After the long-awaited ascension of Jon Rahm to major champion, the PGA Tour heads back East for the Travelers Championship in Hartford, Connecticut. The Pete Dye-designed course plays 6,841 yards to its par 70 and features narrow fairways and thick rough.

The field this week features 5 of the top 10 golfers in the world, with 8 more from inside the top 30. A full 156-man field is back to the standard PGA cut rules this week of the top 65 and ties.

Water is in play on just five holes, all on the back nine. TPC River Highlands is home to the lowest score ever on the PGA Tour, a final round 58 from Jim Furyk in 2016. The course is no stranger to strong finishes, with Justin Thomas's Sunday 62 to finish in a tie for third a footnote to Furyk's historic round. Bubba Watson shot a 63 to overcome an eight-stroke deficit and win in 2018, and last year's winner Dustin Johnson's third-round 61 was bested by Mackenzie Hughes's opening round 60.

The forecast this week looks good to start, with sun and warm weather on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before some storms on Sunday. At the moment, there does not appear to be any wave advantage, but always keep an eye on any wind changes that could make an afternoon gustier than the morning.

Let's dig into the course and see what stats we can use to build our daily fantasy lineups this week.

Course and Tournament Info

Course: TPC River Highlands
Par: 70
Distance: 6,841 yards
Fairways/Rough: Bentgrass and poa annua mix in the fairways, with Kentucky bluegrass and fescue in the rough
Greens: Bentgrass and poa annua mix

Narrow fairways and thick rough mitigate the lack of Tour-average length. In fact, TPC River Highlands is the shortest regular course on the schedule. Dustin Johnson's win last year at 19-under par would lead us to believe this course can be overpowered, but Johnson was actually just field average off the tee, doing his damage with his irons and a red hot putter.

The overall increase in distance across the Tour has some effect on such a short course, however. From 2012 through 2017, the winning score was between 12-under and 16-under, but the next two winners got to 17-under, and four golfers reached that number last year.

We have very few regular geographical comps, as TPC River highlands is the only regular course in the Northeast United States. Major championships and FedEx Cup Playoff events have been held in that part of the country, but more so in the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area than New England. Harbour Town Golf Links (RBC Heritage) and TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS Championship) are Dye designs but much more open to strong winds and feature bermudagrass.

The best guides for leaderboard overlap are the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort (Valspar Championship) and Muirfield Village Golf Club (the Memorial). The models over at datagolf agree with both of those as correlated courses by which skills are important at each course, and also point to East Lake Golf Club (TOUR Championship), TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic) and TPC Twin Cities (3M Open).

Key Stats

These stats will prove vital to success in the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.

We're taking every step we can to find golfers who get on the green with a birdie opportunity. Good drives are ones that are either on the fairway or from the rough but result in a green in regulation. We'll need those in spades this week given how narrow the fairways are at TPC River Highlands.

Strokes gained: approach and greens in regulation cover many of the same golfers but are worth looking at separately as well. Given how small the greens are, we could look at scrambling or strokes gained around the green, but considering the scoring conditions the past few years we are more concerned with golfers who rack up birdies than ones who save par from the rough or sand.

Of the 12 par 4s, the longest is 481 yards and only one other exceeds 450 yards. Tight fairways and traditional Dye twists and turns mean many golfers will club down off the tee, and finding golfers who play well on short par 4s but aren't huge hitters can be our focus in the value spots of our daily fantasy lineups and betting cards.

Course History Studs

Bubba Watson's recent finishes at the Travelers read: missed cut, T54, 1st, missed cut, and T25, but over his career, he has throttled this course. He has two more wins in 2010 and 2015, plus top-five finishes in 2012 and 2013.

Paul Casey finished T32 last year, but before that the overall form was excellent at this course. From 2015 to 2019 he was 2nd, 17th, 5th, 2nd, and 5th. He's still one of the best iron players in the world, and that will always be essential on Pete Dye-designed courses.

Bryson DeChambeau has three straight top 10s at TPC River Highlands the last three years, and he really rolls it well on these greens. He's gained at least 3.0 strokes putting in each of those editions.

Brendan Steele is a documented course horse who piles up his best results at a handful of courses, and TPC River Highlands is among his favorites. He was 6th last year and has just one finish outside the top 25 in the past eight years.

Kevin Streelman won here in 2014 and was runner-up last year. Recently, he was also 15th in 2019, 33rd in 2018, and 8th in 2017.

Mike Rodden is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Rodden also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mike_rodden. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.