This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The PGA Tour moves to Hartford this week, where Kevin Streelman's birdie run late in the final round last year makes him the defending champion. Here's our stats preview for the Travelers Championship.
History Lesson
Streelman beat K.J. Choi and Sergio Garcia by one. In 2013, Ken Duke beat Chris Stroud in a playoff while in 2012 Marc Leishman beat Charley Hoffman and Bubba Watson by one.
Our recommendation is Watson, a winner here (in 2010) and a PGA Tour winner this season in China, and finishes of T2 in Phoenix and third at Doral. Statistically he ranks eighth in strokes gained-tee to green and fourth in strokes gained-total.
Who is Not Playing
Jason Day, completely understandably, withdrew from the Travelers after his heroic effort last week at the U.S. Open to contend while batting vertigo. His next start is now expected to be the Open Championship.
Who is Playing
This is a pretty good field considering it's a week after a major, as it includes Keegan Bradley, Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Tim Clark (in his return from injury), Graham DeLaet, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Harris English, Tony Finau, Branden Grace, Billy Horschel, Morgan Hoffmann, Zach Johnson, Patrick Reed, Brandt Snedeker, Hudson Swafford, David Toms and more.
Our recommendations are Finau, Hoffmann and Snedeker.
Finau had his first moment on a big stage at Chambers Bay, getting a T14 finish that saw him have a late tee time in a major for the first time in his PGA Tour career.
The PGA Tour moves to Hartford this week, where Kevin Streelman's birdie run late in the final round last year makes him the defending champion. Here's our stats preview for the Travelers Championship.
History Lesson
Streelman beat K.J. Choi and Sergio Garcia by one. In 2013, Ken Duke beat Chris Stroud in a playoff while in 2012 Marc Leishman beat Charley Hoffman and Bubba Watson by one.
Our recommendation is Watson, a winner here (in 2010) and a PGA Tour winner this season in China, and finishes of T2 in Phoenix and third at Doral. Statistically he ranks eighth in strokes gained-tee to green and fourth in strokes gained-total.
Who is Not Playing
Jason Day, completely understandably, withdrew from the Travelers after his heroic effort last week at the U.S. Open to contend while batting vertigo. His next start is now expected to be the Open Championship.
Who is Playing
This is a pretty good field considering it's a week after a major, as it includes Keegan Bradley, Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Tim Clark (in his return from injury), Graham DeLaet, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Harris English, Tony Finau, Branden Grace, Billy Horschel, Morgan Hoffmann, Zach Johnson, Patrick Reed, Brandt Snedeker, Hudson Swafford, David Toms and more.
Our recommendations are Finau, Hoffmann and Snedeker.
Finau had his first moment on a big stage at Chambers Bay, getting a T14 finish that saw him have a late tee time in a major for the first time in his PGA Tour career. It continues a recent resurgence of good play for Finau, who has now gone T16-T19-T10-T8-T14 in his last five starts. With a card clinched for 2015-16, Finau can now focus on getting his first PGA Tour victory. He ranked 12th in putts per GIR and T19 in birdies at the U.S. Open last week.
Hoffmann, who made waves last year during the FedEx Cup Playoffs, has struggled this season (though he did finish fourth at Bay Hill and T9 at the RBC Heritage). He finished T27 last week at Chambers Bay, aided by an impressive final-round 66 on a day where low rounds were available. In the final round he hit just under 86 percent of his fairways and all 18 greens, impressive stuff from a relatively young player on a big stage.
Of the many players who made Sunday runs -- big names like Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott included -- one that got a bit ignored by Fox was Brandt Snedeker. He finished at 1-under, eighth place overall, after a final-round 68 that featured six birdies, including four straight to close out the front nine. For the week he hit nearly 77 percent of his fairways, and more than 72 percent of his greens, both solid numbers especially on a hard setup that was Chambers Bay.
And while we're not recommending him in this column, it would be a cool redemption story to see Grace get his first PGA Tour win after losing his chance at a major championship last week with the OB drive on the 16th hole on Sunday.
