5 picks our expert loves

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sport betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2025 Travelers Championship, which gets underway Thursday in Connecticut. Along with Kannon’s recommended plays, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app that features both Free-To-Play and Daily Fantasy golf contests where you can win cash and prizes with each round and tournament.

For nearly two decades now, the Travelers Championship has immediately followed the U.S. Open on the PGA Tour calendar. This year is no exception. The tournament is one of the most heavily attended events on the circuit and now, for the second straight year, the Travelers Championship serves as the eighth and final Signature Event of the season.

Scottie Scheffler won the Travelers last year by beating Tom Kim in a playoff. It is a no-cut event with a limited field of 72 players. TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. has been hosting this championship since 1984. It is a short par 70, measuring less than 6,900 yards and was designed by Pete Dye.

The fairways are relatively wide at TPC River Highlands but the rough is thick and penal at about four inches high. The greens are smaller than average and are a Poa Annua-Bentgrass blend — very different from last week’s test at Oakmont, we can expect some birdies here. The average winning score in the last three editions has been 21 under par. The winning score proposition bet at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas this week is Under/Over 259.5 or 20.5 under par. There has been some moisture in the area and thundershowers are a possibility for the next few days. It looks like heat, humidity, and somewhat soft conditions with not much wind to speak of. Last week, the world’s best players were asked who could make the fewest bogeys. This week, it’s who can make the most birdies.

I looked at Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and on Approach. I looked at Birdies or Better Gained, Hole Proximity between 100-150 yards and work on the par 4s between 350-450 yards. I also looked at Strokes Gained: Putting (Bent/Poa).

The correlated courses and the Pete Dye design should provide some good signs this week as the connections are strong with TPC River Highlands. I looked at Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship), East Lake (Tour Championship), TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic), and TPC Sawgrass, another Pete Dye design where the Players Championship is played.

There are only 72 players in this field, but it is so top-heavy with star power that we are getting huge prices on some extremely accomplished players. I played Tom Kim last year at 50-1 and as noted above, he got all the way to a playoff before falling to the No. 1 player in the world.

Robert MacIntyre (45-1)

Bobby Mac nearly found himself in a playoff last week at the U.S. Open until J.J. Spaun holed a 64-foot, winning putt, to put that notion to bed. MacIntyre shot 69-68 over the weekend at Oakmont and I like the fact that he kind of came out of nowhere. I like that he wasn’t necessarily one of the frontrunners heading into Sunday’s final round because it felt like he didn’t deal with nearly as much mental stress as those teeing off much later in the day did. MacIntyre sat on the lead, comfortable, in the clubhouse, while those still on the golf course dealt with weather and the pressure-cooker that is the second nine on Sunday at a major. I believe that has him better set up for this week than the possible mental exhaustion incurred otherwise. MacIntyre gained nearly two strokes on the field last week tee to green and gained over a stroke and a half with the putter. He’s excellent on approach and on the Par 4s. If the putter remains hot, on a similar type of surface this week, he should find himself in the mix again. He was 16th here last year and finished ninth at the Players Championship back in March.

Si Woo Kim (50-1)

Kim began last week with a terrific 2-under par round of 68. In the end, he finished 42nd but gained strokes on the field tee to green and on approach. He lost over a stroke to the field however, with the putter. Kim has always been very good on Pete Dye courses and those that are similar. Before the Travelers was awarded Signature status and these were full-field events, Kim finished 26th, 25th, and 11th. He’s won the Wyndham Championship and finished top-5 an additional three times. He has two top-10 finishes at the Players Championship in addition to a win. Kim has a top-10 finish and top-20 finish in the last two Signature Events and was eighth last month at the PGA Championship. I like the form coming into a place that has shown to suit his game.

Brian Harman (80-1)

I imagine this will be a popular play this week and that is not always something I like to be a part of but Harman has had so much success at this tournament, the correlated courses, and at Pete Dye designs, that he’s very difficult to leave off the card. He’s never won at TPC River Highlands but has seven top-10 finishes here. He has two at the Wyndham, two at the John Deere Classic, including a win, and four at The Players Championship, including a runner-up finish last season. He won this season back in April and finished third at another Signature Event, the RBC Heritage, another Pete Dye design.

Matt Fitzpatrick (110-1)

I have seen Fitzpatrick being offered at anywhere from 80-1 to as high as 113-1, so shop around if you are interested in playing the Englishman. Fitzpatrick has won on a Pete Dye design (RBC Heritage), which also happens to be one of his favorite courses in the world. He’s finished top 10 at East Lake and has been as high as fifth at the Players Championship. He was No. 1 in the field last week at Oakmont for SG: Putting and ranks No. 2 in this field in that same category over the last 24-rounds on the Bent/Poa blend surface. Fitzpatrick hasn’t missed a cut at a stroke-play event in over two months and finished eighth at the PGA Championship last month.

Davis Thompson (125-1)

Thompson jumped to mind for me knowing that he finished 12th at the Wyndham Championship last season, that coming only a month after he’d won the John Deere Classic. Fast forward to this season, where he finished 10th at the Players Championship. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks in the top half of this field for SG: Off the Tee, on Approach, on the 400-450 yard par 4s, and in Hole Proximity from 125-150 yards.

Who Chirp Golf users are picking this week

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