The focus this week on the PGA Tour was CEO Brian Rolapp’s announcement that the tour will introduce a two-tiered competitive model beginning in 2028, meaning more events with elite fields on the newly named “Championship Series” and a “Challenger Series” for the rest.
Players likely hope this week’s event retains that signature status. TPC River Highlands has long been the tour’s post-U.S. Open stop, and players are gearing up for a low-scoring but not flaccid test of golf at the Travelers Championship starting Thursday in Cromwell, Conn.
“This golf course I think is interesting in a sense of you hit some different clubs off the tee, there’s some strategy involved, but you got to show up and make birdies,” 2024 champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said. “When you look at the closing stretch on this golf course as well, especially if you’re in contention on Sunday, you’re not going to be able to just limp in. You got to go out there and you got to make birdies and hit some really, really great shots in order to win this tournament.”
Rory McIlroy is taking the week off, but most of the PGA Tour’s other stars headed up to Connecticut from Long Island, where Wyndham Clark nearly lost a six-shot advantage on Sunday at the U.S. Open before pulling out the win, his second at that major in four years.
Clark didn’t think about skipping the Travelers to bask in his victory.
“I’ve been playing amazing. I finally started putting good,” Clark said. “I had been hitting it pretty good all year, and finally making putts. That’s kind of brought me back to playing good golf. All this is building great momentum for the rest of the year. Especially this week, it’s one of my favorite weeks, they treat us amazing, it’s where I got my first Tour start.”
Keegan Bradley has won two of the past three Travelers titles, including last year when he rallied from three shots down with four holes to play to beat Englishman Tommy Fleetwood. That win also fueled the argument that he should call his own name as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, which he ultimately decided not to do.
A native of Vermont, Bradley considers this his “hometown” event, as it’s as far into New England as the PGA Tour currently goes.
“I feel a real responsibility to represent golf in this region because there’s not many of us playing the tour,” Bradley said. “So I feel a real responsibility to represent the area at the best (level) that I can. So when I come here I want to win the tournament. I want to show, you know, that I can still come out here and compete and win. Then for me, this year hasn’t been my best year, so I need FedEx Cup points, so coming in here I need to have a nice week.”
Bradley finished 15 under for the week last year at the par-70, 6,844-yard course, a far cry from the tournament record of 23-under 257 he shot in 2023.
Meanwhile, Fleetwood did quite all right for himself despite not finishing off that victory, as he went on to win the Tour Championship and play on the winning side of the Ryder Cup.
“I was still having a relatively solid season. Then all of a sudden it was nice to play some great golf and build some confidence from that,” Fleetwood said. “Yeah, I would have loved to have finished a different way, but fair play to Keegan for the way he finished. … I do feel like it was a springboard and it was the start of what was an amazingly strong finish to the season for me. So good memories here, it’s a course that I like.”
There are 72 players in the field and there will be no 36-hole cut — a facet of the signature events that the PGA Tour will do away with come 2028.
