Travelers Championship: Dark Horse Candidates at TPC River Highlands

Phil Mickelson – 50/1

Phil heads to The Travelers after a disappointing week at Pebble Beach. He finished T-52nd, and shot over par in three of his four rounds. Definitely not the way that Phil wanted to play Pebble, his last realistic shot at winning the U.S. Open at that particular course. It won’t be played there again until 2027, when Phil will be 56 or 57 years old.

He heads to TPC River Highlands looking to redeem himself a little bit. It’s always hard to count out lefty, as he is still capable of turning it on at any tournament he enters. Barely sliding into the dark horse category, it’s hard to skip over Phil at 50/1 odds.

It definitely is going to take a little more than it used to for Phil. Looking at his strokes gained, you can see that his entire game has been… well, incredibly and consistently mediocre this year. His best SG is around the green, where he is 78th. His worst is putting, which is 121st. Nothing is great, and nothing is awful.

Until you look at his driving distance and driving accuracy, that is. Off the tee, Phil is hitting his self-proclaimed bombs, averaging 17th in distance. Unfortunately, he is trading his accuracy to get that distance. Phil barely hits half of the fairways that he plays in, ranking 203rd on Tour.

Phil is hoping to turn back the clock, as he actually won this event; back when it was called the Canon Greater Hartford Open, back-to-back in 2001 and 2002. I feel we may see some vintage lefty this week, and he slots in as my first dark horse candidate to watch at The Travelers.