June 17, 2025 • 36 mins
Make a name for yourself in the North East; Join Pat Fitzmaurice and Bo McBrayer for their top 2025 Travelers Championship picks and predictions!
Can Scottie Scheffler (+280) find his groove with the flat stick? What makes Patrick Cantlay (+2200) a horse for the course? Plus, will Akshay Bhatia (+6500) back up his top-five finish in his debut at TPC River Highlands with another strong weekend?
We dive into the betting odds, analyze the favorites and long shots, and reveal our top betting card selections. Plus, we reveal our one-and-done picks to help you maximize your winnings for the PGA season!
Timestamps: (May be off due to ads)
Intro - 0:00:00
US Open Recap - 0:00:16
BettingPros App - 0:16:18
TPC River Highlands Preview - 0:16:59
Novig - 0:21:01
The Favorites - 0:22:20
The Mid-Range Plays - 0:28:19
The Longshots - 0:31:39
Betting Cards Review - 0:33:46
One-&-Done Selections - 0:34:25
Outro - 0:35:27
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Betting pros PGA Podcast. I'm Pat Fitzmorris,
joined as always by Beau mcberr. This week we'll give
you a betting preview of the Travelers Championship. We're going
to talk about the course, the odds, our favorite bets.
We'll make one and done picks at the end of
the show, but we have to start for the recap
of the US Open. I'm still trying to process what
(00:21):
we witnessed on Sunday. We've had three majors so far
this season, and two of them have given us just
incredible Sunday drama. JJ Spawn is your US Open champion.
Spawn took us for a wild ride Sunday at Oakmont
Country Club. He was the first round leader after an
opening round sixty six. He played well on Friday and
Saturday and entered the final round one shot behind leader
(00:43):
Sam Burns. It looked like Spawn had played his way
out of contention. Early in the final round, he bogied
five of the first six holes. There's some really bad
luck involves, particularly on whole number two. Spawn hit an
approach shot that looked like it was going to stop
within a few feet of the hole. But if Paul
bounced hard off the flagstick and rolled off the front
of the green, A likely birdie turned into a bogie.
(01:05):
It seemed improbable that Spawn would be able to ride
the ship and climb past all the other contenders, among
them Sam Burns, who took a one shot lead into
the final round. Burns sixty five on Friday was the
lowest round of the tournament, and after losing a playoff
at the Canadian Open the week prior, Burns played wonderful
golf at Oakmont until we got a ninety six minute
(01:27):
rain delay late Sunday afternoon. After the delay, Burns double
bogie the eleventh bogie, the par five to twelfth, and
then his championship hopes came to a saggy end on
the fifteenth hole when he was denied a free drop
even though his ball was sitting in a completely water
log patch of fairway. If I were playing in a
match of my opponent denied me a free drop in
(01:47):
that situation, I'd be furious. Burns proceeded to hit a
poor shot into the rough, made a double bogie, and
was basically done Before I continue bo Your thoughts on
Burns's unfortunate ruing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's one of the biggest robberies by an impartial party
that's ever happened in the game of golf in history.
This is the guy who's tied for the lead in
the middle of the fairway or on the right side
of the fairway on a hold. It's very difficult. He
had a perfect angle to a very difficult pin, one
of the most difficult pins on the golf course that day,
and obviously standing water. It was a ninety six minute
(02:24):
rain delay, heavy heavy rains. You would think that these officials,
who are USGA officials, the governing body of golf in
our country. That's the rule book, it says USGA right
on the rule book, and in the rules it's very
specific about standing water and free relief. There's not a
very high bard across to get free relief from standing
(02:46):
water in the fairway. And he was literally in a puddle,
His ball was in a puddle, and his stance was
in standing water. Once he took his stance, not one official,
but two USGA officials, who apparently haven't done usted off
their own rule book in a while, denied him free relief,
which should have been a no brainer. It should have
been Honestly, if it were me, that's between playing partners,
(03:09):
and I guarantee Adam Scott would have seen that and
said absolutely free relief, take your one club length and
move on. But they called the rules official over denied,
second rules official because I mean, incredulously, the first one's denied,
you're calling another one over denied. Unbelievably corrupt, horrible decision
(03:30):
by both officials. I'm not sure what they were thinking
the rule was, but it was very clearly supposed to
be a free drop. The ball was underwater by a
couple of millimeters, as evidenced by a wet club face
wet ball duck hook into the rough from the middle
of the fairway. Sam Burns have been dialed in the
whole week, and instead of a birdie or a par
(03:52):
on that hole, he makes double bogie. He's out of
the tournament. That's what allowed Jjspond to furiously charge to
the win. Everything changed at that moment, and it wasn't
sam Burns's fault. He did the right thing. The USGA
has to answer for this because not only did they
make the wrong call twice, it costs somebody the entire tournament.
(04:15):
That changes the entire trajectory of their career, that is,
on an incorrect ruling twice. That's why I'm I'm I'm
steamed up because I had a ninety to one Burns ticket.
He didn't play well enough to win the tournament after
that fifteenth toll. Up until that point, he was tied
for the lead, in very good position coming down the stretch,
(04:36):
and that changed everything. He went from probable at least
making it to a playoff to no chance at all.
It's the JJ spawn show. I just I can't believe
that they got it wrong twice. It was a very
clear cut free relief from standing water, and it should
have only taken twenty seconds, not even all the way
up to the spot where he's asking for the ruling.
(04:58):
I'd be like, yep, that's standing water. Take your club
LinkedIn free drop. It was so straightforward and easy by
the letter of the rule book, and they still got
it wrong. So color me incredibly angry. And if I
were Sam Burns, I would not have been so composed,
and he was. He was furious, and I said I
(05:18):
probably would have. I would have met one of those officials,
probably both of them, for a nice meal in the
parking lot.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, there was just no chance of him executing that shot.
There was a reporter who posted video like him stapping
on that ground and it was just it was completely
water logged, I mean no chance.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
To His divots were full to the brim with water.
The divots on which he hit the ball with.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yes, so other contenders. Adam Scott playing in the final
group with Burns. Scott was playing in his ninety sixth
consecutive major. That's double the next longest streak of forty
eighth straight majors for Jordan Speith. I would sell my
soul for Adam Scott's golf swing, and he had it
working for almost the entire week, almost like Sam Burns.
(06:05):
Adam Scott came unhinged after the Sunday afternoon Randa Lake.
He played the final eight holes at six over par
a tough Sunday for the last pairing. On Sunday, Burns
shot a final round seventy eight. Scott a seventy nine.
Victor Hobland was in the haunt. He struck the ball
beautifully at Oakmont, but Hoblind couldn't get the putter going
on Sunday. Tyrrell Hatton was in the haunt. The surly
(06:27):
Englishman played some beautiful golf and hit some fantastic shots. Sunday,
Hatton just couldn't make a putt of any length for
the most part in the final round, and bogie's on
the final two holes did him in. Cameron young Carlos Ortiz,
they were in the mix to Scottie Scheffler was on
the outskirts of contention Sunday his putter just wouldn't cooperate.
(06:47):
And then there was young left handed Scotsman Robert McIntyre,
who hung around for the first two days, then played
brilliantly the last two days, closing with rounds of sixty
nine and sixty eight. It seemed as if McIntyre was
going to win when he walked off the course as
a co leader at plus one, but then came the
fairy tale finish for JJ spawn JJ had crawled back
(07:08):
into contention with birdies at the twelfth and fourteenth holes.
On the twelfth he sank a lightning fast forty foot pot.
He barely touched the ball with his putter head, but
it was at ramming speed by the time it got
to the hole. His birdie pot on the fourteenth was
a twenty two footer. After a bogie on fifteen and
a part on sixteen, Spawn was tied for the lead.
(07:30):
He came to the short par four seventeenth hole three
hundred and fourteen yards hit an amazing drive that bounded
onto the green and stopped twenty one feet from the hole.
