HARTFORD, Conn. – Twenty years ago, Connecticut’s annual stop on the PGA Tour was on life support. Buick had ended its title sponsorship, and local officials had to raise $4 million for a one-time “bridge plan” to keep Connecticut’s biggest sporting event alive.
Many folks couldn’t believe that such a major staple on the state sports calendar since its inception in 1952 as the Insurance City Open at Wetherfield Country Club would meet a sad demise.
But thankfully Travelers, an insurance giant that has been a tournament sponsor at some level from Day 1, stepped up to become title sponsor, forging the local dynamic duo of Andy Bessette and Nathan Grube. Largely due to their seemingly endless endeavors and efforts, the Travelers Championship will be one of only eight Signature Events on the PGA Tour for the third consecutive year in 2025.
Bessette, the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers, was the only major officer from a title sponsor to attend tournaments to recruit players for years. He was on a first-name basis with golf’s best as much as Grube, the knowledgeable and personable tournament director who often seems as if he could sell ice to an Eskimo.
“Nathan and I have been working together for 19 years because we had to go figure this out when we first took over,” said Bessette, whose company is the longest title sponsor to be part of the tournament. “It was very interesting, we had debt, we inherited debt, that was kind of off the schedule. The PGA Tour had killed the tournament, and we brought it back to life, so we had a lot of work to do for those first three or four years to get it back to the point where the players would believe us that we’re going to do what we said.”
Bessette said he and Grube wanted to be “world class” from the start.
“We wanted to be the best on the PGA Tour, and we wanted to have a tournament that everybody will have to go to watch the best golfers in the world,” Bessette said. “The tournament this year will be a lot of fun. It will be great. But why do we do it? It’s really simple. We do it because it’s great for charity. It’s really important to us. Last year we gave over $3.2 million to over 100 charities, and we do it because of the community.
“The pride, to this day, is people will come up and say thank you so much for saving the tournament. That’s getting kind of old because that was like 20 years ago, but it never gets old to see the pride that people have in this tournament. So between charity, pride, and it’s good for our brand, too, it’s great for the red umbrella to be a part of all this.”
The motto for Bessette and Grube has always been “the status quo is unacceptable” and it stems from author Michael LeBoeuf, who writes on business plans for companies.
“He basically has this quote that you should follow your customer, that it’s the best business plan you can have. Build your business plan from chasing your customer,” Grube said. “There has been something in the DNA since Travelers took over that everybody is our customer. You’re our customer in the room. The players are our customer. Our sponsors are our customer. And how do we give them what they want? The evolution of what has happened to the tournament has been us chasing our customer. The players have validated that. We’re the only tournament to get voted as the Players Favorite event two years in a row, and last year we were voted as the Most Fan First event.
“The PGA Tour travels around the country, and they look at all the events and say Travelers did it best for the fans. They listened to the fans. They gave them what they wanted, and they did it the best on the PGA Tour. That’s us. That’s media, sponsors, fans, everybody giving them what they want. So there is new stuff, but the why is we’re asking people what they want. What do you want to see when you come out here? What is the experience you want to have? What is your expectation? The player field is top of the list. We want to see the best players in the world. Travelers invests to make that happen.”
Grube said there also have been numerous advances on the property. After last year’s scene on the 18th hole (climate protesters stormed the green as winner Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim approached), security protocols have been reviewed and revised, though officials don’t talk specifics. A few new tweaks, a stone retainer fence visible from the clubhouse and a few dead trees removed near No. 2 are in the works, along with some new concessions, including a Tree House Brewery near No. 14.
“Fans are spending the day out here with their families,” Grube said. “Kids 15 and under are free. Your general admission ticket gets you into four free venues. New this year, we’re partnering, since we’re the only event in New England, with Tree House Brewery out of Massachusetts. They’re coming in, we’re building a treehouse. Safe, I swear. We’re covered by our title sponsor from a liability standpoint (he chuckles). But it’s another free fan venue that puts us up to four. On the (clubhouse) back deck, we have three new restaurants coming in. We’re going to be having Mexican food, a lobster shack, a few other things. We have a fan activation. Then that goes with the existing free fan venues we have.
“Our partners Hartford Healthcare have a venue down on 15th tee. It’s a full experience for the fans, so lots of new stuff to expect. Again, Travelers started this when they came on with an expectation of what’s new and what’s next. We know that the fans have that when they come out. We’d better deliver on it. We’d better deliver on, oh, look at that. Oh, look at that, because that’s the DNA of the event.”
Bessette said he, Grube and their staffs have never accepted the status quote because as soon as you do, you go in the opposite direction and lose.
