Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel Picks – The 2019 Travelers Championship

Welcome to this Daily Fantasy Golf piece from FantasyCPR.com. Here you will find players to target on FanDuel, for this weeks Travelers Championship, taking place at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, CT. 

In this article, I will present to you some picks to consider from each price tier for Daily Fantasy Golf on FanDuel. Some plays will be geared toward cash games, and some for GPP tournaments. Some of course will also technically qualify as both. As we break each play down, I will be sure to specify which type of contests I am targeting that player in.

I will give two players to target from $11K up to the top salary, two targets from the $10K-$11K range, and two from the $9-10K range. After that will come my top value plays from the $8-9K range, along with a couple of GPP flyers to consider for tournament play. Last but certainly not least, I will end the article the ever popular sample lineup we like to do here at FantasyCPR.

I used to give a quick recap here from the previous week, but with MLB in full go, I am forced to scrap that portion of this article in an attempt to shorten things up. If you are ever curious as to how things worked out, my picks along with the other top experts in the field are tracked at Daily Overlay.

Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – Top Tier Picks: ($11,000+)

Brooks Koepka – $12,600 – (GPP)

Well I am sure we all know by now that Koepka could not complete the U.S. Open three-peat, but the fact that it was maybe the nicest guy on tour finishing ahead of him seemed to ease the pain of the runner-up finish quite a bit more than you would think it would.

In true gentleman fashion, Brooks waited patiently for Gary Woodland to complete the victory, and the two embraced in a sincere congratulations. I have heard countless stories how great of a guy Woodland is, and that he signs every single autograph any kid wants, and what a great person to have represent the PGA Tour as the U.S. Open Champion. Sincere congrats to Gary Woodland! What a great dude!

Since we all also know Koepka is the best golfer in the world at the moment, lets skip the recent results and course history and talk about strategy a bit. With Koepka the lone true “stud” (in FanDuels opinion) they have priced him up to a point where he almost has to win for you to hit value on that salary. Not saying he won’t do just that, but the fact that he is up this high in price, and I see another red-hot golfer in Patrick Cantlay at $900 less, tells me I should save my Koepka exposure for GPP tournament play.

Another reason I am bumping down to the next tier for price games, is the fact that there are just not any cash game safe value plays any cheaper than Jason Kokrak at $9,300. Of course we have two very anticipated PGA Tour debuts this week with former Oklahoma State standouts Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland, and while I actually do like both a bit for DFS purposes, I am not quite ready to deem them cash safe. I will certainly be touching more on both a bit later.

Patrick Cantlay – $11,500 – (Cash/GPP)

Here is what I am hoping will happen this week, but I doubt it. Cantlay will actually be deemed too expensive for cash games here, and maybe slip under the cracks. The majority of players in large field double-up’s and 50/50’s will likely go even more balanced and go down to Paul Casey or even Tommy Fleetwood to anchor their cash teams. I think bumping up to Koepka in cash games will end up being a mistake with that lack of value, and I found a nice safe fit with my pick to win this week, Patrick Cantlay.

Cantlay is red-hot, with a win, four top-tens in his last five, and he is an absolute perfect fit for this course, as he is long off the tee and fantastic around the greens. Last year at TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship he T-15, but it is what he did in 2011 here as a 19-year-old amateur playing for UCLA that caught my eye.

Playing as an amateur on an exemption, Cantlay fired a second round of 60, and actually held a lead going into the weekend. The final result did make it as historic as it maybe could have been as he ended up T-24, but it still shows you what the kids are capable of doing here. If the youngsters Hovland and Wolff making their debut this week still don’t sound DFS ready considering Cantlay was at 19, I still have a little more coming up that may convince you.

***Also Consider: Paul Casey $11,300 – Francesco Molinari $11,000***

Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – Mid Tier Picks ($10,000-$11,000)

Bryson DeChambeau – $10,800 – (GPP)

Let’s get a little risky shall we? DeChambeau has notably struggled much of the last few months, but he finally seems to be turning the corner, and this might be as cheap as we will see him after this in a while if he can keep it going. After missing three straight cuts, Bryson has played the weekend in two straight now, as he was able to follow-up his T-22 at the Memorial with a T-35 at Pebble Beach last week.

I covered it a bit in my PGA Power Rankings article as well, but DeChambeau is another course fit, and he is trending in the right direction at this event as well. He has improved on his finish of each of the last two seasons, and found his way into the top ten last year with a T-9 finish.

Because he has missed some cuts recently, this is far from a safe cash play. However, with winning capability I have some pretty modest interest for GPP play. Again if he wins or even top-fives, he might be a little too cheap at this price. It could go either way of course, but he seems to be awfully close to figuring it out, and I will have some ownership in the Lob Wedge.

Bubba Watson – $10,200 – (Cash)

I don’t want to do it, but I have to. Look I don’t like playing Bubba just as much as you, I promise, but unfortunately I have to at this price. If I can put my biases aside for guys who have burned me recently like Paul Casey and even Tiger Woods, I can certainly do it for Watson. There are pros and cons for almost every play, and Watson has one big con this week and that is the fact that he is playing awful as of late.

I am going to try to convince you to ignore that fact that he lost over seven strokes around the greens last week at Pebble Beach, and completely just throw out recent form, which is rare from me. I spent way too much time on Bubba this week, so let’s break it down.

