Value Report: Travelers Championship

It had to be quite the spectacle in the mind of two-time major champion Wyndham Clark, as it seemed the entire property was clearly rooting for him to have the biggest collapse in U.S. Open history. But after blitzing the late wave into sunset on Thursday evening, it was a run of gutsy par saves over the next 54 holes that proved to be enough at the ever-challenging Shinnecock Hills, which tests your mental fortitude as much as it does your physical. It takes some stones to play the way he did in that arena, and truly full kudos to pulling it off, as we’ve seen so many falter in those moments typically with full crowd support. He may now be the heel of the PGA Tour, which could bring out even more of the best of his golf game, so it’ll be very interesting to see how it keeps rolling for Wyndham! Also, I have to give an insane shout-out to TeeJay, who picked up his second million in back-to-back majors, taking down the Mega Milly while absolutely owning the sims yet again. Congrats to you, my friend!

It was an interesting week for the Value Report at the U.S. Open, with some clear highlights and lowlights. Starting with the good, Tom Kim legit had a chance to win the U.S. Open on the back nine on Sunday, as he had gotten to -2 with two to go. But at $6,200, the solo third was way more than enough to pay off at low ownership, making him one of the better plays of the entire year when it mattered most. Next, I’ll side with Dustin Johnson, who was tied for 11th in DraftKings scoring despite the 32nd-place finish on the week. That split really emphasizes how much birdie rate can matter at a low-scoring event, and DJ really threw away his chance at another major top 10 with too many big numbers on the card. Following him would be the only other made cut, Jackson Koivun, who rounded out his final event as an amateur. There were questions about whether or not he’d be popular, given how much has been discussed about his Auburn dominance, rivaling any amateur we’ve seen over this past decade. But with so many names to pick from in a major championship, it was clear we had a great spot to push in. He was steady throughout the bag and will immediately step in as a top-end player on Tour starting next week. On the poor side, it has to begin with Cam Smith. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me — that’s exactly how I feel with him. You could feel the ownership rising due to the common-man take after his PGA Championship efforts, and at an event that demands strong ball striking, it brought on too much risk banking on short-term efforts when we know the type of long-term player Smith is in those categories. Kristoffer Reitan was just as disappointing though, dropping off sharply the past two weeks after his run in April and May. I’ll give him an extended leash though, especially as we enter a couple of events in Europe. Then the Harry Hall wind experiment went horrific, as he was literally one of the worst players in the entire field, while the speculative play, Lucas Herbert, just missed out on the weekend despite some really good scoring efforts in the two rounds.

We’re now on to the Travelers Championship, which still brings the juice despite being a Signature Event the week after a major. It kicks off the Fantasy Golf World Championship as well, which will cut down from 200 to 100 this week, so I’ll have a bit of a cash-game lens on this week with two teams in there. But it won’t impact the large-field thoughts, as prize pools are aplenty, and with a sharp change in course style compared to wide-open Shinnecock, it opens up avenues for quite a few players down the board. Sadly, the ETR crew isn’t running back our Payne Stewart bit for this year’s event, but we need to get another one on the books, as I was just reminiscing through the awesome trip it was to good ole West Haven a year ago. Let’s run it back with a big week here as we hit a great stretch of golf leading into the final major of the year!