PGA DFS Perfect Lineup: Travelers Championship (DraftKings)

The Travelers Championship closes out the PGA Tour's run of signature events at TPC River Highlands, and it is a great week to test how you actually build a DraftKings golf lineup. On this week's Stokastic Perfect Lineup PGA show, Ben Rasa locked in three golfers he trusts, then handed the build to Josh Engelman and the Stokastic single lineup simulator to fill the rest of the roster and see how high the projected ROI could climb. Below is the full build, the optimal six the Sims produced, and the method you can copy for any slate. For Ben's full tier-by-tier read on the field, see the companion Travelers Championship PGA DFS picks.

In Summary

• Ben Rasa's three anchors: Tommy Fleetwood ($10,300), Ben Griffin ($8,200), and Ryan Gerard ($7,000) — one reliable mid-priced star, one in-form $8K play, and one value golfer for salary relief.
• The Sims completed the build with Sam Burns ($9,300), Aaron Rai ($8,000), and Kristoffer Reitan ($7,200), spending all $50,000 of the DraftKings cap.
• That lineup graded out at a 36% Sim ROI and a 31% cash rate when Josh ran it through the simulator against the field.
• Adding 5% randomness rotated the three Sim-filled spots into a Patrick Cantlay / Shane Lowry trio and a 21% projected ROI, showing how to test different structures around the same core.
• The repeatable method: lock your core, let the simulator complete the lineup, then add randomness and rotate until the build looks right.

Watch the Video

Watch on YouTube

Ben Rasa and Josh Engelman build the perfect Travelers Championship lineup live in the Stokastic single lineup simulator in the show above.

Ben Rasa's Three Anchors

Ben started the build with three golfers, leaving the rest of the lineup open for the Sims to optimize around. The Travelers is a no-cut signature event with roughly 70 golfers, so every player gets four full rounds, and that shapes who is worth trusting at each salary tier.

Tommy Fleetwood ($10,300) is the first click in. He has been reliable every week and was right there at the US Open again without quite getting into contention, flirting with the front page of the leaderboard. He arguably should have won this event last year, and he is gaining strokes across the board right now. Just as important for roster construction, the price gap between Fleetwood and Scottie Scheffler frees up real salary for the rest of the lineup. The one honest concern is his history of closing out tournaments, but the game is in good shape.

Ben Griffin ($8,200) is the kind of name that may not be on your radar. He finished 17th last week at the US Open and is gaining with the irons and around the green in three straight starts, a combination you do not see often. TPC River Highlands sets up well for him because it is not overly demanding off the tee. The big if is the putter — if he strings it together with the flat stick, he can pay off that salary easily, and he feels a little lost in the low $8K range.

Ryan Gerard ($7,000) closes the core with value and salary relief. He was cut at the US Open, but Shinnecock and River Highlands are very different tests. Just a few weeks ago he was runner-up at the Memorial, where he played excellent golf and consistently gained with the irons. A non-cut, roughly 70-man field still helps players like him, and at a flat $7,000 he fits a lot of different builds. He proved at the Memorial he can compete with this caliber of field.

Why the core works: the price gap between Fleetwood and Scottie Scheffler is what frees up enough salary for two strong plays in Griffin and Gerard. Anchor the value first, then build around it.

Letting the Stokastic Sims Complete the Lineup

With Fleetwood, Griffin, and Gerard loaded, that left about $8,100 per spot for the final three golfers. This is where the single lineup simulator earns its keep: instead of guessing the last three names, you click Complete This Lineup and the Sims return the optimal trio that fits the remaining salary.

The first run came back balanced: Sam Burns ($9,300), Aaron Rai ($8,000), and Kristoffer Reitan ($7,200). Add those to the core and the build uses every dollar of the DraftKings cap.

Golfer	Salary	Source
Tommy Fleetwood	$10,300	Ben Rasa core
Ben Griffin	$8,200	Ben Rasa core
Ryan Gerard	$7,000	Ben Rasa core
Sam Burns	$9,300	Sims completion
Aaron Rai	$8,000	Sims completion
Kristoffer Reitan	$7,200	Sims completion
Total	$50,000

From there, Josh ran the lineup simulation, which tests the full six against the projected player pool. The starting grade was a 36% Sim ROI with a 31% cash rate — a solid baseline straight out of the gate, and only step one of the process.

