Rory McIlroy rolls on in the no. 1 spot in the world ratings, and lots of fans remember his streak of seven straight top-five finishes from last winter. Still, there’s this kind of quiet, nagging thing going on in the background regarding his 32nd place finish in the season re-opening Schwab and then kind of a flop in 41st place last weekend at the Heritage, after he had seemingly played his way into contention on Saturday. So which McIlroy is going to be on display in the first event of the summer this weekend in Connecticut? The average pro who played the first and fourth rounds of the Heritage in even par, or the star who went 11-under in the middle two rounds?

Take your choice.

From this perspective, he remains a solid choice over Justin Thomas atop the list of main contenders to win the Travelers Championship on the TPC River Highlands course this weekend. For the third week in a row, it’s a strong field. If it seems like this is almost the same event that we’ve seen over the past two weeks, that’s because there are few changes in the field. Six of this week’s top 10 in the Hawley Ratings are on hand, with Patrick Cantlay being the only newcomer to the resumed season. Fourteen of the top 20 are here, and Paul Casey is the only one in the second 10 who is playing for the first time this month. Also we have 39 of the top 50 on hand, and believe it or not, there’s no one ranked between 21st and 50th who hasn’t already appeared.

One area where we have a fresh look, of course, is the course. Essays about TPC River Highlands at top100golfcourses.com indicate it’s a balanced course that shows no bias toward any particular style of play. The list of recent winners supports that – it goes from Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson to Chez Reavie and Ken Duke in the last decade. It has the quirky characteristic of being one of only two courses on the Tour that has sand saves as the statistic most strongly associated with success over recent years. Next-strongest success characteristics are three of the shots-gained stats – off the tee, in the approach, and around the green, in that order – again suggesting that a balanced game should be a good player characteristic.

Those whose stat profiles align with this set of stats represent a good cross-section of the game’s top players. At the top of the list are Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry, Thomas, Jon Rahm, Jason Day, Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson, and Collin Morikawa, in that order. McIlroy is just outside the top 10.

Looking just at the two June events, Daniel Berger, of course, has been the top performer. Berger won the Schwab and tied for third at the Heritage. Arguably the next best showings have been by Dechambeau, Abraham Ancer, Justin Rose, JT Poston, and Thomas. Each has two top-20 finishes. Some additional names you might want to consider are these who have outplayed their prior form most significantly in the last two weeks; that’s Corey Conners, Dylan Frittelli, Rory Sabbatini, Michael Thompson, and Peter Uihlein. All have at least one top-25 finish.

In other notes regarding the field, Hideki Matsuyama and Matt Kuchar are relaxing elsewhere after playing the RBC Heritage; Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, and Tiger Woods are continuing to sit out. Phil Mickelson, who turned 50 on June 16, will play his first event since becoming eligible for PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson played TPC River Highlands in 2019 after a 15-year absence. He missed the cut, far down the list.

And sorry about the Victor Perez comment last week. Well, we all hit a shank occasionally.