Missed the eagle. Puppet made the short BIRDI putt to
take a one shot lead. We thought that drive was
the shot of the tournament until the eighteenth hole. After
hitting another terrific drive down the middle, Spawn found the
(07:51):
eighteenth green with his approach, but he was sixty four
feet five inches away. He was going to need a
tough two putt to win. But then, in a stroke
of good fortune that almost seemed to be payback for
the cruel trick the golf gods played on Spawn. In
the second hole, Spawn's playing partner, Victor Hoveland, landed his
approach shot just behind Spawn's ball. Spawn was going to
(08:13):
get a great read on Hoveland's pott. Hoveland sent his
putt just passed the hole on the low side. Spawn
went to school, got the pace exactly right, got the
line exactly right, and hold his sixty four and a
half foot birdie put to clinch the victory. What a moment.
Was the longest putt any player made it the US
Open all week, And what an epic comeback for Spawn,
(08:34):
who was the walking definition of resilience on Sunday, he
finished one under par, the only player in the field
to finish in red numbers. Was the first win in
a major and only the second victory on the PGA
Tour for JJ Spawn, the other coming at the Valero
Texas Open in twenty twenty two. But I want to
get your take on what we saw Sunday, But I
(08:54):
also want to get your take on Oakmont. I mean,
you said on last week's show that you wanted to
see carnage at the US Open. We certainly got it.
I mean Oakmont put players through the ringer for four days.
And the amazing thing is there was barely a breath
of wind throughout the tournament.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Oh, they got incredibly easy Oakmont, fortunately for the field,
and this was echoed throughout the playing field that was
talking to the media afterwards, is it was such a
grind that they couldn't even imagine if it was actually
playing tough like the Oakmont itself in those conditions was
as soft as it could have been on the greens
(09:32):
were as soft and receptive as possible, and they were
still lightning fast, and there was no wind, which any
breath of wind on that golf course complicates matters. But
this minus one winning score was in premium Oakmont scoring conditions.
The rough was up, which was going to be the
(09:52):
case either way. The rain added complication to when you
hit it wayward. It made the holes longer, made him
more difficult to get up and down, but it was
also everything was more receptive. The fairways weren't rolling out
as far, and there wasn't any win to give them
as many fits. I think that I agree with Justin
(10:14):
Thomas who said that if it was playing it all firm,
or even with a little bit of breeze, the winning
score would have been seven or eight over par, and
that's what I wanted to see, But unfortunately it was
a little soggy. So I guess I'll take salas in
that one man finished four days under par, and JJ
Spahn earned it because honestly, if you look at everybody
(10:37):
else who played on Sunday, it was Robert McIntyre, who,
as a Scottish person, you have to assume that the
nastier the weather gets, the better he's going to play.
That was certainly the case, but JJ Spahn as well,
after that front nine disaster where he started with five
bogies in his first six holes, we all wrote him off.
He was four shots behind after that coming out into
(11:01):
that rain delay, and then it changed everything. And honestly,
it might have been the course might not have been
real playable. They probably should have gone to a Monday finish,
but they made the decision and that was it. And
Oakmont played as easy as it possibly could for the
conditions that they set it up for earlier in the
week with tall rough But it could have been so
(11:22):
much more carnage. But I love Oakmont. Oakmont is a classic,
classic golf course and seventy three hundred yards that's two
hundred plus shorter than Augusta National. Grow the rough out,
make the greens fast. It's it's so easy to make
these pros look normal if you if you don't even
(11:44):
worry about distance, it doesn't matter how long these courses are.
This week's course is under seven thousand yards. It's gonna
give some of these guys fits. They're going to score
a lot of birdies. But it's also you can make
golf courses more difficult without even making them even a
breath Longer's that's what I like to see from Oakman
is just seventy three hundred yards and all of the
(12:05):
guys were struggling in easy conditions, soggy conditions where the
greens were not as nasty as they could have been.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I could watch those guys play number one all day,
that downhill par four. So I forget which player I
saw thrash a ball out of the high rough and
barely get this thing off the ground and it rolled
all the way down the fairway onto the green. Yeah,
and you know, we saw the video of Zach Blair
(12:33):
putting on the first hole from one hundred and twenty
yards out and rolling it to about three or four
feet while you have the speed unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Well, those those fairways were running before the rain kicked in.
The fairways were running a nine on the stamp, which
is like your normal regular course around the area is
a nine foot on the stamp, and the fairways were
running that before it rained. So yeah, it's the fact
that the fairways are rolling normal speed, and then the
greens were running a whole different speed. That was fun,
(13:02):
and then the rain ruined it all, but it was
still really fun to watch. I love the US Open,
I love carnage, so I didn't like when they were
headed at LACC because it just wasn't hard enough. They
didn't give them enough challenges. And even then, Oakland has
a couple birdie holes. They gave you a little relief there,
(13:23):
but you had to execute, and we saw those birdie
holes turn into double bowe holes just as easy if
you were out of position. That's what it's all about,
is these guys might complain that the conditions are borderline unplayable,
but it didn't seem to hinder JJ Spahn. It didn't
seem to hinder all of these guys until the rain
delay on Sunday. It just comes down to execution, and
(13:46):
those guys, namely Jjspawhn, they executed their game plan and
they stuck to what they were practicing all four days.
And that short game coach that was celebrating with Jjspahn
when he sank that butt, that guy deserves all the
flowers because j j Spawn's short game up until recently
was absolutely awful. He was borderline out of the game,
(14:09):
barely playing in enough events to keep his card, and
now he gets runner up at the Players and he
comes in and wins the US Open. His entire life
is different now for the better because a short game
coach was hard on him and said, hey, we're going
to completely redesign how you approach your short game chipping
and putting. And that was the strength of his game
(14:30):
this week, and it was the reason he got to
hoist that big trophy on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
And that's part of why I got chills bow with
the spawn win. Like, this guy was a grinder. This
guy was not a Rory McElroy Justin Thomas type prodigy,
you know, like he.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Walked on to UC San Diego, San Diego State.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, and this guy has, you know, battled self doubt
and failure and it's like, you know when you and
I play golf and have a terrible round, owned you know,
like it's not our livelihood. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
He just found out a couple of years ago that
he had type one diabetes. Like so it's like this
guy has had every obstacle put in front of him
to give up being a professional golfer and instead now
he's what twenty fifth in the world rankings and a
major champion and almost four million dollars richer. I'd say
(15:26):
JJ Spahn is back.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And I saw that his Sunday began with a three
am run to CBS because one of his daughters was
throwing up and he had to get peda light or something.
What a Father's day for JJ spawn beginning to end?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
If that's not the perfect father's day storyline, it's like, Hey,
I'm up all night with a puking kid. I go
to the pharmacy to pick up like anti puking med
like pepto business. What are you doing at three am
at CBS?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Luckily he had an afternoon tea time he could get
out there.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But that's what dads do, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We make sacrifices. We do whatever we can to The
kids are first, and then your family is first, obviously,
and then let's go out and do my job. And
he did his job.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
What a great Father's day for JJ spond. Hope all
you dads out there at a great Father's Day. Two.
Now we'll get to the Travelers Championship in just a moment.
But first I'm gonna let BO tell you about the
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Speaker 2 (16:25):
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Speaker 1 (16:59):
The Traveler's Champion will be the last of eight signature
events on the PGA Tour this season, so we're not
getting a bad field at all this week. It is
a field of seventy two players, I believe, and there
will not be a thirty six hole cut. The Travelers
will be played at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
It's a parse seventy measuring only forty four yards. That's
(17:20):
about the length of my local municourse from the Blue Tees.
After brutal week at Oakmont, the players will get something
of a reprieve this week. The Travelers is always kind
of a birdy fest and they always get some big
crowds for this one, usually second biggest crowds only to
the Phoenix Waste Management. TPC River Highlands is a peat
die course. It's short but tight. The players are going
(17:42):
to be reintroduced to trees this week. There's also some
thick rough, but nothing like the five inch thick Kentucky
bluegrass at Oakmont. The fairways are narrow at TPC River Highlands.
