Holding a PGA Tour Signature event the week after the most draining, hand-wringing and jaw-dropping U.S. Open in two decades feels like a mandatory work meeting being called for 8 a.m. after a bachelor party in Las Vegas. Righteous headaches abound—and Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have two of the worst of them.
Scheffler because he looked befuddled, pedestrian and occasionally lost over four rounds at Pinehurst No. 2 in which he was never a contender. McIlroy because he missed two short putts over the final three holes that cost him his first major championship in 10 years. And everyone else? Because bounding, beaming U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau will take his victory lap in a LIV Golf event in Nashville.
Pass the Advil, indeed.
For sports bettors, the picture got a little clearer on Monday when McIlroy announced he was skipping this week’s Travelers Championship, and every other event until the Scottish Open in mid-July. No surprise, given his inexplicable meltdown at Pinehurst promises to leave a scar that won’t heal overnight. But the wagering spotlight at TPC River Highlands remains firmly on Scheffler, who opened as odds favorite in the Nutmeg State despite four rounds over par last week.
2024 Travelers Championship Odds: Who Is Favored?
| Golfer | Odds |
|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | +375 |
| Xander Schauffele | +750 |
| Collin Morikawa | +1200 |
| Ludvig Aberg | +1400 |
| Viktor Hovland | +1900 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +2000 |
| Russell Henley | +2500 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +2500 |
| Tony Finau | +2900 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +3000 |
| Sam Burn | +3300 |
| Sahith Theegala | +3300 |
Odds as of June 19
PGA Tour Travelers Championship Best Bets
Xander Schauffele to Win, +750
The PGA champion showed all kinds of grit by closing with a 68 at Pinehurst and finishing the U.S. Open at 1-under, pretty stout in an event where just eight guys were under par. While Schauffele’s numbers aren’t quite to Scheffler’s level, he’s still been on a fantastic run over the past month—second at the Wells Fargo, win at the PGA, T8 at The Memorial and T7 at Pinehurst, all of them on big-boy golf courses. This stretch has exorcised the idea that Schauffele can’t finish strong, and now he enters an event where he won in 2022 and has been top-20 in four of five career starts.
Hideki Matsuyama Top-5 Finish +500
While the former Masters champion has been in contention almost every week in 2024, his solo sixth at the U.S. Open—which closed with three straight rounds of 70 or better—really got your attention. Since his victory at the Genesis Invitational in February, Matsuyama has been 12th or better in six of eight starts. He heads to TPC River Highlands on the heels of two straight top 10s (with a T8 at The Memorial preceding his effort at Pinehurst), and he finished T13 last season in his first career appearance in the Travelers.
Corey Conners Top-10 Finish +290
An uneven early season has given way to a very good late spring for Conners, who has a penchant for playing his best in big events. The Canadian fired three rounds of 70 or better at Pinehurst to finish T9 at the U.S. Open, which followed a tie for 20th at The Memorial. He closed with back-to-back 67s to place sixth at the Canadian Open (arguably his most important non-major of the season), and was T13 at both the Wells Fargo and The Players. Over his past four starts Conners has carded just two rounds higher than 71, and he carries his moderate hot streak into a Travelers Championship where he finished T9 a season ago.
PGA Tour Travelers Championship Betting Tips
While Chris Kirk won The Sentry, the limited-field PGA Tour season opener involving just 59 players in Hawaii, every other Signature event since then has been claimed by a major champion: Wyndham Clark (Pebble Beach), Matsuyama (Genesis Invitational), McIlroy (Wells Fargo Classic) and Scheffler (Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, and Memorial). That list of winners speaks volumes about the caliber of player who trends to win these stacked-field, Signature tournaments, of which the Travelers is the last on the 2024 calendar.
So indeed, these events have proven the nearly exclusive domain of the big boys, a fact that shouldn’t be lost on sports bettors this week. And that brings us to Scheffler, who’s been better in Signature tournaments than anyone else. His average finish in the no-cut events is fourth, which includes victories in three of the six in which he’s competed (he missed the Wells Fargo due to the birth of his son). His track record in these events is awesome, all of it burnished by the T4 he posted in Cromwell last season—which included rounds of 63, 63, and 65.
But Scheffler hasn’t yet had to rebound from a performance like his T41 at the U.S. Open, in which he looked nothing like his usual self. TPC River Highlands is hardly Pinehurst—Keegan Bradley won at 23-under last season—but once again we’re asking Scheffler to flip the switch. Last time he had to do that, following the saga of his police encounter at the PGA, he got out of the gate very slowly at the Charles Schwab. He still finished T2, but Scheffler is often such an overwhelming odds favorite that winning is the only result presenting any value to sports bettors.
That’s again the case this week, where a Scheffler top-five opened with a negative moneyline (-225). Hey, there are no bad bets on Scottie Scheffler, who’s been the best golfer of 2024 by far. One disappointing U.S. Open doesn’t change that. But if there’s a week to look elsewhere, and perhaps back another A-lister carrying far more value for your wagering dollar? This week at the Travelers, where lots of guys will go deep under par, may be it.
