Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated 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 begins Thursday in Connecticut.
The PGA Tour will spend most of the rest of its summer east of the Mississippi River. Less than 150 miles north of Shinnecock Hills, many players will relocate from the US Open to Cromwell, Conn., this week for Travelers ChampionshipThe 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, NC, and the FedExCup champion is crowned at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in late August. It’s not until October that the Tour heads west again for the Black Desert Championship in Southern Utah.
Back in April we talked about the post-Masters spirit in Harbor Town and how the short trip from Augusta to Hilton Head Island, SC, should be a nice, almost vacation-like decompression. It feels similar this week, going from the incredibly tough test that is a US Open to the more relaxed, fan-friendly, Travelers’ Championship at River Highlands TPCwhere the winning score proposal number is set 19 strokes lower than it was for Shinnecock last week. Players are guaranteed a paycheck here this week as well, as this is a 72-player, limited-field, no-cut 36-hole event.
I wouldn’t call it a bird party, but the average score in the last eight editions has been 18 under, so I expect it to be close to what we get again this year. TPC River Highlands is a Pete Dye design. It’s a par 70 and relatively short by Tour standards at less than 6,850 yards. The fairways are narrow and tree-lined, with thick hedges providing a penal boundary. Fairways aren’t particularly hard to find, though, as players will take shorter clubs off the tee and hitters have learned how to cut a number of angles and fly over most of the trouble. Greens are smaller, Bentgrass/Poa Annua surfaces. Approach, hitting greens in regulation and putting have proven over the years to be the most valuable skills to win this championship. I looked at all of these except Birdies or Better, Scrambling, Strokes Gained: Around the Green, and Hole Proximity from 125-175 yards. Also, save for a few drivable par 4s, most 12s are between 400-450 yards.
The course history here is pretty sticky. Guys who play well in Travelers tend to do so regularly. Keegan Bradley is the defending champion and also won in 2023. We know of the connection between Harbor Town and TPC Sawgrass — both Dye designs — and that extends to Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship) as well as East Lake Golf Club (Tournament Championship). I used each of these courses this week as possible scores, 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 a psychological barrier. Who is tired after being in strife 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 US Open. Bradley missed the cut at the US Open before his win here in 2023. Chez Reavie and Harris English had each finished third the previous week at the US Open before winning here – and then there are a handful of winners who finished somewhere between 15th and 40th leading up to their win at the Travelers.
Ludwig 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 won field goals in all major categories. Two starts ago, Aberg was 17th at the Colonial, and before that he went 4-8-4 at Harbor Town, the Truist Championship and the PGA Championship. He also finished fifth earlier this season at TPC Sawgrass and was eighth there in 2024. It feels like he always goes into big events with so much expectation, but I wonder if people are seeing him this particular week when it’s not a big one. Price seems like he is being neglected a bit and often, this is the right time to jump. If his scrambling and work around the greens are strong this week, he could claim his third PGA Tour victory.
Aaron Ray (50-1)
Speaking of skipping, that seems like a pretty good price for a guy who just earned his first degree less than two months ago. Rai finished 11th last week at Shinnecock, his first major Test since becoming a major champion – and that’s a pretty impressive response. He also won by a stroke in all majors and won by more than a stroke around the green. His ball-striking is outstanding, he makes a lot of birdies, and he is the no. 1 in this field over the last 20 rounds on 400-450 yard par 4s. Rai has won at Sedgefield, finished seventh at John Deere and was third at Oakdale at the 2023 Canadian Open.
Aaron Rai at the 2026 PGA Championship.
Getty Images
Eric Cole (100-1)
I will return to Mr. Cole once again after coming very close at Colonial, and then what looked like a great start a few weeks ago in Canada where he went from first round lead to missing the cut. He’s really been playing great golf for the last three months. Over the last 20 rounds, Cole ranks 15th in the field for SG: Approach, Around the Green, Hole Proximity and is the no. 1 in Birdie or Better Percentage. He has previously been seventh in the John Deere Classic and Wyndham Championship, and finished sixth at Oakdale in 2023.
Jackson Suber (200-1)
I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. We had a close loss to Cole in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge and two weeks later in Canada, we had Suber in the lead on Sunday with eight holes to play – only to lose that too. Suber missed the cut last week at Shinnecock, but current form has been excellent with two top-5 finishes in his last four starts, and it shows how high he ranks statistically in the field over the last 20 rounds. He’s certainly a long shot, and I realize this is a stronger field than what we saw in Canada, but the field is also half the size and yet Suber’s odds are even higher than the 175-1 we had a few weeks ago in Toronto. The way he’s going, he’s worth a shot to be in the mix again on Sunday.
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