The greens are on the small side. Their mixture of
bent grass and poa. Players are gonna have to work
the ball and have some shot making creativity. This week.
It's positional golf and there's some elevation changes that help
(18:06):
keep things interesting. Just a couple of years ago, the
big hitters on tour we're starting to overpower the dog
legs on TPC River Highlands, so they made some changes
on the corse, narrowing the fairways on some holes and
letting the rough grow out in some of the spots
where players tended to miss fairways. They tried to make
it harder for the bombers to cut the corners on
the dog legs now. The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler.
(18:29):
He finished twenty two under par last year and beat
Tom Kim in a playoff. Scotty share rounds of sixty five,
sixty four, sixty four, sixty five not too shabby. New
england er Keegan Bradley won this kinectic based event in
twenty twenty three. He was twenty three under par. Xander
Schoffley won in twenty twenty two with a score of
nineteen under par, and Harris English won here in twenty
(18:50):
twenty one. English finished minus thirteen and beat Kramer Hickock
in a playoff. The forecast is calling for hot, breezy
conditions on Thursday, with temperatures approach ninety degrees winds in
the ten to fifteen mile an hour range. Also chances
storms in the afternoon, but otherwise dry the rest of
the week. High temperatures in the mid topper eighties Thursday
and Friday, with mild breezes in the five to ten
(19:12):
mile a hour range. Temperature climbs to ninety on Sunday
with winds of five to ten miles an hour. But
what do you make of TPC River Highlands.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
It's back to your normal Parkland style golf course, a
little peate die twist. Even though this is a peat
die golf course, it's not the most challenging pete die
golf course. And yes it's positional, yes it's narrow, but
it's also still got some bombing goutage advantage. Even with
the changes they made. You're going to see Rory McElroy
take some crazy lines off the tee over the top
(19:41):
of these trees like you did last year. And will
that equate to more birdies? You would hope so, because
you're gonna need to make a bunch this, I think
with this elevated field, pretty much all the top fifty
golfers are here. This is going to be a scoring fest,
and it's it's gonna put a little bit of a
(20:02):
test on a different part of the bag, which is
can you score make birdies where you need to because
Parr doesn't cut it here like it did at Oakmont.
Parr is a birdie at Oakmont, and Parr here is
almost a bogie. So let it let it be known
that that sixty four, sixty five, all the sixty five
(20:23):
and better rounds that Scotty went through last year. It's
gonna need to be that good again this year. Twenty
to twenty five under par is probably gonna win this thing. So, yeah,
you're gonna have to make birdies. You're gonna have to
be a ball striker, have a hot putter that helps,
but very much geared towards off the tea gaining strokes,
and of course on approach. And there's a couple of
(20:45):
guys that, no surprise, are right at the top of
my modeling this week.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, even par Rounds got you at the top of
the leaderboard last week at Oakmond even par rounds. This
week we'll get you in sixty third place.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Y, which still gets you a check this week because
there's no cut.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
We'll get to the Travelers Championship ods in just a moment.
But first a word about Novig.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
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(21:48):
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Speaker 1 (22:01):
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
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Speaker 1 (22:12):
He's enjoying his time on Novig. He is very hooked.
I would say so. Yeah. Be sure to ask Mike
merrif you're curious about Novig now for the Travelers Championship odds.
All odds are courtesy of DraftKings. As of Monday afternoon,
Scottie Scheffler is the favorite at plus two to eighty.
No surprise there. Rory McElroy is plus eleven hundred, Xander
(22:32):
Schoffley is plus fourteen hundred, Colin Morrikawa's plus eighteen hundred.
Patrick Cantley is plus twenty two hundred. Justin Thomas and
Ludwig Oberg are plus twenty five hundred. Victor Hovlind is
plus three thousand, Keegan Bradley, Tommy Fleetwood, stepstrac and Sam
Burns are all plus thirty five hundred, and Corey Connors,
Russell Henley and Robert McIntyre are plus four thousand. Who
(22:54):
do you like from this group?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Ooh, it might be the biggest shock of the season,
But I am actually going to bet Scotty Scheffler plus
two eighty, and I'm gonna bet pretty aggressively too. Defending champion,
no surprise last year. I think I bet on him
last year too, even though I think it was plus
four fifty is what I got on him last year.
He's playing out of his mind again this year. No
(23:16):
surprise there, plus two eighty for a pretty high likelihood
he wins this. It's a limited field, so he's only
got to beat seventy one other guys. He is better
than all seventy one of those other guys, especially on
a golf course that is this tailor made to this
tailor made rep Yeah, it's for me. This this golf
course is Scotty Scheffler's quintessential. Like if he created a
(23:39):
golf course where he could go the lowest possible, it
would be this one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
You're not worried about how I see he was with
the putter at the US Open. I mean he was
really off his game, like couldn't get speeds right.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I predicted that would happen. The thing with Scotty Scheffler
is he's a very good putter. He's not good at
reading greens, especially greens with a lot of nuance, Like
these greens do not have nuanced to anywhere close to
the degree that Dokemont has. We saw it last year
where even where he was in the biggest slump of
the season with his putter, is he he was very flat.
(24:12):
He was flat to the field with putting at TPC
River Highlands. This is the kind of golf course where
he's going to be so close to these pins, He's
going to have so many opportunities to make birdie even
if he makes four out of ten of his birdie opportunities,
that's still sixty six. And I think he's going to
have even more than that. This is the guy who's
going to have twelve to fourteen very makeable birdie puts
(24:36):
every single round, and even if his putting is okay,
he can win this tournament. This golf course is perfectly
fit for Scottie Scheffler's game.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
What about any of the other players with short odds?
What about Rory? Like I know, he has not done
well recently in his last three events, forty seventh the
PGA Championship, missed the cut by a mile in the
Canadian Open, but he did finish nineteenth of the US
Open on the strength of a really, really good final round.
Rory has not been sharp, but he played well Sunday.
(25:08):
And these are the longest odds we've seen for Rory
in a while, eleven to one.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I can't say that it wasn't tempting to bet double
digit odds on Rory McElroy. But one thing that I
look at that sets him apart in a bad way
with Scottie Scheffler is the approach on approach, His approach
inside of one hundred and fifty yards. The last four
weeks has been atrocious, and that was kind of his
(25:34):
weakness before he wanted Pebble and Sawgrass this year. Was
his weakness was can he get birdy opportunities with a
pitching wedge or a sand wedge or a gap wedge
on approach? And he kind of quelled some of that,
some of those worries that we had about him at
Pebble Beach and Sawgrass. Well, this is another sixty eight
hundred yard course where he's gonna have pitching wedge or
(25:56):
shorter in his hand on approach a lot of times,
and that's been the weakest part of his game by far.
He couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at Oakmont
with a wedge in his hand, and this is this
is a place where you're gonna have ten of those
every round. I'd much rather have Scotti, Scheffler, or anybody
in this top range over Rory mcelray. In a very
very key metric. Rory is still second to my model.
(26:19):
But where he's not good is exactly where I want
him to be good. So I'm gonna go down to
Ludwig Oberg because I don't have to worry about a
short game this week. It's a point you can get
you it's it's a plus if you have a good
short game at TPC River Highlands. But it's not a
necessity like it was last week Oberg. On this golf course,
(26:40):
it's another hit it down the fairway, hit a short
iron approach and make a bunch of birdies. Oberg is
one of the best birdie makers on tour. And so
twenty five to one, that's it seems like really easy
picking to get that good of odds on a guy
with that much upside. And then you mentioned the big
Austria pride to Vienna Sepstraca, it's thirty five to one
(27:05):
for him. The way he's playing the season honestly impressive.
