Schauffele wins Travelers after Theegala’s double bogey
Xander Schauffele
won the Travelers Championship with a threestroke swing on the final hole Sunday, hitting to 3 feet for birdie after rookie Sahith Theegala took two shots to get out of a bunker and made a double bogey in the group ahead.
A stroke ahead entering the day, Schauffele finished with a 2-under 68 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., to beat Theegala and J.T. Poston
by two strokes. The Olympic champion had a 19under 261 total.
“My mind was telling me to hit a good drive and then use your sand wedge or lob wedge in there and make birdie,” Schauffele said. “To sit there and watch what happened was a bit of a shock, obviously. I really had to try and focus on the task at hand.”
Theegala shot a 67, and Poston had a 64.
Schauffele won for the sixth time on the PGA
Tour and the second this season after teaming with Patrick Cantlay to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April.
Theegala was lurking near the top of the leaderboard all day and grabbed a share of the lead on 15, driving the green on the par-4 hole and making a 4-foot birdie putt. He overtook Schauffele with an 11-footer for birdie on 17, pumping his fist.
But the former Pepperdine star hit his tee shot on 18 left and into the front lip of a fairway bunker. He needed two tries to get out the bunker.
His 12-foot bogey putt lipped out, and he fell to his knees in agony.
Theegala was trying to become just the second rookie to win this season, joining Chad Ramey, who won in the Dominican Republic. The 2020 Travelers was his first professional start, but he missed the cut.
Amateur Michael Thorbjornsen, from
nearby Wellesley, Massachusetts, was fourth at 15 under after a 66.
The Stanford star was looking to become the first amateur to win on the tour since Phil Mickelson did it in 1991. He shot a 31 on the front nine, including an eagle on No. 6 after putting a 261-yard approach a foot from the hole. He finished with a 66.
LPGA
In Gee Chun was an upbeat, smiling presence throughout the Women’s PGA Championship — easy enough when you shoot 64 in the first round and lead comfortably for much of the tournament.
In the final round, all of her positive thinking was put to the test.
“Golf is never easy,” the 27-year-old South Korean said.
Chun won her third major championship, playing her best in the first round on a wet day and then persevering through a steamy weekend at Congressional in Bethesda, Md. On Sunday, she quickly lost what was left of a once large lead, then rallied to win by one when Lexi Thompson’s putting faltered down the stretch.
Chun shot a 3-over 75 on each of the last two days of the tournament. She finished at 5-under 283, barely enough to beat out Thompson (73) and Minjee Lee (70) by a stroke.
U.S. SENIOR OPEN Padraig Harrington
holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th right when the last of his five-shot lead was about to vanish, and he closed with three tough pars for a 1-over 72 to hold off Steve Stricker and win the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday.
Harrington never lost the lead at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pa., on a day when he made it hard on himself.
Stricker, who started the final round eight shots behind, began making his run with consecutive birdies to finish the front nine, and he closed with two straight birdies for a 65.
That left him one shot behind, and the Irishman needed only pars to win for the first time on the PGA Tour Champions.
Harrington finished at 10-under 274.
He is the third straight player to win the U.S. Senior Open in his debut, following Jim Furyk last year and Stricker in 2019.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Less than a year after he nearly retired from golf, Li Haotong achieved his third career European tour win and first since 2018 at the BMW International Open Sunday in Munich.
Li sank to the ground with joy and relief after beating Thomas Pieters with a 40-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.