Want to run this exact build yourself? The single lineup simulator that produced this lineup is part of the Stokastic PGA DFS package. Use code PERFECT30 for 30% off any Stokastic PGA package and complete your own lineups in seconds: Get 30% off Stokastic PGA.

Rotating the Core: Add a Little Randomness

A 36% ROI baseline is a starting point, not a finish line. The second step is to clear the auto-filled spots and add a small amount of randomness so the simulator hunts for different structures around the same three anchors.

Clearing the build and adding just 5% randomness produced a completely different trio in the three open spots while keeping Fleetwood, Griffin, and Gerard. This version brought in Patrick Cantlay and Shane Lowry as part of a different high-salary structure that left about $300 on the table. Running that lineup through the simulator graded it at a 21% Sim ROI — lower than the first build, but a genuinely different 3-on-3 structure off the same core.

That is the point of the exercise. Clearing and clicking Complete This Lineup again returned yet another build, with some overlap from earlier runs (Aaron Rai stuck around) plus Rickie Fowler mixing in. Each pass gives you a fresh, salary-legal combination to compare, so you are choosing between optimized lineups rather than typing names into empty boxes.

How to Build Your Own Perfect Lineup

The workflow Ben and Josh ran is simple to repeat on any PGA slate:

1. Lock your core. Pick the two or three golfers you trust most and load them first, the way Ben did with Fleetwood, Griffin, and Gerard. Anchoring around players you believe in keeps your build honest.
2. Let the simulator complete it. Click Complete This Lineup and let the Stokastic Sims fill the open spots with the optimal salary-legal trio, then run the lineup simulation to see your Sim ROI and cash rate.
3. Add randomness and rotate. Clear the filled spots, add a few percent of randomness, and re-run to generate alternative structures around your core. Compare the ROI on each and choose the build that fits the contest you are entering.

The Sims do the heavy lifting because they simulate the contest tens of thousands of times rather than ranking a single projected score, so the lineups you compare are built on win probability, not one static projection. You can start with the free Stokastic DFS Sims and unlock the full PGA tool set, projections, and ownership through Stokastic+. For the latest projections board updated through lock, check the PGA DFS picks hub.

FAQ

What is the Stokastic single lineup simulator?

It is a Stokastic Sims tool that lets you lock in the golfers you want, auto-complete the rest of the roster within the DraftKings salary cap, and simulate that lineup against the field to see its projected ROI and cash rate before you enter.

What was the perfect Travelers Championship DFS lineup on the show?

Ben Rasa's core of Tommy Fleetwood ($10,300), Ben Griffin ($8,200), and Ryan Gerard ($7,000), completed by the Sims with Sam Burns ($9,300), Aaron Rai ($8,000), and Kristoffer Reitan ($7,200). That build used all $50,000 and graded at a 36% Sim ROI.

Why did the projected ROI drop when randomness was added?

Randomness trades some projected value for a different lineup structure. The 5% randomness build came in at a 21% Sim ROI versus 36% for the optimal completion, which is the cost of differentiating your roster. Whether that trade is worth it depends on the contest you are entering.

How do I get the Stokastic PGA DFS tools?

The single lineup simulator, Sims, projections, and ownership are all part of the Stokastic PGA package. Code PERFECT30 takes 30% off, and you can start with the free Sims first to see how the workflow runs.

The Bottom Line

The perfect-lineup process is not about one magic roster. It is about anchoring a core you trust, letting the Stokastic Sims complete and grade the build, then rotating around that core until you find the structure that fits your contest. Ben's three anchors plus the Sims' completion got to a 36% projected ROI in two clicks, and every randomized pass after that gave another optimized option to weigh.

Run it yourself this week: code PERFECT30 gets you 30% off any Stokastic PGA DFS package, including the single lineup simulator and full Sims. Start building your perfect lineup.