If you go back to the last time Watson played good, it was at a course he always plays well. That was at the Masters where he T-12, and Augusta National is certainly a course fit for him. In fact, there are a handful of venues where Watson just is flat-out consistent, and TPC River Highlands is one of them as well.

Bubba is the defending Travelers Championship champion after all, and he is seeking his fourth win, and sixth top ten in the last ten years. These facts alone will make him highly owned, and highly touted this week.

Because he is Bubba, I think there is risk. However, the chalk ownership here will make him a cash game lock. I am going to limit my exposure in GPP play, but I can’t ignore that fact that Watson just plays well at certain courses, and does not at others. I don’t like it, but I will have my fair share of Bubba Watson this week.

***Also Consider: Tommy Fleetwood $10,700 – Marc Leishman $10,500***

Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – Low Tier Picks ($9,000-$10,000)

Chez Reavie – $9,900 – (Cash)

So did you play Chez with me last week at $8,300? I had been missing too much on my value plays as of late, so it was pretty nice to sneak in last week with Reavie here and Danny Willett at $8,100 and turn it around a bit. Anyway, Reavie got a nice little price bump as expected with the strength of the field, but this is still lock and load cash game stuff for me.

Reavie did come into the U.S. Open off of a missed cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge, but his course history coupled with the fact that he was riding a stretch of three straight trips to the weekend and two straight top-20’s prior to the Schwab gave me hope he could make the weekend at Pebble Beach, and get me four days of scoring. Not only did he do that, he T-3, despite a round of even par on Sunday.

Pricing was a little odd for me this week, and this range down to Kokrak has five or six golfers that I will likely fit into my player pool. I think it is really works out well for cash games fitting four guys in this range with the guy you deem the safest at the top and Watson, and a couple more names to consider here in addition to the ones below would be Russell Knox and of course, Viktor Hovland.

Hovland is pricy here on FanDuel, but there is little doubt this kid is going to be fantastic, and is worth a GPP play in this field. He has played three events as an amateur in 2019, and was solid in all three. Hovland T-32 at the Masters, and made his presence felt in his last contest as an amateur last week at Pebble Beach, where he T-12 at the U.S. Open.

Kevin Streelman – $9,500 – (Cash)

One more that just feels like a cash game lock this week. I do not typically play Streelman really ever if I am not mistaken, but we have more solid course history coupled with fantastic recent form, and this felt like another no-brainer for my cash game lineup this week. He has had some rough patches this season and missed some cuts, but he has been no less than solid for over two months now.

Streelman had not been playing well enough to appear in any majors this year, but he comes into TPC River Highlands off of a solo fourth place finish at the Memorial Tournament. On top of that, he has now made five straight cuts in fairly limited action, mostly due to not making the fields at the majors, and he also added two additional top-tens back in April at the RBC Heritage, and the Valero Texas Open.

Here at the Travelers Championship, Streelman is a regular, teeing it up in each of the last ten years. In that span, he has missed three cuts, notched three top-tens, and was a winner here at TPC River Highlands back in 2014. With three finishes of T-6 or better in his last five and a win here, I guess I will give Streelman a shot this week.

***Also Consider: Byeong-Hun An $9,600 – Jason Kokrak $9,300***

Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – Top Value Picks (Below $9,000)

Matthew Wolff – $8,700 – (GPP)

Lost in the mix of former Oklahoma State teammate Viktor Hovland getting all of the attention after his T-12 at the U.S. Open, let’s not forget that some pretty smart golf folks think that Wolff is actually a better overall player, and his debut, not Hovland’s, is the one that many have been waiting for.

If you have not have the pleasure of seeing this kids swing yet, buckle up. Known for hitting 340 yard drives, I cannot think of a better venue to make your pro debut. If Wolff can keep them in the fairway, he would have a significant advantage here with that distance off the tee. He won the Jack Nicklaus and the Fred Haskins awards this year which recognize the top player in college golf, and set an NCAA record with a scoring average of 68.7.

At a significantly lower price than Hovland here, I will probably have a little more exposure to Wolff overall. I already mentioned the fact that I do not like very many plays down in this range this week, and with Wolff having displayed being one of the best college players in recent memory, it is very hard not to just go really heavy on Wolff here and ride the wave.

***Bonus GPP Flyers: Collin Morikawa $8,700 – Andrew Putnam $8,400***

Daily Fantasy Golf: FanDuel PGA – The 2019 Travelers Championship – Sample Cash Lineup:

The line-up below is meant to be illustrative only to further back-up the logic laid out in previous slides. It is not an optimal line-up. It is in fact, just a “Sample Lineup.”

G – Patrick Cantlay – $11,500
G – Bubba Watson – $10,200
G – Chez Reavie – $9,900
G – Byeong-Hun An – $9,600
G – Kevin Streelman – $9,500
G – Jason Kokrak – $9,300

That is all for this weeks Daily Fantasy Golf FanDuel Picks for the 2019 Travelers Championship. If you have any questions, give me a follow on Twitter with the link at the top of the article and fire away.

You can also leave a question right here in the comments, and I will do my best to respond before lock Thursday morning. Thank you for reading this weeks FanDuel PGA preview. Time to go make some lineups, and may your golf tilt be minimal this weekend!