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 sports 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 2026 Travelers Championship, which gets underway on Thursday in Connecticut.
The PGA Tour is going to be spending just about the rest of its summer east of the Mississippi River. Less than 150 miles to the north of Shinnecock Hills, many players will shift from the U.S. Open to Cromwell, Conn., this week for the Travelers Championship, the eighth and final Signature Event of the 2026 golf season. After that, it’s the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill., then across the pond for the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. The regular season concludes at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., and the FedExCup champion is crowned at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in late August. It is not until October that the Tour surfaces out west again for the Black Desert Championship in Southern Utah.
Back in April we spoke about the post-Masters exhale at Harbour Town and how the short trip from Augusta to Hilton Head Island, S.C., has to be a pleasant, almost vacation-like decompress. It feels similar this week, going from the incredibly difficult test that is a U.S. Open, to the more laid back, fan-friendly, Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, where the winning score proposition number is set 19 shots lower than what it was for Shinnecock last week. Players are guaranteed a paycheck here this week as well, as this is a 72-player, limited-field event with no 36-hole cut.
I would not call it a birdie-fest, but the average score over the last eight editions has been 18 under par, so I expect that will be close to what we get again this year. TPC River Highalnds is a Pete Dye design. It is a par 70 and relatively short by Tour standards at less than 6,850 yards. The fairways are narrow and tree-lined with thick rough providing a penal border. However, the fairways are not especially difficult to find as players will take shorter clubs off the tee, and the bombers have learned how to cut off a number of angles and soar over much of the trouble. The greens are smaller, Bentgrass/Poa Annua surfaces. Approach, hitting the greens in regulation, and putting have proven over the years to be the most valuable skill sets in winning this championship. I looked at all of this in addition to Birdies or Better, Scrambling, Strokes Gained: Around the Green, and Hole Proximity from 125-175 yards. Also, save for a couple of drivable par 4s, most of the 12 measure between 400-450 yards.
The course history here is pretty sticky. Guys that play well at the Travelers tend to do so on a regular basis. Keegan Bradley is the defending champion and also won in 2023. We know of the connection between Harbour Town and TPC Sawgrass — both Dye designs — and that extends to Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship) as well as East Lake Golf Club (Tour Championship). I used each of these courses this week as possible corollaries as well as TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic) and Oakdale Golf & Country Club (2023 Canadian Open).
It is interesting to note or consider how players perform the week after a major championship. This is more of the psychological handicap. Who is fatigued after being in contention and under tremendous pressure? Does it hurt or help if they made the cut? Will Sam Burns be emotionally drained this week after coming so close last week, or will he ride the momentum? Looking back at the Travelers over the last 10 years or so, it really is a bit of everything. Bubba Watson won here twice after missing the cut at the U.S. Open. Bradley missed the cut at the U.S. Open before his win here in 2023. Chez Reavie and Harris English had each finished third the week prior at the U.S. Open before winning here — and then there are a handful of winners that finished somewhere between 15th and 40th leading up to their victory at the Travelers.
Ludvig Aberg (20-1)
The young Swede was a very respectable 17th last week at Shinnecock and he finished in a flurry, shooting 66 on Sunday. For the championship, he gained strokes on the field in all the major categories. Two starts prior, Aberg was 17th at Colonial and prior to that he went 4-8-4 at Harbour Town, the Truist Championship, and the PGA Championship. He also finished fifth earlier this season at TPC Sawgrass and was eighth there back in 2024. It feels like he always enters the big events with so many expectations but I wonder if people are looking past him this particular week when it’s not a major. The price feels like maybe he is being overlooked a bit and often, that is the right time to jump in. He is one of the very best in this field off the tee, on approach, and on the par 4s. If his scrambling and work around the greens is solid this week, he could earn his third PGA Tour win.
Aaron Rai (50-1)
Speaking of overlooked, that looks like a pretty nice price on a guy who just won his first major less than two months agao. Rai took 11th last week at Shinnecock, his first major test since becoming a major champion — and that is a pretty impressive response. He too gained strokes on the field in all the primary categories and gained over a stroke on the field around the green. His ball striking is tremendous, he makes a lot of birdies, and he is No. 1 in this field over the last 20 rounds on the 400-450 yard par 4s. Rai has won at Sedgefield, finished seventh at the John Deere, and was third at Oakdale at the 2023 Canadian Open.
Eric Cole (100-1)
I am going back to Mr. Cole once again after coming oh-so-close at Colonial, and then what looked like a great start a few weeks ago in Canada, where he went from first-round leader to missed cut. He’s really been playing excellent golf for the past three months now. Over the last 20 rounds, Cole ranks top 15 in this field for SG: Approach, Around the Green, Hole Proximity, and is No. 1 in Birdie or Better Percentage. He’s been seventh before at the John Deere Classic and the Wyndham Championship, and finished sixth at Oakdale in 2023.