“Athletes know that worldwide that you just never, ever stop trying to get better,” Bessette said. “That’s what’s driven us, and that’s why Nathan came up with the scheme of the Treehouse Brewery. They have a huge campus, and if you don’t drink beer, that’s okay. They do make sparkling water, which is really good. I buy a lot of that. It’s really good. So I think the things like that, the creativity to bring a treehouse here is phenomenal.”
A Signature Event has a $20 million purse, $3.6 million first prize, no 36-hole cut, increased FedExCup points (700) and most of the top-ranked players in the field.
“When the PGA Tour first came out with the qualifications for a Signature Event, nobody had to play,” Bessette said. “They qualified, but nobody had to come, so we worked hard for the first 16 years of the tournament building relationships with the players. I remember when Poppy was born to (Masters champion) Rory (McIlroy) and his wife, and I remember when Bennett was born to the Schefflers, we sent puzzle stools to both of them.
“What they are is like P-o-p-p-y, if you flip it over, all the letters fall out, and they have to spell their name. Somebody said to me the other day, I won’t name the player, but my child actually still uses it. He’s 12, and he still stands on it. That’s the kind of stuff we do. That’s what this is all about. It’s kind of like the Signature Events, and it’s one of the only sports you can come to see the top 10, 20, 30, 40 players in the world compete. Super Bowl, you see two great teams and a few other superstars. Same for every other team sport. But here you come to watch the absolute best, and we’ll have the top 72 this year.
“That’s why it’s so important to have a Signature Event and no cut so players are here for four days so fans can come out and really enjoy it for all four days and not have to be there Thursday or Friday because so-and-so may not make the cut. So I think a lot of the same reasons why we can raise more money for charity. We can have more pride in the community. And that’s super, super important to what we want to accomplish with the tournament.”
Since Travelers became title sponsor, the tournament has raised more than $31 million for more than 900 different charities. Bessette never envisioned being a Signature Event at the outset but has diligently worked with Grube to attain that status.
“I didn’t see Signature, but I always knew the athlete in me said I want to be the best and I’m going to do whatever it takes to be the best,” said Bessette, a UConn grad who was a hammer thrower on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. “That’s really important, right? If you say to yourself, I’m going to do whatever it takes to be the best and you’re working at it, and every time in the earlier days when (the late chairman and CEO at Travelers) Jay Fishman and I would talk about it. He’d say, let’s keep going, let’s keep going. Jay passed in 2016 but played a critical part in this tournament. Alan Schnitzer, our chairman and CEO, has been equally as supportive and tremendous, so when you get support from your coaches, the athlete keeps going, right?
“We go until you shut us off, whatever that means. We’ve never stopped, right Nathan? We’ve continued. From your perspective, I’m not sure what that all means, but we drive for perfection. We drive to be the best. We drive to be good partners, we drive to be great partners with each other, with our teams, but with the PGA Tour, and with all of you at the media because if nobody tells our story, we can’t possibly do what we do.”
When Dustin Johnson won in 2020 during the pandemic, there were only 23 people, including Bessette and Grube, around the 18th green when the champion received his check and trophy.
“How depressing that was, but without the media, that’s what you get,” Bessette said. “But with the media telling our story, whether it be from Worcester, from Boston, from New York, from New Jersey, this is worth the 21/2, 3-hour drive to come up and be a part of this, and that’s why it’s so special to us. We have the best players in the world competing against each other, and we’re doing it for charity, we’re doing it for pride in our community. We’re also doing it for the fans and for everybody to come out and have a great time.”
Earlier this week, Grube enjoyed one of his “great times” of each year.
“We got to kick off our fund-raising time, and we had stories of what they do, who they serve,” Grube said. “That was, by far, one of the most … just gives you chills. We’re going to raise huge amounts of money for them, and to hear what they do and to hear the lives that are impacted by this, the people that we’re serving have no idea what the Travelers Championship is, but their lives are being monumentally shifted and changed and impacted and affected by what we’re doing.
“If that doesn’t motivate you to do better, like for me and for Andy, nothing will. When you’re sitting out here and hearing these stories, it just gives you a reason. That is powerful to see the end result of what you do.”
The tournament is already assured of another stellar field as early entries have included the top six players in the world rankings: No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 and Masters champion Rory McIlroy, No. 3 and 2022 Travelers and 2024 Open Championship titlist Xander Schauffle, No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 5 Justin Thomas and No. 6 Ludwig Aberg. Others committed include No. 9 Viktor Hovland, No. 15 and 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and No. 19 and 2023 Travelers winner Keegan Bradley of Vermont.
www.travelerschampionship.com.
