Bubba shoots scorching 63 for another Travelers title
American first to three PGA wins in ’18, while Hataoka decimates LPGA field
Bubba Watson says TPC River Highlands feels like home. It certainly was a comfortable place again this week.
Watson overcame a six-stroke deficit Sunday to win his third Travelers Championship title, shooting a 7-under 63 for a threestroke victory in Cromwell, Conn. The left-hander became the first three-time winner on the PGA Tour this season and pulled within one of Billy Casper’s tournament record of four victories. He finished at 17-under 263. Third-round leader Paul Casey, Stewart Cink, Beau Hossler and J.B. Holmes tied for second. Casey shot 72, Cink 62, Hossler 66 and Holmes 67.
Canada’s Adam Hadwin and Mackenzie Hughes both ended up at 4 under for the tournament, tied for 42nd overall. Watson also came from six back to win the 2010 event for his first tour title and beat Casey in a playoff in 2015.
“I feel like this is my home course,” Watson said. “As soon as they put the schedule up, I sign up for this. I want to come back here. This means so much not only from the golf side of it, but from the family side. My dad, it was the only time he got to see me win (in 2010). He got to see me qualify for the Ryder Cup at this event. So all these things just mean so much to my family.”
During the victory ceremony, Watson’s children — six-yearold son Caleb and three-year-old daughter Dakota — received small trophies of their own. Watson shot a 33 on the front nine, but really got it going on the back with five birdies. He tied Casey at 16 under par by getting up and down from the bunker for a birdie on the course’s signature 15th hole.
Still tied on the par-4 18th, Watson hit his tee shot 366 yards, then pitched inside three feet, giving caddy Ted Scott a big high-five before taking the lead with the putt. “Hitting some of those shots, es- pecially the shot on 18 downwind, it was very difficult, but somehow pulling it off,” Watson said. “And that’s what we all try to do on Sundays is pull off the amazing shot.”
Defending champion Jordan Spieth, who was tied for the lead after the opening round, shot a 69 to finish at 4 under. Meanwhile, Japanese teenager Nasa Hataoka ran away with the NW Arkansas Championship Sunday for her first LPGA Tour title The 19-year-old Hataoka won by six strokes, closing with an 8-under 63 at Pinnacle Country Club for a tournament-record 21-under 192 total. She broke the mark of 18 under set last year by So Yeon Ryu. Hataoka won twice late last year on the Japan LPGA and has finished in the Top 10 in five of her last six LPGA Tour starts, including a playoff loss last month in the Kingsmill Championship. Hataoka began the round tied with Minjee Lee for the lead. Austin Ernst shot a 65 to finish second. Lee and third-ranked Lexi Thompson topped the group that tied for third at 13 under. Brittany Marchand (70) of Orangeville, Ont., finished at 5 under in a tie for 53rd. Quebec City’s Anne-Catherine Tanguay (71) was 2 under to tie for 65th. Hataoka entered the week 30th in the world ranking, a far change from a disappointing rookie season a year ago in which she made only eight of 19 cuts on the LPGA Tour — including a missed cut in Arkansas.
Much of her success has come in the last three months after she won the tour’s qualifying tournament in December to earn her full tour card. Hataoka missed the cut in two of her first three tournaments, but she’s now earned prize money in 10 straight events — including $300,000 on Sunday.