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John Nelson's Travelers Championship Golf Tips
Patrick Cantlay 25/1 – 3pts E/W (6 Places)
Hideki Matsuyama 28/1 – 2pts E/W (6 Places)
Corey Conners 35/1 - 2pt E/W (8 Places)
Tony Finau 35/1 -1pt E/W (5 Places)
JT Poston 66/1 - 0.5pt E/W (8 Places)
Michael Thorbjornsen 200/1 – 0.5pt EW (6 Places)
TPC RIVER HIGHLANDS, CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT
Par 70, 6,852 Yards, designed by Robert Moss in 1928 and redesigned by Pete Dye in 1982, and further remodelling in 1989 by Bobby Weed in consultation with PGA tour pros, this is a parkland style course with water on 5 holes, the fairways have Bentgrass with Poa and averages around 38 yards wide and it's not overly hard to hit. The rough is Kentucky bluegrass with fescue, the greens are Bentgrass with Poa Annua and is 12 on the Stimpmeter. This short course has had a mixed bag of winners here with some long hitters such as Dustin Johnson, Xander and Bubba Watson, and short ones such as Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman and Ken Duke who are renowned to be good wedge players and have good course management.
COURSE GUIDE
This par 70 has twelve par 4s, only two par 5s and four par 3s, the par fours have only one over the 450 mark which is the 4th at 488 yards, both of the par 5s play over par and both are pretty tough with the 6th at 588 being the hardest hole on the course and the 13th at 525 is the 4th hardest on the course and plays 0.37 over par. Only five holes played under par, two of them were the par 3s the 5th & 16th, it's not an easy ride out there, looking at the flyovers there are some interesting holes with plenty of dog- legs. The tough par five 6th has a tight fairway off the tee with a dog-leg right with bunkers on the left and right to catch the wayward drives.
OVERVIEW
Going through the stats it's pretty obvious that the driver should only be used sparingly and there will be plenty of irons and fairway woods off the tee, there is the odd bomber that has won this tournament but predominantly it's course management and good iron play that takes this prize. There are plenty of players that can work the ball both ways so I'm expecting a tight affair and don't be surprised if it's not a play-off, as we have seen many here in the past.
CORRELATING COURSES
TOREY PINES (FARMERS)
PEBBLE BEACH (AT&T)
RIVIERA (GENESIS)
HARBOUR TOWN (HERITAGE)
KEY STATS
SG TEE TO GREEN
SG APPROACH
APPROACHES FROM 125-150
BIRDIE OR BETTER
SG PUTTING BENTGRASS/POA
SG SCRAMBLING
CANTLAY 25/1 3PTS EW 6PLS BETFAIR
Not my normal first pick, Patty has been unrecognisable this year, you can normally set your clock by him when the swing comes around, but at the US Open he showed signs of him coming back to his best, gaining on all stats which is a first since the Heritage where he was T3 on a similar course as TPC Highlands. Cantlay has a liking for this venue, he's posted some solid rounds finishing T4th-T11th -T13th twice and T15th twice, most of Pat's wins have come on Bentgrass so we hold no fears there and he's played well at the correlating courses, I just think this is the perfect time and course to kickstart his year.
MATSUYAMA 28/1- 2PTS EW 6PLS BET UK
Hideki is one of those guys you just love, he's been a model of consistency, with not a single missed cut this year, his last five starts read 6th-T8th-T35th- T38th-T7th, he's already won this year at the Genesis which is on my correlation list along with the Farmers where he's played well, Hideki's stats this year show he's playing some good golf, they read as TTG 3rd - TOT 4th - APR 15th- ARG 1st- SCR 3rd- he's only played here once and finished a respectable T13th shooting 64-65-66 it was only an opening round of 69 that scuppered his chances, Matsu is the perfect player to plot his way round here he's a patient player and could take this one.
CONNERS 35/1-2PTS EW 8PLS BOYLE
Conners is another who I've given plenty of chances and this is the last chance saloon for him, this course fit should be ideal for him but he had two missed cuts before posting a T9th here in 2023. Corey has been a cut machine with him making the last 24 cuts only broken by the 2023 US Open, looking at his approach and ball-striking numbers you have to be impressed, twinned with his impressive tee-to-green numbers and if the putter had behaved he would have won many more events this year, and let's not forget he's played so well that he's qualified for the Olympics alongside Nick Taylor, it can only be a matter of time before he gets back in the winner's circle.
FINAU 35/1-1PT EW 5PLS BET FRED
Big Tony is not just a favourite of mine he is also a really good golfer, you can see it's only a matter of time before he gets his first major, Tony's ball striking has been on point of late the last four comps he's gained 23.86 and equally as good is his approach numbers he gained 23.32 over the last four as well, all his stat numbers show he's ready to win again, his last five starts he's T3rd- T8th- T17th- T18th- T56th, Tony has won on Bentgrass so even with his well-documented struggle with the flat stick im still confident he can win this.
POSTON 66/1- 0.5PTS EW 8PLS BYL
If you're looking for a good course fit J T is the man to put on your sheet. This year J.T has played consistently well and has only missed two cuts, he's yet to win this year but won as recently as the JD Classic 2022. Poston is well at home on the Bentgrass, I think for him it will be either be won or lost on the greens and after recent positive putting results I'm betting he could nick it.
THORBJORNSEN 200/1- 0.5PTS EW 6PLS UNI BET
Well here's a name you will hear for some time, he's now 22 years old and in 2018 he won the U.S Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club which qualified him for the 2019 U.S Open, he also qualified for the 2022 U.S Open at Old Oaks Country club, this year he finished top of the PGA Tour University rankings and earned him a PGA Tour card for the remainder of the 2024 and all of the 2025 season, Thorbjornsen has only had one start this year in January he finished T11 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic where there was a strong field with MclLroy winning, last year he played 5 times with him finishing T17 at the John Deere and T20 at the Hero Dubai, in between that three MC, Michael has played here twice and in 2022 he T4th and MC last year, this kid is going to be a star and at 200/1 he's a worthy punt.
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