked?  

2022 Travelers Championship Odds

At the time of this writing –  June 21, 2022 – you can find these odds at BetMGM Sportsbook.  The below list features all golfers priced at 50/1 or better.

Here are the recent winners of The Travelers Championship:

2021 – Harris English (-13)

2020 – Dustin Johnson (-19)

2019 – Bubba Watson (-17)

2017 – Jordan Spieth (-12)

2016 – Russell Knox (-14)

2015 – Bubba Watson (-16)

As you can see, I think we can glean a bit from the past winners at TPC River Highlands.  Scoring is available on the Pete Dye design.  While we might not say a sub-20 winner, this course will represent a big reprieve from those players coming from The Country Club.  

The field is notably strong for this event with Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Justin Thomas leading the way in the top tier.  The next tier below is loaded with Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, and former winner, Jordan Spieth.  

Five of the top ten golfers will make the trip to Cromwell this week from Brookline.  Brooks Koepka is in the field, for now, but was just announced the newest member of the nWO…  I mean, the LIV Golf Tour.  We will need to peek back to see if Brooks somehow still plays the event.  

Will Zalatoris, Russell Henley, and Patrick Rodgers all withdrew from the field presumably for a bit of a break after a rough U.S. Open competition.  

Let’s take a look at the course.  

2022 Travelers Championship Betting Preview

• Course: TPC River Highlands
• Date: June 23 – 26
• Par: 70
• Yardage: 6,844 yards
• Greens: Bentgrass & Poa Blend

TPC River Highlands is one of the shorter courses played on Tour.  Fairways are very generous with small bentgrass (and poa) greens.  The course features the standard for a Par 70 course – two Par 5’s, four Par 3’s, and the rest Par 4’s.  

The length of the course and lack of long Par 4’s (only two greater than 460 yards) means that we will see plenty of wedges and short irons this week.  Gaining off the tee will be crucial but distance shouldn’t factor in that much.  

The approach game will be vital and what might amount to a festival of birdies.  The fairways are wide with far less trouble off of the fairways than we saw at The Country Club.  Players will need to dial in approach shots and give themselves a high volume of opportunities to make birdie.  

Short game and ball striking seem to go hand-in-hand for this event.  The greens are some of the smallest on tour which means anything that misses will require excellent touch around the greens to get up-and-down.  

Putting…  yes, putting.  What was it that Jon Rahm said about putting contests?  I am sorry.  The wounds are fresh.  Rahm seemed poised to cash our first outright in what feels like years until that horrific double bogey on Saturday at the 18th hole seemed to sap all of the momentum from his bag.  Wait, what were we talking about?  Putting?

Yes, putting.  I do think putting will be weighted a bit more heavily in an event that will likely require a player going low.  As mentioned before, the course does well enough given its short length to not crack the 20’s under par, but a player can and will certainly go low at this event.  Jim Furyk famously shot his 58 here in 2016.  Players will need to sink putts.  

As for ranges, proximity ranges below 175 yards will play a role for the first time in a while.  The course is so short that players will flip plenty of wedges into these small greens and we don’t want a bunch of lag putts.  I will be weighing ranges from 125-175 yards when building a statistical model for this week.  

Finally, we need players to make birdies.  Birdie-or-better percentage is of interest to me this week as players will be given three strong opportunities this week in the form of two Par 5’s and a very driveable short Par 4 (296 yards).  Nearly every player will look to drive that green and give themselves a look at eagle or worse an easy birdie.  

Let’s build our card.  Admittedly, given this is going to be a birdiefest this will likely be a light betting week and a heavier DFS week.  I am not enamored with betting a bunch of studs for big money and instead will structure my card to target the mid-range.  If a stud golfer is going to sweep all of the chips off of the table, I don’t want many of my chips out there for the taking.  

2022 Travelers Championship Betting Picks

Unless mentioned otherwise, all strokes gained statistics will be referenced over the player’s previous 36 rounds on the PGA Tour.

Joaquin Niemann +3500 (DraftKings)

We are going to pass over the very top of the board and save a little money by starting with Niemann this week.  We are also going to lower our target until total to closer to 35 units which makes this a perfect first play.  One unit on DraftKings to start our card with the talented young golfer.  

Niemann checks all of the boxes except putting.  Of course, in an event where we think we will see plenty of birdies, lacking the putting chops isn’t ideal.  That said, the greens are pretty small so I am hoping that three-putts are way down.  

Niemann is the perfect blend of driving the golf ball and throwing darts at greens.  His around-the-green game has transformed from perilous to effective (5th in the field).  Finally, he ranks third in P4 400-450 scoring as well as BOB%.  He might be a tier below the upper echelon but he has shown time and time again that he belongs.  

We will open with Niemann and hope he improves upon his 5th place finish at the event in 2019.  

Davis Riley +5000 (PointsBet)

A player I grew fond of last week, Riley sits in our second spot at 50/1 on Pointsbet.  We will wager 0.7 units on Riley to hit the same target 35 units for a victory.  

Riley seemed poised to make a run at our T20 bet at the US Open last weekend and like many peers fell off a cliff over the weekend.  Sunday was especially troubling, with double bogeys on both Par 5’s taking him squarely out of any placement contention.  

That said, we downshift in difficulty and Riley’s recent form leaves a lot to get excited about.  Riley ranks in the top third of the field in SG: Approach and OTT, 4th in BOB%, and 10th in putting.  He boasts six consecutive made cuts with three top 10’s baked in.  More impressively, he finished 13th at the PGA Championship.  

While Riley isn’t on the same path as fellow young gun Will Zalatoris, he seems to be tracking just behind with big finishes on the horizon.  50/1 is a very comfortable number here if we are looking for savings.  

Aaron Wise +5000 (DraftKings)

Speaking of going back to the well, Aaron Wise occupies our third spot in the card at the same price as Davis Riley for the same amount (0.7 units).  Wise also seemed poised for a big finish before succumbing to The Country Club on Sunday in the U.S. Open.  

Wise sits 2nd in approach in the field and top 20 in strokes gained off the tee.  He is 11th in BOB% this week.  He is trending, like Riley, towards a big breakout and showed over his first few rounds last week that he can hang with the big names on tour.  

The putting, though, yikes!  Wise is going to make a mess with the flat stick.  We can only hope that the smallish greens that need to play easier than they did in Brookline can mitigate his normal woes.  I see plenty of upside in this price and don’t mind including him given the shape of our card so far.  

Harris English +12500 (PointsBet)

Price play, alert!  All of the physical rigors of golf seemed to hold up with Harris English last week in the U.S. Open.  English made the weekend, and like nearly everyone else, struggled mightily when the USGA ramped everything up.  That said, for a return to golf, TPC River Highlands will be more welcoming than a USGA setup.  

Oh, by the way, English won this event last year after a long playoff with Kramer Hicock.  I am not saying he is likely to win the event but at this number, the return-to-form is baked in.  I don’t mind wagering a pittance to chase that upside.  We will wager 0.3 units to win 37.5 units.  

That opens our week with only 2.7 units in play in the outrights market.  We certainly have a bit of room for a few finishing position bets to complement our bets.  

The Travelers Championship Betting Card

Net Units the U.S. Open:  -10.75 units

2022 Profit in Units:  +38.025 units

Good luck this week, everyone.  Check back on Twitter this evening for any additions to my outright betting card.  
Follow me on Twitter at @JoeCistaro  to follow along with any additions, matchups, or top finishers I add to my outright betting card.  Good luck with all of your wagers this week and thanks for reading.