What he did last week, he didn't do as bad
as I thought he would, and that's that's a testament
to how far his game has come. Not the best
short game and again makes a ton of birdies. Fourth
in this field in birdie or better percentage. Sepstraca thirty
(27:26):
five to one, full steam ahead.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Now we do have some horses for this corps. Sanders
Schoffley won here in twenty twenty two, and he's finished
top twenty and five of his six Travelers Championship appearances.
Patrick Cantley has won top ten finish in his last
nine tournaments dating back to March, and he's missed the
cut in two of his last three events, including the
US Open. But Cantley has finished top fifteen at the
(27:49):
Travelers in each of the last seven years, and he's
finished top five each of the last two years. TPC
River Highlands obviously suits his eye, Justin Thomas ninth year
in twenty twenty three, fifth last year, but he's cooled
off lately. He's missed the cut in two of his
last three events. Keegan Bradley has been rock solid all year.
(28:10):
He won the Travelers two years ago and was runner
up in twenty nineteen. Keegan is again a new England
guy Hill at big crowds behind him this week. Let's
look at some more player odds. We've got Jordan Speeth,
Ben Griff and Shane Lowry and reigning US Open champ
JJ Spahn all at plus forty five hundred, Hedeki Matsuyama,
Daniel Berger, Cameron Young, Aaron Rye, Seawu Kim and Maverick
(28:33):
McNeely are plus five thousand, Taylor Pendrith is plus fifty
five hundred, Harris English, Adam Scott, Tony Feno and Sung J.
Mr Plus six thousand, and Jason Day, JT. Postin and
Akshay Battia are plus seven thousand. Any of these guys
take all your fancy bow.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm gonna have to do a deeper dive on Seawu Kim,
who's a Pete Die specialist and does really well on
these types of tracks. He's been playing really well this season.
Seaw Kim is a favorite of mine. I'll have to
take a deeper dive on him and Ben Griffin because
Ben Griffin's.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Just red hot and.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I just don't know he's more suited on a longer
golf course because of his long iron play. But I
want to I want to like those two guys. But
for me, this entire range comes down to ak Shaebatia,
ak Shabatia seventy to one. I'm going full as aggressive
as possible ladder bet from outright to top five, to
top ten to top twenty. I'm going to be very
(29:29):
aggressive betting ak Shabatia this week because you have to
shape the ball. He's the best there is at shaping
the ball off the tee. You have to be able
to hit good wedge approach. He might be the best
wedge approach player in the world, and that includes Scotti Scheffler.
Scheffler might be better at mid and long irons than
ak sh but with a wedge in his hand, ak
Shabatia is a lethal assassin. And the way he's been
(29:51):
putting this season, this guy can go thirty under par
on this golf course. That is another guy who suits
this golf course perfectly because it's right in his wheelhouse
of how he likes to play the game. So seventy
to one, that's I would have bet him aggressively at
fifty five to one. I thought he would be at
fifty five to one, but right now at seventy as
(30:11):
of this moment on Monday, we're going, We're going deep.
We're going, We're going deep into the pockets for ox
Savitia this week because it just it seems too good
to be true that he's that far down the board.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I think you sold me, Bo and ax Shay finished
fifth in his Traveler's debut last year, so this course
did indeed suit him.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
And it paid me. It paid me last year. Top
five was a payout.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Ben Griffin, Yeah, I've got to bet him, Like he's
just so hot. He was in contention most of the
week at the US Open before falling out of the
hunt on Sunday and finishing tenth. Griffin now is four
straight top ten finishes and just seems to be turning
into a superstar before our eyes. I'm not going to
touch JJ spond this week. Bo hard to imagine he'll
be laser focused after a storybook win at the US Open,
(30:55):
and he's missed the cut in three of his last
four Travelers Championships.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I don't be surprised because typically when we thought of
JJ spawn, like I've seen him play in person at
the Barracuda up in Trucky. It's a positional golf course
under seven thousand yards, pretty fast right up a alley.
Spawn has what it takes to do well here. But
(31:20):
like you said, the hangover after winning a major that grueling,
Like if it was the PGA Championship or even after
the Masters and you go through that ordeal, there's a
little bit of hangover. Oakmont US Open, I think is
going to have most of these guys pretty haggard.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yes, what about long shots? Bo anyone worth a flyer?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Tom Kim amazingly as ninety to one. He's played well
here most of his career. He's played well at this
golf course. Runner up last year behind Scottie. Another great
short iron player who's found kind of a hot putter lately.
He's been a really bad putterer for a long time,
but coming that he's twentieth in this field in putting,
(32:03):
and in the one twenty five to one fifty bucket
he's first in this field, and one hundred to one
twenty five he's third in this field, fifth in total approach,
fourth in double bogie avoidance, which I haven't mentioned is
very important, and eleventh and birdies are better. Tom Kimm
at ninety to one is a steal. And then I'll
go another red hot, red hot golfer this year. We
(32:24):
haven't talked about him in a couple of weeks, but
Ryan Girard's going out one hundred to one, and I
love his his iron game. There's another guy who again
can go super low and in a seventy two man field,
no cut. I love having four rounds of Ryan Girard
looking at birdies all day.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I'll give you another Ryan. How about Ryan Fox and
ninety to one won the Canadian Open two weeks ago,
his second win of the year nineteenth at the US Open,
twentieth at the Memorial a few weeks ago. He's been
on a tear, so getting him at those long outs.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Can he hit anything other than a fade?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Because he's that's true. You have to work both ways
at TPC River Highlands, So we'll we'll find out about that.
Bo I'm gonna I'm gonna make you ill here. Brian
Harmon is eighty to one. He's not been in good
form in recent months, since winning the Valero Texas Open
and finishing third at the RBC Heritage back in April bought.
He has finished top ten at the Travelers in six
(33:19):
of the last seven years. Brian Harmon seems too hey.
It's a good short tour, good fit a bunter Like
Brian Harmon. He plays plays well on this track for
whatever reason, and I kind of like Thomas Dietrie at
one hundred and ten to one. He's played well lately.
He ranks one hundredth in strokes gain an approach, but
(33:40):
He's generally been worse on the long approach shots, and
he won't have many of those this week. All right,
bo who's on your early betting card for the Travelers?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Some guy named Scotty Scheffler plus two eighty, Lidwig Olberg
twenty five to one, Stepstraca thirty five to one. Full
blown aggressive crazy person ladder on actualabats seventy to one,
Tom Kim ninety to one, Ryan Gerard one hundred to one.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
All Right, I'm taking Keegan Bradley plus thirty five hundred,
Ben Griffin plus forty five hundred. I'm going to tail
you in Akshay and uh Brian Harmon for a top
ten at plus four fifty. Don't want to bet him
to win, but for top ten at plus four fifty,
I like those odds. Ryan Fox at ninety to one
and Thomas Dietree at one hundred and ten to one.
(34:25):
Now for our one and done picks, Boyd John Ram.
Last week he'd a solid showing time for seventh Rom
earned six hundred fourteen, four hundred and twenty three dollars
for bo I had Bryson d Schambeau. Bryson had been
terrific in recent majors, but he missed the cut at Oakmont,
laying a goose egg for me. Bo continues to clabber
me in the one and Done battle. He's at about
(34:46):
seven point six million. I'm at about three point four
million Europe first this week, Bo, who you got?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I've used all my top guys.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
This is tough.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Let's see. I will go with the guy I haven't
used yet, Amazing, and I'm gonna go deep and say
Tom Kim is gonna do it?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Tom Kim, Tom Kim.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it's risky ninety to one guy going into one
and done, but we're getting to that point of the season.
What we had seven weeks left. I'm gonna have to
start taking some chances with guys who haven't done well
this year.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I'm chaking Ryder Cup captain Kegan Bradley, Vermont native. He's
hopefully being in the Northeast lights a fire under him
this week and that's gonna do it. For this week's
Betting Pros PGA podcast, Please come join us again next
week when we'll be previewing the Rocket Classic in Detroit.
