One week after a very entertaining U.S. Open, the 2019 PGA Tour season heads to the TPC at River Highlands and the Travelers Championship. In the PGA DFS world, the week following a major tends to be a slowdown period. But this time, there are a number of big names participating, including Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Jason Day, among others.
If you want to roster any of them, there will be a need for quality bargain sleepers in your PGA DFS lineups. It’s either that or come up with a middle ground strategy. Either way, bargain is a relative term. In this instance, it’s sub-$7,500 golfers that check key boxes or have recently played well, and will help you average out and afford higher priced players.
So, this week, I’ll focus solely on bargains and sleepers. This is a fun tournament for me, as I had the chance to play this course in a company scramble many years ago. Here are a few (but not all) of the stats that I considered for the Travelers Championship:
- SG: Tee to Green: A key stat that is typically valuable in just about every tournament
- Driving Accuracy Percentage: Shorter course, smaller greens and has some similarities to last week when it comes to fairway size
- Par 4 Birdie or Better: There are only a few Par 5’s on this course, so Par 4’s are key
- Bogey Avoidance: Avoiding bad holes will be key to staying ahead of the field, while also adding more fantasy points to your lineup, too
- Birdie to Bogey Ratio: Birdies can come in bunches, so we need clutch players here
- Proximity to Hole: Better birdie chances are key on smaller greens and this course
Disclaimer: For the sake of visibility, I play a lot of PGA DFS and have played golf most of my life. I am a stats guy. and do consider specific categories and the course itself. Still, this is free advice. I certainly comb the internet on occasion and see if there are any statistics or options that I’m not considering when participating in a tournament. I’m sure many of you do, as well. But I mostly look at the PGA Tour stats page and make my own calls. I hope this catches on as an alternative option for you. There are no crazy statistical models or high-priced data here. Simply banter and ideas. Let’s talk sports and let’s talk golf. Sound good?
Here are five bargains (translation: below $7,500) on DraftKings for the 2019 Travelers Championship:
PGA DFS: Five Sub-$7,500 DraftKings Bargains for the Travelers Championship
Abraham Ancer ($7,400)
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of sites talking about Ancer heading into this tournament. His last missed cut was April 18th at the RBC Heritage. This includes made cuts at both the U.S. Open and Memorial Tournament. More importantly, for the 2019 PGA Tour season, Ancer ranks in the top 20 in Par 4 Scoring Average, Par 4 Birdie or Better, Driving Accuracy Percentage and Proximity to Hole. His ability to get close and score well on Par 4’s could lead to a solid tournament.
Beau Hossler ($7,300)
He cracked the top ten in last year’s Travelers Championship and had a stretch of three top 50 finishes before missing the cut at the Memorial Tournament. A top 50 is nothing all that flashy, but making the cut and past performance are good measures for someone at this price.
Max Homa ($7,200)
Homa doesn’t pop at the top of the key categories mentioned above. Yet, he’s on a solid stretch since his victory at Quail Hollow. That includes made cuts at the PGA Championship, Charles Schwab Challenge and Memorial Tournament. Homa also finished 27th at the Schwab and 37th at the Memorial. It’s hard to ignore the solid stretch that he is currently on, especially for the price.
Aaron Baddeley ($7,000)
The Aussie scares a lot of people off with his inconsistency. Still, he has three top 10’s this season and has made 10/16 cuts. He also recently finished 22nd at the Memorial Tournament. On top of that, Baddeley tops the PGA Tour top 20 in Par 4 Scoring Average and Bogey Avoidance. In the end, that combination is intriguing enough for me to roster him in a few lineups.
Collin Morikawa ($6,900)
For those disappointed in the debut cost of Viktor Hovland, I give you Collin Morikawa. He tied for 6th at the NCAA’s and recently made his debut. Sure, it’s a small sample size, but Morikawa is 2/2 in cuts, including a 35th place finish at the U.S. Open and a 14th place finish at the RBC Canadian Open. That sounds like a worthwhile risk to me, especially with this price tag.
Side Note: Right on the DraftKings $7,500 mark are few other intriguing golfers:
Danny Lee ($7,500): Lee is a tempting option, considering his last two finishes at the Travelers (T15 in 2018 and T3 in 2017). He’s also on a pretty solid stretch, including a top 20 at the Canadian Open and a 36th place finish at the PGA Championship.
Lucas Glover: ($7,500): I played Glover in one of my U.S. Open lineups and he missed the cut by one shot. Still, Glover has had a very solid season and rates in the top 20 in Par 4 Birdie or Better, Proximity to Hole and Bogey Avoidance.
In Conclusion
In the end, I do not piece together a hundred lineups like some fantasy players do. At the current time, I take a more conservative approach and because of that, I didn’t even use all of the aforementioned golfers in my lineups. They were all players that I considered. I’m curious to hear who you are thinking for your bargain options in the Travelers Championship.
Note: If you find and enjoy this post, please let me know, as I’m looking for areas of my work that speak to people. I’m exploring writing more Fantasy-related articles, including DFS. If people find them useful, I will write more. Best of luck and thank you for reading The Wife Hates Sports!
Image Credit: Golf Digest
The last guy I cut from this list was Ryan Armour, who fired a first round 64 and is tied for the lead after the first round. I liked him at $6,500 and the fact that he was in the tour’s top 20 in driving accuracy and proximity to the hole. We’ll see if it lasts, while he plays on a shorter course and isn’t as long of a hitter.