This article is part of our Golf One and Done Pool Expert Picks series.
Travelers Championship
After a thrilling and taxing week at Oakmont, many players will be excited to head to a course where they know they can attack again in TPC River Highlands. J.J. Spaun is one person who did leave Oakmont happy after finishing birdie-birdie to win the 125th U.S. Open. Spaun has been a journeyman on the PGA Tour, but this year has broken into a new class of players, with this major championship trophy sealing the deal. It's hard to expect much out of Spaun this week at the Travelers Championship after such an emotional high, but he's a grinder and certainly won't be taking the final signature event of 2025 for granted.
The U.S. Open featured a very unexpected leaderboard and as a result not a whole lot changed in the RotoWire one and done pool. Our golf expert Ryan Pohle won the week after he was the only person to select a player who finished in the top-5 with that being Viktor Hovland in solo third. There was a large group who finished in the T7 slot with either Jon Rahm or Scottie Scheffler. Bryson DeChambeau was one of the most popular plays of the week as well, but he unexpectedly missed the cut at Oakmont. We are quickly winding down with only 10 more weeks left in the season. With this also being the final signature event of the campaign, this is one of the last big opportunities to move up the standings with $3.6 million heading to the winner at the Travelers.
For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.
Course Tidbits
- Course: TPC River Highlands (6,844 yards, par 70)
- Location: Cromwell, Connecticut
- Purse: $20 million ($3.6 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Scottie Scheffler (-22)
- 2024 Scoring Average: 67.63
- Average Winning Score Last 5 Years: -19.20
Safe to say we will see more than one player finish under-par this week at TPC River Highlands. This course is one of the shortest on the PGA Tour at 6,844 yards and offers plenty of good birdie and eagle chances. Last year's scoring average was nearly 2.4 strokes under-par, so players will need to be aggressive to stay towards the top of the leaderboard. That said, this Pete Dye design has just enough trick up its sleeve to punish players if they get too careless, especially on this thrilling closing stretch.
As you would expect on a shorter course, the targets off the tee and on approach are small. It's not a course where driver needs to be hit that often, but it does require a player to shape shots in different directions to land in the short grass. This rough isn't what the players faced at Oakmont, but they've continued to grow it up the last few years and it can certainly cause some issues for players. All the rain in the area over the last few weeks will only make it that much more challenging. The good news is that the greens will be quite receptive, but that also leads to new challenges of controlling spin with wedges, as there will be a lot of approaches within 150 yards. A player who is dialed in with their shorter clubs will be able to leave themselves on the correct tier and give themselves a pretty straight putt more often than not.
Visit RotoWire's PGA earnings report to find total winnings and winnings per entry via our fantasy golf stats pages.
RotoWire One and Done Tools
Travelers Championship: One and Done Picks
If you still have Bradley available, I don't think you're going to find a much better spot to use him. The 2023 event champion is having an excellent year in which he would be qualified for the Tour Championship if it was held today. He had a reasonable T33 finish at Oakmont and prior to that posted top-10s – one in a major and one in a signature event. With his ties to the northeast, this is an event he has circled on the calendar, and he'll have plenty of crowd support. Bradley is playing well enough from tee to green to win if he has a solid putting week. --Ryan Pohle
A lot of people will be off Thomas because of another trunk-slam in a major last week. Good for us. Amid a very good season overall, Thomas' best results have come on shorter tracks, notably his win at the RBC Heritage. The longer courses have been creating all sorts of issues because he can't keep his driver in the fairway. This week, he'll be able to keep his driver in the bag. Thomas finished T5 last year at the Travelers and T9 the year before. --Len Hochberg
We've all seen how good Young can be when he's on and I think he's getting back into that form. It's a bit of a reach to use Young in a signature event, but I doubt many OAD players will have him this week, so if he hits, it should result in a big jump in the standings. Young finished in the top-10 here this past year, so if he happens to play anything like he did at Oakmont, he should be in the mix come Sunday. --Greg Vara
I'm well down in the standings and need to take a swing to get back in the mix. Harman is not a player who should be in consideration for a signature event given his recent play, but he is always there at TPC River Highlands. He owns seven career top-10 finishes, including six in the last seven years. I don't think it really matters how he's playing when he rolls up on property. Harman thrives on short courses like this and finished T3 at another similar one in Harbour Town a couple months back. --Ryan Andrade
Morikawa was absolutely brutal on the greens at Oakmont last week, but he paced the U.S. Open field in both SG: Approach and SG: T2G, and we should be able to bank on some positive putting regression at a much easier TPC River Highlands. I like where his projected OAD ownership sits in relation to his top-4 positioning in the outright betting market, and he's third in Opportunities Gained over his past 24 rounds. --Bryce Danielson
Travelers Championship: One and Done Fades
Morikawa will likely be a chalky play this week as he's the ideal course fit as an accurate driver and elite iron player, but it's also never really translated to success as he's missed the cut twice and hasn't recorded a top-10 in four appearances at the event. His short game has been in poor form this year and it's prevented him from posting a top-10 in over three months. I think you can safely save Morikawa for either the Scottish Open or one of the playoff events. --Ryan Pohle
When your life was just forever altered less than four days earlier, when you still haven't had a chance to check every single text message you've received from people you haven't seen since third grade, refocusing might be hard. Besides, while Spaun is a different player this year, he's never done anything at the Travelers, missing 3 of 6 cuts with nothing better than a tie for 30th. --Len Hochberg
This seems like low-hanging fruit, but I just don't see how Spaun can come back and play well just a few days after the biggest win of his career. This isn't a knock on his mental capabilities, I'm just being realistic here. Spaun has never shown must consistency throughout his career, which means he'd normally have trouble backing-up a strong showing, but add to that, he won a major and somehow has to get his head clear in a matter of a few days? Yeah, his prospects don't look good this week. --Greg Vara
Burns likely will be a trendy option this week given his run of strong finishes over the last couple months, but you get the feeling at some point he's going to run out of gas and this would be a likely spot for it. Burns lost in a playoff marathon at the RBC Canadian Open and then was in the final group for both last Saturday and Sunday at the U.S. Open, ultimately fading with a 78 in the final round. His power won't really help him around this course and he has finished MC-T55 in his last two starts at TPC River Highlands. --Ryan Andrade
Common theme for me here, as I'm almost always willing to fade the highest sitewide OAD ownership projection on OfficeFootballPool.com, especially when he's a 50/1 outright click. Griffin impressively has added driving distance this season, and his long-iron play has been solid during this current stretch of four consecutive top-10s, but those facets won't come into play as much at TPC River Highlands, and he's actually been pretty bad in terms of proximity from 75-125 yards over his last 36 rounds. --Bryce Danielson
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