Until then, so long everyone, thanks for listening to the
(35:38):
Betting Pros Podcast. If you love the show.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
The best freeway to support us is by leaving a
positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow us on
x and TikTok at Betting Pros and Instagram at betting
Pros NFL. Also subscribe to our YouTube
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Channel at YouTube dot com slash Betting Pros
Welcome to the Betting pros PGA Podcast. I'm Pat Fitzmorris,
joined as always by Beau mcberr. This week we'll give
you a betting preview of the Travelers Championship. We're going
to talk about the course, the odds, our favorite bets.
We'll make one and done picks at the end of
the show, but we have to start for the recap
of the US Open. I'm still trying to process what
(00:21):
we witnessed on Sunday. We've had three majors so far
this season, and two of them have given us just
incredible Sunday drama. JJ Spawn is your US Open champion.
Spawn took us for a wild ride Sunday at Oakmont
Country Club. He was the first round leader after an
opening round sixty six. He played well on Friday and
Saturday and entered the final round one shot behind leader
(00:43):
Sam Burns. It looked like Spawn had played his way
out of contention. Early in the final round, he bogied
five of the first six holes. There's some really bad
luck involves, particularly on whole number two. Spawn hit an
approach shot that looked like it was going to stop
within a few feet of the hole. But if Paul
bounced hard off the flagstick and rolled off the front
of the green, A likely birdie turned into a bogie.
(01:05):
It seemed improbable that Spawn would be able to ride
the ship and climb past all the other contenders, among
them Sam Burns, who took a one shot lead into
the final round. Burns sixty five on Friday was the
lowest round of the tournament, and after losing a playoff
at the Canadian Open the week prior, Burns played wonderful
golf at Oakmont until we got a ninety six minute
(01:27):
rain delay late Sunday afternoon. After the delay, Burns double
bogie the eleventh bogie, the par five to twelfth, and
then his championship hopes came to a saggy end on
the fifteenth hole when he was denied a free drop
even though his ball was sitting in a completely water
log patch of fairway. If I were playing in a
match of my opponent denied me a free drop in
(01:47):
that situation, I'd be furious. Burns proceeded to hit a
poor shot into the rough, made a double bogie, and
was basically done Before I continue bo Your thoughts on
Burns's unfortunate ruing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's one of the biggest robberies by an impartial party
that's ever happened in the game of golf in history.
This is the guy who's tied for the lead in
the middle of the fairway or on the right side
of the fairway on a hold. It's very difficult. He
had a perfect angle to a very difficult pin, one
of the most difficult pins on the golf course that day,
and obviously standing water. It was a ninety six minute
(02:24):
rain delay, heavy heavy rains. You would think that these officials,
who are USGA officials, the governing body of golf in
our country. That's the rule book, it says USGA right
on the rule book, and in the rules it's very
specific about standing water and free relief. There's not a
very high bard across to get free relief from standing
(02:46):
water in the fairway. And he was literally in a puddle,
His ball was in a puddle, and his stance was
in standing water. Once he took his stance, not one official,
but two USGA officials, who apparently haven't done usted off
their own rule book in a while, denied him free relief,
which should have been a no brainer. It should have
been Honestly, if it were me, that's between playing partners,
(03:09):
and I guarantee Adam Scott would have seen that and
said absolutely free relief, take your one club length and
move on. But they called the rules official over denied,
second rules official because I mean, incredulously, the first one's denied,
you're calling another one over denied. Unbelievably corrupt, horrible decision
(03:30):
by both officials. I'm not sure what they were thinking
the rule was, but it was very clearly supposed to
be a free drop. The ball was underwater by a
couple of millimeters, as evidenced by a wet club face
wet ball duck hook into the rough from the middle
of the fairway. Sam Burns have been dialed in the
whole week, and instead of a birdie or a par
(03:52):
on that hole, he makes double bogie. He's out of
the tournament. That's what allowed Jjspond to furiously charge to
the win. Everything changed at that moment, and it wasn't
sam Burns's fault. He did the right thing. The USGA
has to answer for this because not only did they
make the wrong call twice, it costs somebody the entire tournament.
(04:15):
That changes the entire trajectory of their career, that is,
on an incorrect ruling twice. That's why I'm I'm I'm
steamed up because I had a ninety to one Burns ticket.
He didn't play well enough to win the tournament after
that fifteenth toll. Up until that point, he was tied
for the lead, in very good position coming down the stretch,
(04:36):
and that changed everything. He went from probable at least
making it to a playoff to no chance at all.
It's the JJ spawn show. I just I can't believe
that they got it wrong twice. It was a very
clear cut free relief from standing water, and it should
have only taken twenty seconds, not even all the way
up to the spot where he's asking for the ruling.
(04:58):
I'd be like, yep, that's standing water. Take your club
LinkedIn free drop. It was so straightforward and easy by
the letter of the rule book, and they still got
it wrong. So color me incredibly angry. And if I
were Sam Burns, I would not have been so composed,
and he was. He was furious, and I said I
(05:18):
probably would have. I would have met one of those officials,
probably both of them, for a nice meal in the
parking lot.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, there was just no chance of him executing that shot.
There was a reporter who posted video like him stapping
on that ground and it was just it was completely
water logged, I mean no chance.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
To His divots were full to the brim with water.
The divots on which he hit the ball with.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yes, so other contenders. Adam Scott playing in the final
group with Burns. Scott was playing in his ninety sixth
consecutive major. That's double the next longest streak of forty
eighth straight majors for Jordan Speith. I would sell my
soul for Adam Scott's golf swing, and he had it
working for almost the entire week, almost like Sam Burns.
(06:05):
Adam Scott came unhinged after the Sunday afternoon Randa Lake.
He played the final eight holes at six over par
a tough Sunday for the last pairing. On Sunday, Burns
shot a final round seventy eight. Scott a seventy nine.
Victor Hobland was in the haunt. He struck the ball
beautifully at Oakmont, but Hoblind couldn't get the putter going
on Sunday. Tyrrell Hatton was in the haunt. The surly
(06:27):
Englishman played some beautiful golf and hit some fantastic shots. Sunday,
Hatton just couldn't make a putt of any length for
the most part in the final round, and bogie's on
the final two holes did him in. Cameron young Carlos Ortiz,
they were in the mix to Scottie Scheffler was on
the outskirts of contention Sunday his putter just wouldn't cooperate.
(06:47):
And then there was young left handed Scotsman Robert McIntyre,
who hung around for the first two days, then played
brilliantly the last two days, closing with rounds of sixty
nine and sixty eight. It seemed as if McIntyre was
going to win when he walked off the course as
a co leader at plus one, but then came the
fairy tale finish for JJ spawn JJ had crawled back
(07:08):
into contention with birdies at the twelfth and fourteenth holes.
On the twelfth he sank a lightning fast forty foot pot.
He barely touched the ball with his putter head, but
it was at ramming speed by the time it got
to the hole. His birdie pot on the fourteenth was
a twenty two footer. After a bogie on fifteen and
a part on sixteen, Spawn was tied for the lead.
(07:30):
He came to the short par four seventeenth hole three
hundred and fourteen yards hit an amazing drive that bounded
onto the green and stopped twenty one feet from the hole.
Missed the eagle. Puppet made the short BIRDI putt to
take a one shot lead. We thought that drive was
the shot of the tournament until the eighteenth hole. After
hitting another terrific drive down the middle, Spawn found the
(07:51):
eighteenth green with his approach, but he was sixty four
feet five inches away. He was going to need a
tough two putt to win. But then, in a stroke
of good fortune that almost seemed to be payback for
the cruel trick the golf gods played on Spawn. In
the second hole, Spawn's playing partner, Victor Hoveland, landed his
approach shot just behind Spawn's ball. Spawn was going to
(08:13):
get a great read on Hoveland's pott. Hoveland sent his
putt just passed the hole on the low side. Spawn
went to school, got the pace exactly right, got the
line exactly right, and hold his sixty four and a
half foot birdie put to clinch the victory. What a moment.
