Rich History
Travelers Championship airs live on CBS
The Travelers Championship, held yearly at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, will be a TV-only event for the first time since its inaugural tee-off in 1952, and you can watch Round 3 of the tournament when it airs Saturday, June 27, on CBS.
The coronavirus pandemic has been the cause of scheduling issues for golfing events, both on and off the PGA Tour, forcing some events to be canceled entirely, such as the Heritage and the Open Championship. Others have been either postponed, as the Olympic men’s tournament has, or are set to play without crowds, much like the Travelers. The what, where and ever-changing when can be difficult to keep track of, but golfchannel. com has a great list of upcoming events for the entire PGA Tour that may come in handy for golf fans.
In 2019, the Travelers tournament was taken by William Chesney “Chez” Reavie, a Kansas native who golfed for Arizona State University and earned his PGA Tour card in 2007. When he sealed his fourstroke victory over Keegan Bradley and Zack Sucher, he ended a win drought of 11 years, as he had not earned a winner’s purse since he took the Canadian Open in his rookie year back in 2008. The 2020 championship will be a challenge for the defender, as the Official
World Golf Ranking’s No. 1 (Rory McIlroy), No. 3 (Brooks Koepka), No. 4 (Justin Thomas) and the two players tied for No. 7 (Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed) have all committed to the event.
Before 2007, Travelers was known as the Buick Championship. Before that, it was the Greater Hartford Open, and the tournament began as the Insurance City Open. From 1952 to 1992, no one was able to beat America on this course; it wasn’t until 1993, when former Rhodesian Air Force pilot Nick Price beat runners-up Dan Forsman and Roger Maltbie by a single stroke, that a nonAmerican won the Travelers Championship (then called the Greater Hartford Open).
The Zimbabwean went on to win both the PGA and Open Championships, earn OWGR’s No. 1 spot and take his place in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003. Other Travelers winners include Arnold Palmer (1956, 1960), Phil Mickelson (2001, 2002) and four-time tournament winner Billy Casper (1963, 1965, 1968, 1973).
Travelers has a rich history of firsts. In 1955, Bill Whedon, an amateur, became the first player in PGA history to get a hole-in-one twice in a single round.
At the 1967 tournament, PGA’s first African-American golfer, the legendary Charlie Sifford, also became the first black PGA winner when he took the title. Suzy Whaley competed in the tournament in 2003, the first woman on the PGA Tour in nearly 60 years. President Gerald Ford called the 1974 winner Dave Stockton personally, and moments later, Stockton donated the entirety of his champion’s purse to charity.
The Travelers Championship is the reigning Players Choice Award winner, and the second most-attended event on the PGA Tour; this year, the tournament that holds the PGA’s attendance record (reaching 400,000 for the week in 2002), will likely feel a bit lonely for the players. Show your support for one of the tour’s most beloved events and tune in to CBS for Round 3 of the Travelers Championship when it airs Saturday, June 27.