There were a lot of mixed reviews on the U.S. Open last week, both from a course and a setup perspective. Ultimately, there was a great leaderboard on Sunday, and Wyndham Clark outlasted the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Rickie Fowler. I was not on Clark myself, but huge congrats to anyone who bet him outright.
We now turn our attention to the 2023 Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut. This has always been one of my favorite non-major venues, and this year we get to see it as a designated event. This is the strongest field to ever tee it up at TPC River Highlands, which is a Pete Dye design that measures only 6,852 yards.
Like most Dye designs, there is less of an emphasis on the driver at TPC River Highlands. There are only two par-5s on the course, and there are quite a few less-than-driver holes as the landing areas off the tee are about 37 yards wide on average. The combination of clubbing down and wide fairways leads to a very high driving accuracy percentage here each year.
The greens on this course are small (5,000 square feet on average) and feature Bentgrass. They are tiered, which places a big emphasis on iron play. A large percentage of approach shots will come from 125 to 175 yards, so I don't mind taking a look at proximity numbers from those specific ranges. These greens are typically easy to hit on average, which makes around the green play a little less important than most weeks.