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Fantasy golf picks: What will Brooks Koepka do for an encore?
Streeter Lecka
Following his U.S. Open win in 2017, Brooks Koepka promptly flew to Vegas to celebrate and didn't tee it up again until the British Open. This year, he's taking a different approach. Koepka boarded a private plane at Shinnecock Hills after his second major victory, but he only made a brief detour home before returning to the northeast for this week's Travelers Championship. That doesn't mean you should plug him into your fantasy golf lineup. Koepka's not the worst play at TPC River Highlands, but combine the distractions of winning another major with playing the percentages (he still only has ONE PGA Tour win other than his two U.S. Open titles somehow), and I'm leaving him on the bench. Here's who I'm taking for my fab foursome at the Travelers instead:
Patrick Reed: After a close call at Shinnecock Hills, Reed returns to a tournament where he's finished T-11 and T-5 the past two years. Plus, there's this:
Then again, when does this guy not play angry?
Daniel Berger: The man on the opposing end of that bunker dagger delivered by Jordan Spieth in last year's playoff, Berger is also coming off his best finish at a major championship. Actually, Berger's T-6 at Shinnecock is his best finish of the season, but we think he could be turning a corner. Scrambling has held him back, but that won't be as important this week with greens that will actually get watered every night.
Webb Simpson: Webb has never missed a cut in eight starts at TPC River Highlands, but more importantly, he's still playing some great golf after his win at TPC Sawgrass last month. Simpson finished T-10 at the U.S. Open and the man whose career was supposedly in jeopardy after the anchor ban went into effect ranks eighth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained/putting.
Paul Casey: The man who took down Tiger at the Valspar was kind of forgotten about after a back injury forced him to withdraw from the Players, but he looked to be in good form in his return at Shinnecock with a T-16 finish. Casey has a scoring average of just over 67 at TPC River Highlands to go with a playoff loss in 2015 and a T-5 last year. At 13th in strokes gained/tee-to-green, he doesn't need to roll in too many putts to contend again.
Good luck in whatever fantasy format you're playing, and please have a listen to our U.S. Open wrap-up podcast in which we break down Brooks going back-to-back, Dustin Johnson's disappointing finish, and of course, whatever Phil Mickelson was doing at Shinnecock Hills: