For the third straight week on the PGA Tour, it’s going to be a star-studded field.
Starting with The Memorial two weeks ago and then following that up with last week’s U.S. Open, it’s been top-ranked players vying for the winner’s share of huge paydays.
Now it’s three straight tournaments as this week’s Travelers Championship has been elevated to a Signature Event. With the purse of $20 million and a $3.6 million winner’s share, it’s a can’t-miss event. And, with a field of 72 players, it’s a no-cut event meaning everyone gets paid.
Forty-four of the world’s top-ranked players are in the field at the tournament, which will be held at TPC River Highlands in Hartford, Connecticut.
Some will be looking to keep their hot play going while others will be looking to rebound from a troubled U.S. Open (hello, Scottie Scheffler.) Two middle-of-the-road events—the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the John Deere Classic -- are coming up next. Both feature purses under $10 million and come right before the year’s final major, the Open Championship.
For many of the top-ranked players, this will be their final test on U.S. soil before the year’s final major. A good number of them will play in the Genesis Scottish Open, which is held the week prior to the Open Championship.
So let’s take a look at the regular season’s final Signature Event before the Tour gets to the three playoff round tournaments in August. Do yourself a favor and cash in on these generous welcome offers from top-rated US sportsbooks first.
Odds to win the 2024 Travelers Championship
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Scottie Scheffler is once again the betting favorite at incredibly low odds.
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The Scottie Scheffler dilemma
It’s easy to look at last week’s four days at the U.S. Open by Scheffler as an aberration. After all, he hadn’t had a finish out of the top-10 since late January when he was T-17 at The American Express.
Since that tournament, he’s played 12 events and posted five victories, two T-2s, a T-3, a T-6, a T-8 and a T-10. As impressive a run as we’ve seen since Tiger Woods in his heyday.
Then came last week. It was a week that proved he’s human. And the sportsbooks are taking that exact look as he’s still the favorite this week at +400. We’re not going to bet him this week for the simple fact that we’re not sure if he bounces back that quickly.
After all, we haven’t faced this dilemma from Scheffler. He may bounce back and run away with the event as he was T-4 here last year. The bottom line is we’re just not sure.
We were also going to stay away from Rory McIlroy this week. He was the second favorite at +750 but he withdrew on Monday and will take some time off after missing a couple of short putts that cost him the chance to win another major.
His next outing is now scheduled to be the Genesis Scottish Open, where he is the defending champion.
Collin Morikawa just keeps lurking
Morikawa, at +1200, is just down the betting list far enough to pique our interest. Morikawa is just close enough to finding his game to give us hope that he’s about to get back in the winner’s circle.
He won the ZOZO Championship in 2023 to bring his total to six PGA Tour titles. He’s also won two majors, the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship.
This year he’s been close to winning again and more than once. He went into the U.S. Open as one of the hottest golfers without a win. He was T-4 at the PGA Championship and followed that up with a solo fourth at the Charles Schwab Challenge. The next week he was T-4 at The Memorial.
That set him up for a great chance at the U.S. Open. But, he stumbled in the second round with a four-over-par 74 and he lingered on the first page of the leaderboard but never got close enough to challenge.
He missed the cut here last year so he’s going to be looking to not only rebound from a bad U.S. Open round last week but a bad two rounds in last year’s Travelers.
Live longshot
Tony Finau, at +3300 this week, was a factor all week at the U.S. Open. He just got limited air time because of the DeChambeau-McIlroy battle and Scheffler's struggles. He settled for an impressive T-3, as he still searches for that first major win.
We’re thinking his effort last week, including overcoming a third-round score of two-over-par 72, showed his game is right up there with the world’s best. He closed with a three-under-par 67 Sunday, which was tied for the best of the day.
In 2024, he’s got a runnerup finish at the Texas Houston Children’s Open and four top-10s in 15 events. Finau was T-45 here last year, but in 2024 he’s showing his game and his confidence are heading in the right direction.
Around the prop scene
We’re going to look at DraftKings and a couple of props bets. We hit a couple last week (DeChambeau to be in the final group at +1000 and the champion to win by exactly one stroke at +240), so we’re going to dive into the prop scene again.
Let’s see if we can keep it going. We’re going to check out the defending champion, Keegan Bradley, to finish in the top 20 at +165. We usually like to back the defending champ to win but this isn’t one of those weeks. He’s coming off a T-32 finish at the U.S. Open.
Overall, he’s got just six top-25 finishes in 12 events when he’s made the cut. His best finish came recently with a T-2 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, so he’s finding his way. Add in the fact he won here last year and the stars may align for our bet.
And finally, look at the bet of the winner not being in the final group at +175. Last week, McIlroy wasn’t in the last group and probably should have won. We’re looking at the same scenario this week as we’re thinking a player in an earlier group may just put a number up and come from behind to pick up the victory.