Travelers Championship First-Round Leader Tips: Steele can start fast

Each-way terms: 1/5 odds, 6 places

Weather forecast for TPC River Highlands: It's a sunny day with temperatures starting out in the 60s and peaking around 80 degrees in mid-afternoon. There's hardly a jot of wind for the first few hours of the golfing day although it will rise to around 7-8mph around 3pm.

First-round leader history:

2020 - MacKenzie Hughes (60)
2019 - Abraham Ancer, Ryan Armour, Bronson Burgoon, Zack Sucher, MacKenzie Hughes, K.H. Lee
2018 - Zach Johnson, Jordan Spieth (63)
2017 - Jordan Spieth (63)
2016 - Jerry Kelly, Vaughn Taylor, Andrew Loupe (64)
2015 - Bubba Watson (62)
2014 - Brendan Steele (62)

Strategy: Several players suggest it's easier to make fast starts in the morning but the p.m. wave edge it: eight of the last 14 R1 leaders had an afternoon tee-time. The weather forecast might just suit the morning wave slightly so I'll go for two early and one late.

Steele can show his mettle

Brendan Steele had made every cut in 2021 before finally having the weekend off after a 73-74 start at Torrey Pines.

However, sometimes the pressure valve is released when a long stretch is ended and hopefully he can press the reset button at one of his favourite venues.

Steele has no less than eight top 25s in his 10 appearances at TPC River Highlands and he's twice blitzed the course with 62s.

A second-round 62 helped him take sixth place last year while he opened with one in 2014 to hold the first-round lead.

A third place at the Honda Classic - he twice shot rounds of 65 - is Steele's standout result in his last six six events but he was 11th after day one of Memorial earlier this month and he's doing enough to make an impression in a market like this.

As a west coast guy he enjoys these poa annua greens and putts them well too: Steele ranked 1st for SG: Putting here in 2020.

Take the 07:45 starter at 95/1.

Troy merits a look

Troy Merritt was a player I stumbled across as a possible outsider in the outright market but I'm happy to play him here at 110/1.

The American loves a low score and showed some strong form in May with back-to-back finishes of tied seventh at the Byron Nelson and the Charles Schwab. In both of those events he closed with a 65.

After making the cut at Torrey Pines, he'll much prefer this easier test and Merritt logged an eighth place at TPC River Highlands in 2017.

He started out with a 65 that year to sit fourth after 18 holes and last year a second-round 64 put him in the top 10 at halfway.

Four of his last six openers in non-majors have been 68s so hopefully he can shave a few more off. His putter has been hot so that bodes well.

Merritt tees off at 08:05 in a nice group with Luke Donald and Zach Johnson.

Donald himself is also worth considering given some good scores in his last two events.

Side with Snedeker

Brandt Snedeker is another strong performer on poa annua greens and he's done well at this venue.

He's sprinkled plenty of low numbers at the Cromwell course, finishing in the top 15 three times and making six of his last seven cuts here.

Snedeker didn't play the US Open but prior to that he'd shot opening 66s in two of his previous three starts.

They came at the Byron Nelson Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge, the latter putting him in the top five after 18 holes.

With finishes of tied sixth, tied 11th and tied 17th in his last six events, the former Ryder Cup player is clearly showing some better form again and he does already have a first-round lead to his name this season after shooting a 65 on day one of the Houston Open.

Snedeker is my afternoon starter pick at 85/1. He sets out at 12:50.