CROMWELL, Connecticut – PGA Tour player commitments to the Travelers Championship started at the top this week.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world and 2022 Masters champion, is the first player to sign on for Connecticut’s biggest sporting event June 20-23 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.
Scheffler, who tied for fourth in 2023 behind Vermont native Keegan Bradley, will be back for the fifth consecutive year. The tournament again will be one of the PGA Tour’s eight “signature events” with a $20 million purse, $3.6 million first prize and 700 FedExCup points, as opposed to 500 awarded in non-signature events. A year ago, eight of the top 10 players in the world were in the field, and the presence of so many marquee players helped raise a tournament record of more than $3 million for more than 180 organizations, including local Boys and Girls Clubs, animal shelters and a wide range of charities focusing on everything from food insecurity to mental and physical health. That increased the charity total since Travelers became title sponsor in 2007 to more than $28 million for more than 900 local charities.
Scheffler, 27, has six PGA Tour victories and has made five starts this year, with his best finish coming in the WM Phoenix Open, where he tied for third.
“Getting a commitment from the top-ranked player in the world sets the perfect tone for this year’s world-class Travelers Championship,” Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer Andy Bessette said in a release. “Scottie has accomplished so much on the golf course, and he’s even more impressive off the course with the way he handles himself and treats everybody. With the best in the world coming to Connecticut, our fans are in for a spectacular week of golf.”
This year, players will be challenged by a TPC River Highlands course that has undergone several competitive enhancements, with new tee boxes, narrower fairways and smaller greens. They were in response to record low scores and some players, notably Rory McIlroy, saying the second-shortest course in the PGA Tour (6,962 yards) had become obsolete and too easy.
“The golf course designer and architects, the rules officials of the Tour, the words they use are ‘more competitive,’ ” Bessette said. “The player feedback we got has been positive.”
Some of the changes will include a hill to the right of the first fairway that has allowed errant tee shots to roll back onto the fairway has been flattened; a new tee box on the par-5 fifth hole has been extended; the fairway on the par-5 sixth hole has been narrowed; the tee box on the dogleg-right par-4 ninth hole, has been moved to the right, making the angle trickier, and the left back of the green has been pared; the green on the par-3 11th hole will be smaller; and rough has been added to hills around the 12th green.
The Northeast’s only major professional golf championship will also have improvements to the onsite experience for fans with upgraded venues and new concession areas.
“From Day One, we’ve pledged to make this a world-class event on the PGA Tour so that our fans, volunteers and the community can have a memorable experience and be proud of the Travelers Championship,” Bessette said. “The tournament has generated significant money for hundreds of charities and made a positive impact on all those who benefit from it.”
The field is expected to include between 70 and 80 players with no cut, compared to 156 with a 36-hole cut in the past, with the PGA Tour establishing eligibility criteria for signature events based on performance. Players qualify for this year’s tournament if they meet any of the following benchmarks: Top 50 in the 2023 PGA Tour FedExCup points standings through the Tour Championship; Top 30 Players in the Official World Golf Ranking through the U.S. Open the week before the Travelers Championship who are PGA Tour members not otherwise qualified; Aon Next 10, Top 10 FedExCup point earners from the Myrtle Beach Classic, Charles Schwab Challenge and RBC Canadian Open; and current-year tournament winners (full FedExCup points events).
Individual tickets for the tournament are scheduled to go on sale in April, while corporate packages are already available. For ticket information, tournament updates and announcements related to the player field, visit the tournament website.
Leave a Reply