The First Look: Travelers Championship

With the U.S. Open now in the rearview, the PGA TOUR’s best head to Connecticut for the final Signature Event of the season – the Travelers Championship.

TPC River Highlands has been the site of plenty of excitement over the last few years, including an emotional homegrown victory from New England native Keegan Bradley a year ago.

With the TOUR’s best in Connecticut, the Olympics field set and the race to make the Presidents Cup teams firmly in the spotlight, we could be heading for an all-time week at the Travelers Championship.

“This is as good as it could get. I don’t know any other way to say it,” tournament director Nathan Grube told CT Insider about the field strength in 2024. “It feels like this version of the Travelers Championship has been 17 years in the making.”

With all the TOUR’s top-ranked players heading to the Travelers Championship, here’s everything else you need to know:

FIELD NOTES: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler looks to bounce back after his week at the U.S. Open. After a closing 74 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and rounds of 71-74-71-72 to start the U.S. Open, it was Scheffler’s first time shooting five straight over-par rounds. However, Scheffler, who has won five times already this season, continues to lead dozens of key statistical categories on TOUR – and finished T4 at the Travelers last season… Keegan Bradley looks to become the first golfer to go back-to-back at the Travelers Championship since Phil Mickelson in 2001-02. Bradley has had two runners-up this year, including a playoff loss at the Sony Open in Hawaii… World No. 2 Xander Schauffele – winner of the PGA Championship and 2022 champion at TPC River Highlands – returns to action at the Travelers. Schauffele has 11 top-10 finishes this season in 15 events, including four in a row and is having a tremendously complete campaign so far in 2024, sitting second in Strokes Gained: Total… All the TOUR’s top stars are set to tee it up at the Travelers, including two-time winner this season Rory McIlroy, reigning FedExCup champ Viktor Hovland, along with Ludvig Åberg, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Max Homa – all ranked in the top-10 in the world… The field is currently at 69 players, and there will be no cut… Keep an eye on the Presidents Cup standings as we inch closer to this year’s competition in Montreal, Quebec. Along with Scheffler, Schauffele, Morikawa and Homa, Wyndham Clark and Sahith Theegala – both in the field at the Travelers – are inside the automatic top-six spots for Team USA. Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day, Tom Kim, Byeong Hun An, Sungjae Im and Nick Taylor are the top six on the international side (and are also all in the field in Connecticut).

SPONSOR EXEMPTIONS: Michael Thorbjornsen will make his professional debut at the Travelers Championship. Thorbjornsen finished No. 1 in PGA TOUR University ranking in May, earning PGA TOUR membership for the remainder of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He played four seasons at Stanford, earned three victories, and climbed as high as No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Thorbjornsen finished solo fourth at the Travelers Championship in 2022 – the first top-five by an amateur on the PGA TOUR since 2017… Other sponsor exemptions include Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Billy Horschel.

SIGNATURE EVENT STORYLINES: The Travelers Championship marks the final Signature Event of the season… The Aon Swing 5 was unchanged from the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, with Robert MacIntyre, Davis Riley, Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup and Victor Perez earning spots in the Travelers field. The Aon Next 10 was also unchanged after the U.S. Open. Åberg, Matthieu Pavon, Shane Lowry, Christiaan Bezuidenhout,Stephen Jaeger, Thomas Detry, Akshay Bhatia, Justin Thomas, Taylor Pendrith and Will Zalatoris earned a spot in the Travelers.

COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 UPDATES: Ludvig Åberg moved up two spots to No. 5 following a T12 finish in his U.S. Open debut… Hideki Matsuyama jumped over Byeong Hun An after an impressive solo sixth finish at Pinehurst… Patrick Cantlay reentered the Top 10 in the final spot with a T3 finish in the season's third major championship… The top four players in the rankings remain unchanged heading into the final Signature Event of the season at the Travelers Championship.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 700 FedExCup points

COURSE: TPC River Highlands, par 70, 6,835 yards. One of the TOUR’s shortest layouts, the course opened in the 1920s before being completely redesigned by Pete Dye in 1982 and renovated in 1989 by Bobby Weed. The key stretch at TPC River Highlands comes late as golfers play around a four-acre lake on Nos. 15-17. Jim Furyk shot the TOUR’s lowest round, a 58, at TPC River Highlands in 2016.

72-HOLE RECORD: 257, Keegan Bradley (2023)

18-HOLE RECORD: 58, Jim Furyk (fourth round, 2016).

LAST TIME: Despite a few down-the-stretch bogeys, Keegan Bradley had built up enough of a lead that it mattered little as he won by three in front of adoring New England fans. Bradley was 5-under through 12 holes in the final round and even going 3-over for his final six holes didn’t open the door enough to the chasing pack. He won for the sixth time on the PGA TOUR and set the tournament scoring record at the Travelers Championship with a 23-under 257. Bradley was the first New Englander to win the event since Connecticut’s J.J. Henry in 2006. Zac Blair and Brian Harman tied for second at 20-under, while Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Chez Reavie rounded out the top five at 19-under.

HOW TO FOLLOW:

Television: 

• Thursday-Friday: 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel).
• Saturday-Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

PGA TOUR Live:

PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+

• Main feed: Primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course
• Marquee group: New “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group
• Featured groups: Traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups
• Featured holes: A combination of par 3s and iconic or pivotal holes

PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and free on PGATOUR.COM/liveaudio:

• Thursday-Friday: noon-6 p.m.
• Saturday-Sunday: 1-6 p.m.