Was the longest putt any player made it the US
Open all week, And what an epic comeback for Spawn,
(08:34):
who was the walking definition of resilience on Sunday, he
finished one under par, the only player in the field
to finish in red numbers. Was the first win in
a major and only the second victory on the PGA
Tour for JJ Spawn, the other coming at the Valero
Texas Open in twenty twenty two. But I want to
get your take on what we saw Sunday, But I
(08:54):
also want to get your take on Oakmont. I mean,
you said on last week's show that you wanted to
see carnage at the US Open. We certainly got it.
I mean Oakmont put players through the ringer for four days.
And the amazing thing is there was barely a breath
of wind throughout the tournament.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Oh, they got incredibly easy Oakmont, fortunately for the field,
and this was echoed throughout the playing field that was
talking to the media afterwards, is it was such a
grind that they couldn't even imagine if it was actually
playing tough like the Oakmont itself in those conditions was
as soft as it could have been on the greens
(09:32):
were as soft and receptive as possible, and they were
still lightning fast, and there was no wind, which any
breath of wind on that golf course complicates matters. But
this minus one winning score was in premium Oakmont scoring conditions.
The rough was up, which was going to be the
(09:52):
case either way. The rain added complication to when you
hit it wayward. It made the holes longer, made him
more difficult to get up and down, but it was
also everything was more receptive. The fairways weren't rolling out
as far, and there wasn't any win to give them
as many fits. I think that I agree with Justin
(10:14):
Thomas who said that if it was playing it all firm,
or even with a little bit of breeze, the winning
score would have been seven or eight over par, and
that's what I wanted to see, But unfortunately it was
a little soggy. So I guess I'll take salas in
that one man finished four days under par, and JJ
Spahn earned it because honestly, if you look at everybody
(10:37):
else who played on Sunday, it was Robert McIntyre, who,
as a Scottish person, you have to assume that the
nastier the weather gets, the better he's going to play.
That was certainly the case, but JJ Spahn as well,
after that front nine disaster where he started with five
bogies in his first six holes, we all wrote him off.
He was four shots behind after that coming out into
(11:01):
that rain delay, and then it changed everything. And honestly,
it might have been the course might not have been
real playable. They probably should have gone to a Monday finish,
but they made the decision and that was it. And
Oakmont played as easy as it possibly could for the
conditions that they set it up for earlier in the
week with tall rough But it could have been so
(11:22):
much more carnage. But I love Oakmont. Oakmont is a classic,
classic golf course and seventy three hundred yards that's two
hundred plus shorter than Augusta National. Grow the rough out,
make the greens fast. It's it's so easy to make
these pros look normal if you if you don't even
(11:44):
worry about distance, it doesn't matter how long these courses are.
This week's course is under seven thousand yards. It's gonna
give some of these guys fits. They're going to score
a lot of birdies. But it's also you can make
golf courses more difficult without even making them even a
breath Longer's that's what I like to see from Oakman
is just seventy three hundred yards and all of the
(12:05):
guys were struggling in easy conditions, soggy conditions where the
greens were not as nasty as they could have been.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I could watch those guys play number one all day,
that downhill par four. So I forget which player I
saw thrash a ball out of the high rough and
barely get this thing off the ground and it rolled
all the way down the fairway onto the green. Yeah,
and you know, we saw the video of Zach Blair
(12:33):
putting on the first hole from one hundred and twenty
yards out and rolling it to about three or four
feet while you have the speed unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Well, those those fairways were running before the rain kicked in.
The fairways were running a nine on the stamp, which
is like your normal regular course around the area is
a nine foot on the stamp, and the fairways were
running that before it rained. So yeah, it's the fact
that the fairways are rolling normal speed, and then the
greens were running a whole different speed. That was fun,
(13:02):
and then the rain ruined it all, but it was
still really fun to watch. I love the US Open,
I love carnage, so I didn't like when they were
headed at LACC because it just wasn't hard enough. They
didn't give them enough challenges. And even then, Oakland has
a couple birdie holes. They gave you a little relief there,
(13:23):
but you had to execute, and we saw those birdie
holes turn into double bowe holes just as easy if
you were out of position. That's what it's all about,
is these guys might complain that the conditions are borderline unplayable,
but it didn't seem to hinder JJ Spahn. It didn't
seem to hinder all of these guys until the rain
delay on Sunday. It just comes down to execution, and
(13:46):
those guys, namely Jjspawhn, they executed their game plan and
they stuck to what they were practicing all four days.
And that short game coach that was celebrating with Jjspahn
when he sank that butt, that guy deserves all the
flowers because j j Spawn's short game up until recently
was absolutely awful. He was borderline out of the game,
(14:09):
barely playing in enough events to keep his card, and
now he gets runner up at the Players and he
comes in and wins the US Open. His entire life
is different now for the better because a short game
coach was hard on him and said, hey, we're going
to completely redesign how you approach your short game chipping
and putting. And that was the strength of his game
(14:30):
this week, and it was the reason he got to
hoist that big trophy on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
And that's part of why I got chills bow with
the spawn win. Like, this guy was a grinder. This
guy was not a Rory McElroy Justin Thomas type prodigy,
you know, like he.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Walked on to UC San Diego, San Diego State.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, and this guy has, you know, battled self doubt
and failure and it's like, you know when you and
I play golf and have a terrible round, owned you know,
like it's not our livelihood. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
He just found out a couple of years ago that
he had type one diabetes. Like so it's like this
guy has had every obstacle put in front of him
to give up being a professional golfer and instead now
he's what twenty fifth in the world rankings and a
major champion and almost four million dollars richer. I'd say
(15:26):
JJ Spahn is back.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And I saw that his Sunday began with a three
am run to CBS because one of his daughters was
throwing up and he had to get peda light or something.
What a Father's day for JJ spawn beginning to end?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
If that's not the perfect father's day storyline, it's like, Hey,
I'm up all night with a puking kid. I go
to the pharmacy to pick up like anti puking med
like pepto business. What are you doing at three am
at CBS?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Luckily he had an afternoon tea time he could get
out there.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But that's what dads do, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We make sacrifices. We do whatever we can to The
kids are first, and then your family is first, obviously,
and then let's go out and do my job. And
he did his job.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
What a great Father's day for JJ spond. Hope all
you dads out there at a great Father's Day. Two.
Now we'll get to the Travelers Championship in just a moment.
But first I'm gonna let BO tell you about the
Betting Pros app, which I use pretty much every day.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Download the free Betting Pros app for iOS and Android.
With Sportsbooks Sync, you can automatically track your bets across
all major sports books in one spot. Easily monitor your
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using the code juice and activating your trial on the
upgrade screen now.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
The Traveler's Champion will be the last of eight signature
events on the PGA Tour this season, so we're not
getting a bad field at all this week. It is
a field of seventy two players, I believe, and there
will not be a thirty six hole cut. The Travelers
will be played at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
It's a parse seventy measuring only forty four yards. That's
(17:20):
about the length of my local municourse from the Blue Tees.
After brutal week at Oakmont, the players will get something
of a reprieve this week. The Travelers is always kind
of a birdy fest and they always get some big
crowds for this one, usually second biggest crowds only to
the Phoenix Waste Management. TPC River Highlands is a peat
die course. It's short but tight. The players are going
(17:42):
to be reintroduced to trees this week. There's also some
thick rough, but nothing like the five inch thick Kentucky
bluegrass at Oakmont. The fairways are narrow at TPC River Highlands.
The greens are on the small side. Their mixture of
bent grass and poa. Players are gonna have to work
the ball and have some shot making creativity. This week.
It's positional golf and there's some elevation changes that help
(18:06):
keep things interesting. Just a couple of years ago, the
big hitters on tour we're starting to overpower the dog
legs on TPC River Highlands, so they made some changes
on the corse, narrowing the fairways on some holes and
letting the rough grow out in some of the spots
where players tended to miss fairways. They tried to make
it harder for the bombers to cut the corners on
the dog legs now. The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler.
