2022 Travelers Championship: Top 10 Power Rankings at TPC River Highlands
The Travelers Championship is once again in its recently familiar post-U.S. Open position on the PGA Tour calendar.
What once used to be an undesirable spot to attract top talent has emerged as one of the best non-major championship weeks of the year.
Five of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking are part of the field of 156 coming to Cromwell, Connecticut, as well as half of the top 20.
This tournament debuted in 1952 and has been at TPC River Highlands since 1984. It’s a Pete Dye design that’s one of the shortest on the PGA Tour, measuring 6,844 yards for a par 70.
Seven of the 12 par-4s are listed at 410-450 yards on the card. It leads to a lot of approaches of 100-160 yards, so good short-iron players are ones to watch this week.
There can be some daunting visuals off the tee and on approach with blind shots a factor.
This is one of Dye’s more docile designs as far as challenges go.
The greens are bentgrass/poa annua. They tend to run fairly fast and can be tough to hold under the right conditions.
It was unseasonably cool in New England last week as we saw at the U.S. Open, but this week’s weather forecast looks to be in the 60s-80s with little to no rain expected, especially on the weekend.
Expect low scores. Double digits under par has been necessary to win every year since 1993. Fifteen or lower under par has been needed four of the last seven years.
Let’s dive into the top 10:
Tony Finau doesn’t have a sterling record at the Travelers Championship, but recent form makes the case for him to be in the top 10.
A missed cut at the U.S. Open last week was yet another major championship disappointment for the big hitter, but he at least has been reliable in the other events.
Mr. Runner Up has two of them in his last six starts.
He came up just a shot shy of Jon Rahm at the Vidanta Mexico Open and by two to Rory McIlroy at the RBC Canadian Open. It’s not like Finau’s falling to nobodies.
He also took T-4th at the Charles Schwab Challenge, giving him three top-fives and five made cuts in his last six starts. Not shabby.
Finau ranks 25th on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained per round (1.149) and is top-20 in SG off the tee, approach and tee to green.
The 32-year-old won’t get to display his driving distance much this week. However, shorter clubs off the tees should lead to more fairways. Finau is 18th in proximity from the fairway (30’4”). He’s also 10th in proximity from 150-175 yards (24’10”).
This will be his seventh trip to TPC River Highlands. He finished top-25 in his first three Travelers Championship appearances but has missed the cut each of the last three years.
In 2020, it was only by a shot after posting a respectable 68-69. He shot 67 on Friday last year, but an opening 76 is a lot to overcome to play the weekend at a birdie fest like this.
Finau hasn’t missed back-to-back cuts in a year. I see that trend continuing with a bounce-back effort this week in Cromwell.