Travelers Championship

The Travelers Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is the second most attended PGA Tour event annually only behind the Waste Management Phoenix Open.^[1] In 2011, the tournament attracted 240,000 fans for the week and 70,000 fans on Sunday. In 2002 the tournament set a record attendance with close to 400,000 fans for the week. The tournament has been played annually in Cromwell, Connecticut since 1984, and since 1991 the tournament has been held on the course at the TPC at River Highlands. Its position on the calendar has varied; in 2005 it was played in late August but in 2006 it was played in late June. Part of the FedEx Cup, the Travelers Championship has been played in late June, the week after the U.S. Open, in both 2007 and 2008.

For the tournament's first three decades, it was played at Wethersfield Country Club. In 1984, after the PGA Tour bought and redesigned Edgewood Country Club, the event moved to the new TPC of Connecticut in Cromwell. In 1991, the course was substantially redesigned with a completely new back nine holes and renamed the TPC at River Highlands. This TPC property was the third PGA Tour owned/managed championship golf course in what would grow to a network of over 30 TPC Clubs (2010).

The tournament was founded in 1952 as the Insurance City Open; in 1967 it was renamed the Greater Hartford Open, a title that was retained through 2003. From 1973–88, the GHO also bore the name of entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., who would often play in the pro-ams. Canon was a title sponsor from 1985 to 2002, and their employees would often take vacation time during tournament week to volunteer at the event. Buick was title sponsor from 2004 to 2006 and The Travelers Companies took over sponsorship in 2007.

The purse for the 2006 tournament, under Buick's sponsorship, was $4.4 million, with $792,000 going to the winner. From 2007 to 2010, the purse under Travelers' sponsorship was $6 million, with $1,080,000 going to the champion.

Over the last decade, longer hitters have done well at the tournament, with Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, J. J. Henry, Phil Mickelson, and Bubba Watson combining for six victories over a ten year span. Mahan also finished tied for second in 2006 and 2008.^[2]

The Insurance City Open was founded by the Greater Hartford Jaycees as a means to raise funds to support their philanthropic causes. The Jaycees are international leadership development organization for men and women ages 21–40. In 1971, The Greater Hartford Jaycees Foundation, Inc. was established as a grant-giving entity by the Greater Hartford Jaycees, Inc. with the help of Bob Murphy, who donated part of his winnings as 1970 Greater Hartford Open champion.

Winners

^PO Indicates a win in a playoff
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Main sources^[10][11][12]

Multiple winners

Six men have won the Travelers Championship more than once through 2011.

• 4 wins
  • Billy Casper: 1963, 1965, 1968, 1973

• 2 wins
  • Arnold Palmer: 1956, 1960
  • Paul Azinger: 1987, 1989
  • Phil Mickelson: 2001, 2002
  • Peter Jacobsen: 1984, 2003
  • Stewart Cink: 1997, 2008

Highlights

• 1952: Ted Kroll wins the inaugural tournament. He beats Skee Riegel by four shots.^[13]
• 1956: Arnold Palmer makes the Insurance City Open his first United States based PGA Tour victory by beating Ted Kroll in a playoff. Afterwards Palmer said "Ted is a great guy—he even gave me the putter that beat him."^[14]
• 1962: Bob Goalby defeats Art Wall, Jr. on the seventh hole of a sudden death playoff after Wall misses an 18-inch putt for par on the 72nd hole.^[15]
• 1967: African American golfer Charlie Sifford wins his first PGA Tour event. He beats Steve Opperman by one shot.^[16]
• 1968: Billy Casper becomes the tournament's first and so far only three-time winner. He beats Bruce Crampton by two shots. ^[17]
• 1972: Lee Trevino defeats Lee Elder in a sudden death playoff. If Elder had won, he would have become qualified for The Masters.^[18]
• 1973: Billy Casper shoots a final round 64 to win for the fourth time at Hartford. He beats Bruce Devlin by one shot.^[19]
• 1974: Dave Stockton wins by four shots over Raymond Floyd. After the tournament, Stockton gets a congratulatory call from then President Gerald Ford. Stockton also arranges to donate his entire $40,000 winnings check to charity.^[20]
• 1977: Billy Kratzert beats Curtis Strange, Larry Nelson, and Grier Jones by three shots. Two years earlier, Kratzert had quit golf and gone to work as a forklift operator.^[21]
• 1982: Tim Norris sets tournament records for aggregate (259) scoring and under par (−25) as he wins by six shots over Hubert Green and Raymond Floyd.^[22]
• 1986: Mac O'Grady shoots a final round 62 to catch Roger Maltbie, then defeats him on the first hole of sudden death.^[23]
• 1989: Paul Azinger chips it in on the 72nd hole to beat Wayne Levi by one shot.^[24]
• 1992: Lanny Wadkins, who had last played in Hartford in 1978, shoots a final round 65 to win by two shots over Dan Forsman, Nick Price, and Donnie Hammond.^[25]
• 2000: Notah Begay III wins for the second week in succession after he makes birdie on the 72nd hole to edge Mark Calcavecchia by one shot.^[26]
• 2002: Phil Mickelson becomes the first winner to successfully defend his title. He beats Jonathan Kaye and Ernie Els by one shot.^[27]
• 2003: Nineteen years after his first triumph in Hartford, Peter Jacobsen wins again, beating Chris Riley.^[28] Jacobsen's $720,000 winner's check was ten times what he earned in 1984.^[29]
• 2011: Patrick Cantlay, an amateur golfer from UCLA, set a course-record of 10-under 60 and tied the tour record^[30].

References

External links

• Official website
• Coverage on the PGA Tour's official site
• Greater Hartford Jaycees website