(18:29):
He finished twenty two under par last year and beat
Tom Kim in a playoff. Scotty share rounds of sixty five,
sixty four, sixty four, sixty five not too shabby. New
england er Keegan Bradley won this kinectic based event in
twenty twenty three. He was twenty three under par. Xander
Schoffley won in twenty twenty two with a score of
nineteen under par, and Harris English won here in twenty
(18:50):
twenty one. English finished minus thirteen and beat Kramer Hickock
in a playoff. The forecast is calling for hot, breezy
conditions on Thursday, with temperatures approach ninety degrees winds in
the ten to fifteen mile an hour range. Also chances
storms in the afternoon, but otherwise dry the rest of
the week. High temperatures in the mid topper eighties Thursday
and Friday, with mild breezes in the five to ten
(19:12):
mile a hour range. Temperature climbs to ninety on Sunday
with winds of five to ten miles an hour. But
what do you make of TPC River Highlands.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
It's back to your normal Parkland style golf course, a
little peate die twist. Even though this is a peat
die golf course, it's not the most challenging pete die
golf course. And yes it's positional, yes it's narrow, but
it's also still got some bombing goutage advantage. Even with
the changes they made. You're going to see Rory McElroy
take some crazy lines off the tee over the top
(19:41):
of these trees like you did last year. And will
that equate to more birdies? You would hope so, because
you're gonna need to make a bunch this, I think
with this elevated field, pretty much all the top fifty
golfers are here. This is going to be a scoring fest,
and it's it's gonna put a little bit of a
(20:02):
test on a different part of the bag, which is
can you score make birdies where you need to because
Parr doesn't cut it here like it did at Oakmont.
Parr is a birdie at Oakmont, and Parr here is
almost a bogie. So let it let it be known
that that sixty four, sixty five, all the sixty five
(20:23):
and better rounds that Scotty went through last year. It's
gonna need to be that good again this year. Twenty
to twenty five under par is probably gonna win this thing. So, yeah,
you're gonna have to make birdies. You're gonna have to
be a ball striker, have a hot putter that helps,
but very much geared towards off the tea gaining strokes,
and of course on approach. And there's a couple of
(20:45):
guys that, no surprise, are right at the top of
my modeling this week.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, even par Rounds got you at the top of
the leaderboard last week at Oakmond even par rounds. This
week we'll get you in sixty third place.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Y, which still gets you a check this week because
there's no cut.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
We'll get to the Travelers Championship ods in just a moment.
But first a word about Novig.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Are you looking for a smarter way to play. There's
a new sports trading platform that's changing the game. It's
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(21:28):
are no commissions or hidden fees. Seriously, it uses a
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(21:48):
thing every day. Our colleague, Mike Mahyor. He is the
Novig fanatic. He won't shut up about Novig. He's dropping
screenshots and picks in the discord every day. If you
have questions, Mike May is your guy.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Pat, He's almost insufferable, borderline insufferable about Novig, but taking
him up on his offer, it's been more than fruitful,
So go check it out.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
He's enjoying his time on Novig. He is very hooked.
I would say so. Yeah. Be sure to ask Mike
merrif you're curious about Novig now for the Travelers Championship odds.
All odds are courtesy of DraftKings. As of Monday afternoon,
Scottie Scheffler is the favorite at plus two to eighty.
No surprise there. Rory McElroy is plus eleven hundred, Xander
(22:32):
Schoffley is plus fourteen hundred, Colin Morrikawa's plus eighteen hundred.
Patrick Cantley is plus twenty two hundred. Justin Thomas and
Ludwig Oberg are plus twenty five hundred. Victor Hovlind is
plus three thousand, Keegan Bradley, Tommy Fleetwood, stepstrac and Sam
Burns are all plus thirty five hundred, and Corey Connors,
Russell Henley and Robert McIntyre are plus four thousand. Who
(22:54):
do you like from this group?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Ooh, it might be the biggest shock of the season,
But I am actually going to bet Scotty Scheffler plus
two eighty, and I'm gonna bet pretty aggressively too. Defending champion,
no surprise last year. I think I bet on him
last year too, even though I think it was plus
four fifty is what I got on him last year.
He's playing out of his mind again this year. No
(23:16):
surprise there, plus two eighty for a pretty high likelihood
he wins this. It's a limited field, so he's only
got to beat seventy one other guys. He is better
than all seventy one of those other guys, especially on
a golf course that is this tailor made to this
tailor made rep Yeah, it's for me. This this golf
course is Scotty Scheffler's quintessential. Like if he created a
(23:39):
golf course where he could go the lowest possible, it
would be this one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
You're not worried about how I see he was with
the putter at the US Open. I mean he was
really off his game, like couldn't get speeds right.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I predicted that would happen. The thing with Scotty Scheffler
is he's a very good putter. He's not good at
reading greens, especially greens with a lot of nuance, Like
these greens do not have nuanced to anywhere close to
the degree that Dokemont has. We saw it last year
where even where he was in the biggest slump of
the season with his putter, is he he was very flat.
(24:12):
He was flat to the field with putting at TPC
River Highlands. This is the kind of golf course where
he's going to be so close to these pins, He's
going to have so many opportunities to make birdie even
if he makes four out of ten of his birdie opportunities,
that's still sixty six. And I think he's going to
have even more than that. This is the guy who's
going to have twelve to fourteen very makeable birdie puts
(24:36):
every single round, and even if his putting is okay,
he can win this tournament. This golf course is perfectly
fit for Scottie Scheffler's game.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
What about any of the other players with short odds?
What about Rory? Like I know, he has not done
well recently in his last three events, forty seventh the
PGA Championship, missed the cut by a mile in the
Canadian Open, but he did finish nineteenth of the US
Open on the strength of a really, really good final round.
Rory has not been sharp, but he played well Sunday.
(25:08):
And these are the longest odds we've seen for Rory
in a while, eleven to one.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I can't say that it wasn't tempting to bet double
digit odds on Rory McElroy. But one thing that I
look at that sets him apart in a bad way
with Scottie Scheffler is the approach on approach, His approach
inside of one hundred and fifty yards. The last four
weeks has been atrocious, and that was kind of his
(25:34):
weakness before he wanted Pebble and Sawgrass this year. Was
his weakness was can he get birdy opportunities with a
pitching wedge or a sand wedge or a gap wedge
on approach? And he kind of quelled some of that,
some of those worries that we had about him at
Pebble Beach and Sawgrass. Well, this is another sixty eight
hundred yard course where he's gonna have pitching wedge or
(25:56):
shorter in his hand on approach a lot of times,
and that's been the weakest part of his game by far.
He couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at Oakmont
with a wedge in his hand, and this is this
is a place where you're gonna have ten of those
every round. I'd much rather have Scotti, Scheffler, or anybody
in this top range over Rory mcelray. In a very
very key metric. Rory is still second to my model.
(26:19):
But where he's not good is exactly where I want
him to be good. So I'm gonna go down to
Ludwig Oberg because I don't have to worry about a
short game this week. It's a point you can get
you it's it's a plus if you have a good
short game at TPC River Highlands. But it's not a
necessity like it was last week Oberg. On this golf course,
(26:40):
it's another hit it down the fairway, hit a short
iron approach and make a bunch of birdies. Oberg is
one of the best birdie makers on tour. And so
twenty five to one, that's it seems like really easy
picking to get that good of odds on a guy
with that much upside. And then you mentioned the big
Austria pride to Vienna Sepstraca, it's thirty five to one
(27:05):
for him. The way he's playing the season honestly impressive.
What he did last week, he didn't do as bad
as I thought he would, and that's that's a testament
to how far his game has come. Not the best
short game and again makes a ton of birdies. Fourth
in this field in birdie or better percentage. Sepstraca thirty
(27:26):
five to one, full steam ahead.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Now we do have some horses for this corps. Sanders
Schoffley won here in twenty twenty two, and he's finished
top twenty and five of his six Travelers Championship appearances.
