The PGA Tour carries on this week as it visits TPC River Highlands for the 2025 Travelers Championship. The last of eight Signature Events in 2025, the Travelers Championship returns to TPC River Highlands for the 42nd consecutive season. TPC River Highlands was originally designed by Robert J. Ross and Maurice Kearney in 1928 before undergoing redesigns by both Pete Dye and Bobby Weed in the 1980’s, setting the stage for the course we all know and love today. TPC River Highlands will play as a Par 70, 6,844 yard layout this week.
A welcome respite for tour players after an absolutely diabolical course in Oakmont last week at the U. S. Open, TPC River Highlands will be a polar opposite this week in terms of scoring, as the winner has finished double digits under par in each of the last 31 editions of this tournament, not to mention being home of the lowest score in PGA Tour history, a 58 fired by Jim Furyk in the final round of this event in 2016. A short trek by tour standards, players will need to keep their foot on the gas. Birdies will be aplenty this week, and both bomb and gouge players and short ball specialists have an equal chance of finding success due to the course’s length. The players who have their irons absolutely dialed in and are hot on the greens are going to excel this week, plain and simple. Like last week, there are only two Par 5’s on the course, but unlike last week, they are both very gettable. With the first player to -20 often getting the win in this event, players will need to be dialed in on the Par 4’s, and with 10 of the 12 expected to play under 450 yards, those who are dialed in with their short irons in particular will see the most success this week. Anybody can get hot on the green on any given week, but the players who consistently make birdies in bunches and can find the right pace on the green quickly will surge to the top of the leaderboard come Sunday. Lastly, players need to be cautiously aggressive. Birdies are an absolutely must, but bogeys will ultimately sink your chances. That’s every week, frankly, but in a birdie fest like this event typically is, boneheaded moves will cause you to fall down the leaderboard faster than Santa Claus down the chimney. You’ve got to play smart and take your scoring chances when you are able, but if you try and force something to happen, you’ll be out of the running for the title.
The Travelers Championship is in its second season as a Signature Event on the PGA Tour, but has a very storied history, with the first edition taking place in 1952. With its newfound status, the best of the best are teeing it up this week, including Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Sepp Straka and Justin Thomas, as well as young studs like Ludvig Åberg, Akshay Bhatia, Luke Clanton, Nick Dunlap, Taylor Pendrith and Aaron Rai, just to name a few.
Billy Casper has won the Travelers Championship the most times, finding victory in this event four times in his career. Bubba Watson has three Travelers titles, while Paul Azinger, Stewart Cink, Peter Jacobsen, Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer are also multi-time winners of this tournament.
Last year’s edition was won by Scottie Scheffler, who came from one stroke back on the final day to beat Tom Kim with a par on the first playoff hole. Tom Hoge and Sungjae Im finished T-3, two strokes back, while Akshay Bhatia, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau and Justin Thomas all finished T-5, four strokes off the pace. Cameron Young ultimately finished T-9 after shooting a 59 in the third round.
2025 hasn’t really been kind to Max Homa, making the cut in only seven of his 14 starts, with his lone top 25 performance being a T-12 finish at the Masters Tournament. Of the seven events where he made the cut, four of them didn’t even have a cut, so he was guaranteed four rounds no matter how well, or how poorly, he played. The stats are telling, ranking 100th or worse in all six of the major Strokes Gained categories. In six starts in the Travelers Championship, Homa has just one made cut, a T-61 finish last year, the first year this tournament was played as a Signature Event, meaning he was guaranteed all four rounds, regardless of his quality of play. Homa is a great player, but his game is being put through the wringer right now. I expect him to find his form again, but until then, stay away from him by all means. I predict that Homa will finish in the bottom quarter of the field this week.
It’s difficult to call a player who just won two months ago a dark horse, but here we are. 2025 has been up and down for Brian Harman. Since winning the Valero Texas Open and following it up with a T-3 at the RBC Heritage a few weeks later, Harman has struggled since then, posting no finishes inside the top 40 in his last five starts. Harman has made the cut in 14 of his 17 starts, but hasn’t been able to do a whole lot with it, cracking the top 25 in just five of those starts. Harman’s game is also sort of stagnant right now, gaining strokes in four of the six major Strokes Gained categories, but not ranking higher than 65th in any of those categories. This week’s play is strictly on his past successes in this event. In 14 trips to Connecticut, Harman has posted seven top 10’s, eight top 25’s, and missed the cut in this event just twice. Incredibly, Harman has finished in the top 10 here each of the last four years, six of the last seven years and seven of the last 10 years. Not too shabby for a man who is valued at $7,200 in most DraftKings lineups. Could Harman steal the show this week? Anything is possible. But given his recent form, I predict Harman will once again find his mojo and pick up a top 25 finish.
After a nearly three year winless streak, Justin Thomas has found his form once again, winning the RBC Heritage in April to go along with six top 10’s and just two missed cuts in 14 starts. Thomas and his game are seemingly a triple threat this season, ranking inside the top 20 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Approach the Green and Putting. Thomas is especially dialed in with the short irons, ranking inside the top five in Approaches from Inside 100 Yards, Approaches from 100-125 Yards, Approaches from 50-125 Yards and Approaches from 125-150 Yards, which will come in quite handy at TPC River Highlands, which has played as more of a bomb and gouge type course as the years have gone on. Thomas has had solid success in this tournament, posting three top 10 finishes in nine career starts, including top 10 finishes each of the last two years. Thomas will undoubtedly be a threat for the win as the week goes on and is a lock to bring home a third straight top 10 finish in this tournament.
I honestly feel like a schmuck for picking him, and I’m sure many of you think I’m a sellout for picking him, but fuck, how can you bet against Scottie Scheffler these days? The results speak for themselves. Three wins, 10 top 10’s and zero finishes outside the top 25 in 13 starts on the year. His last eight starts? T-7, 1, T-4, 1, 1, T-8, 4, T-2. Even his B-Game and C-Game is better than most players’ A-Game, which is truly mind-boggling. The man ranks inside the top 30 in all six of the major Strokes Gained categories, including ranking 1st in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Approach the Green and ranking 2nd in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. Scheffler’s iron play? Fucking immaculate, ranking 10th in Greens in Regulation Percentage and 1st in Proximity to Hole. His short game? Also on par (Can I get a drum fill, please?), ranking 2nd in Scrambling. The man is hot on the greens as well, ranking 1st in Scoring Average, 1st in Bogey Avoidance, 3rd in Birdie or Better Percentage, 5th in Birdie Average and 5th in Putting Average. Need I go any further? Oh, and he won this tournament last year and finished T-4 the year before that. Scheffler is beatable, but you better bring your A-Game, a four leaf clover and about 40 horseshoes. A Louisville cop will also do the trick. Nevertheless, the favorite is the favorite for a reason. We are taking Scottie Scheffler to win the Travelers Championship for the second straight season!
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