Patrick Cantley has won top ten finish in his last
nine tournaments dating back to March, and he's missed the
cut in two of his last three events, including the
US Open. But Cantley has finished top fifteen at the
(27:49):
Travelers in each of the last seven years, and he's
finished top five each of the last two years. TPC
River Highlands obviously suits his eye, Justin Thomas ninth year
in twenty twenty three, fifth last year, but he's cooled
off lately. He's missed the cut in two of his
last three events. Keegan Bradley has been rock solid all year.
(28:10):
He won the Travelers two years ago and was runner
up in twenty nineteen. Keegan is again a new England
guy Hill at big crowds behind him this week. Let's
look at some more player odds. We've got Jordan Speeth,
Ben Griff and Shane Lowry and reigning US Open champ
JJ Spahn all at plus forty five hundred, Hedeki Matsuyama,
Daniel Berger, Cameron Young, Aaron Rye, Seawu Kim and Maverick
(28:33):
McNeely are plus five thousand, Taylor Pendrith is plus fifty
five hundred, Harris English, Adam Scott, Tony Feno and Sung J.
Mr Plus six thousand, and Jason Day, JT. Postin and
Akshay Battia are plus seven thousand. Any of these guys
take all your fancy bow.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm gonna have to do a deeper dive on Seawu Kim,
who's a Pete Die specialist and does really well on
these types of tracks. He's been playing really well this season.
Seaw Kim is a favorite of mine. I'll have to
take a deeper dive on him and Ben Griffin because
Ben Griffin's.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Just red hot and.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I just don't know he's more suited on a longer
golf course because of his long iron play. But I
want to I want to like those two guys. But
for me, this entire range comes down to ak Shaebatia,
ak Shabatia seventy to one. I'm going full as aggressive
as possible ladder bet from outright to top five, to
top ten to top twenty. I'm going to be very
(29:29):
aggressive betting ak Shabatia this week because you have to
shape the ball. He's the best there is at shaping
the ball off the tee. You have to be able
to hit good wedge approach. He might be the best
wedge approach player in the world, and that includes Scotti Scheffler.
Scheffler might be better at mid and long irons than
ak sh but with a wedge in his hand, ak
Shabatia is a lethal assassin. And the way he's been
(29:51):
putting this season, this guy can go thirty under par
on this golf course. That is another guy who suits
this golf course perfectly because it's right in his wheelhouse
of how he likes to play the game. So seventy
to one, that's I would have bet him aggressively at
fifty five to one. I thought he would be at
fifty five to one, but right now at seventy as
(30:11):
of this moment on Monday, we're going, We're going deep.
We're going, We're going deep into the pockets for ox
Savitia this week because it just it seems too good
to be true that he's that far down the board.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I think you sold me, Bo and ax Shay finished
fifth in his Traveler's debut last year, so this course
did indeed suit him.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
And it paid me. It paid me last year. Top
five was a payout.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Ben Griffin, Yeah, I've got to bet him, Like he's
just so hot. He was in contention most of the
week at the US Open before falling out of the
hunt on Sunday and finishing tenth. Griffin now is four
straight top ten finishes and just seems to be turning
into a superstar before our eyes. I'm not going to
touch JJ spond this week. Bo hard to imagine he'll
be laser focused after a storybook win at the US Open,
(30:55):
and he's missed the cut in three of his last
four Travelers Championships.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I don't be surprised because typically when we thought of
JJ spawn, like I've seen him play in person at
the Barracuda up in Trucky. It's a positional golf course
under seven thousand yards, pretty fast right up a alley.
Spawn has what it takes to do well here. But
(31:20):
like you said, the hangover after winning a major that grueling,
Like if it was the PGA Championship or even after
the Masters and you go through that ordeal, there's a
little bit of hangover. Oakmont US Open, I think is
going to have most of these guys pretty haggard.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yes, what about long shots? Bo anyone worth a flyer?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Tom Kim amazingly as ninety to one. He's played well
here most of his career. He's played well at this
golf course. Runner up last year behind Scottie. Another great
short iron player who's found kind of a hot putter lately.
He's been a really bad putterer for a long time,
but coming that he's twentieth in this field in putting,
(32:03):
and in the one twenty five to one fifty bucket
he's first in this field, and one hundred to one
twenty five he's third in this field, fifth in total approach,
fourth in double bogie avoidance, which I haven't mentioned is
very important, and eleventh and birdies are better. Tom Kimm
at ninety to one is a steal. And then I'll
go another red hot, red hot golfer this year. We
(32:24):
haven't talked about him in a couple of weeks, but
Ryan Girard's going out one hundred to one, and I
love his his iron game. There's another guy who again
can go super low and in a seventy two man field,
no cut. I love having four rounds of Ryan Girard
looking at birdies all day.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I'll give you another Ryan. How about Ryan Fox and
ninety to one won the Canadian Open two weeks ago,
his second win of the year nineteenth at the US Open,
twentieth at the Memorial a few weeks ago. He's been
on a tear, so getting him at those long outs.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Can he hit anything other than a fade?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Because he's that's true. You have to work both ways
at TPC River Highlands, So we'll we'll find out about that.
Bo I'm gonna I'm gonna make you ill here. Brian
Harmon is eighty to one. He's not been in good
form in recent months, since winning the Valero Texas Open
and finishing third at the RBC Heritage back in April bought.
He has finished top ten at the Travelers in six
(33:19):
of the last seven years. Brian Harmon seems too hey.
It's a good short tour, good fit a bunter Like
Brian Harmon. He plays plays well on this track for
whatever reason, and I kind of like Thomas Dietrie at
one hundred and ten to one. He's played well lately.
He ranks one hundredth in strokes gain an approach, but
(33:40):
He's generally been worse on the long approach shots, and
he won't have many of those this week. All right,
bo who's on your early betting card for the Travelers?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Some guy named Scotty Scheffler plus two eighty, Lidwig Olberg
twenty five to one, Stepstraca thirty five to one. Full
blown aggressive crazy person ladder on actualabats seventy to one,
Tom Kim ninety to one, Ryan Gerard one hundred to one.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
All Right, I'm taking Keegan Bradley plus thirty five hundred,
Ben Griffin plus forty five hundred. I'm going to tail
you in Akshay and uh Brian Harmon for a top
ten at plus four fifty. Don't want to bet him
to win, but for top ten at plus four fifty,
I like those odds. Ryan Fox at ninety to one
and Thomas Dietree at one hundred and ten to one.
(34:25):
Now for our one and done picks, Boyd John Ram.
Last week he'd a solid showing time for seventh Rom
earned six hundred fourteen, four hundred and twenty three dollars
for bo I had Bryson d Schambeau. Bryson had been
terrific in recent majors, but he missed the cut at Oakmont,
laying a goose egg for me. Bo continues to clabber
me in the one and Done battle. He's at about
(34:46):
seven point six million. I'm at about three point four
million Europe first this week, Bo, who you got?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I've used all my top guys.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
This is tough.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Let's see. I will go with the guy I haven't
used yet, Amazing, and I'm gonna go deep and say
Tom Kim is gonna do it?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Tom Kim, Tom Kim.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it's risky ninety to one guy going into one
and done, but we're getting to that point of the season.
What we had seven weeks left. I'm gonna have to
start taking some chances with guys who haven't done well
this year.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I'm chaking Ryder Cup captain Kegan Bradley, Vermont native. He's
hopefully being in the Northeast lights a fire under him
this week and that's gonna do it. For this week's
Betting Pros PGA podcast, Please come join us again next
week when we'll be previewing the Rocket Classic in Detroit.
Until then, so long everyone, thanks for listening to the
(35:38):
Betting Pros Podcast. If you love the show.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
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Speaker 1 (35:52):
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