The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Hometown favorite Stegmaier just one shot off lead
CROMWELL » Brett Stegmaier paused for a moment when a reporter asked if Thursday’s openinground of 64 at the Travelers Championship was the first time he’d ever broken par at the TPC River Highlands.
“I think it is, yeah,” Stegmaier said. “It’s kind of sad.”
Stegmaier grew up in Madison, a quick jaunt along Route 9 North to Cromwell. He first played River Highlands as an eight-year old, not long after his father, Bruce, introduced him to the sport. Expectations were minimal.
The course has been an Achilles heel ever since.
This is the fourth time Stegmaier has played the Travelers since turning professional in 2006, a tournament he’s aspired to play since his high school days.
He’s never made the cut. Fact is he’s never even come close.
Connecticut’s PGA Tour stop has a reputation for mindbendingly low scores. The final leaderboard is typically loaded with golfers who’ve shot at least a dozen under par. Jim Furyk fired a tour-record 58 in the final round last summer.
Stegmaier’s three previous trips yielded an aggregate score of plus-24. Though he’s mostly lived in Florida since graduating high school 15 years ago, he’s considered a hometown favorite, often greeted with cried of “Madison, Connecticut!” on the tee box.
As the dismal performances
mounted, Stegmaier quietly stewed.
“I had a pretty poor attitude last year,” he said. “You want to play well in front of the people that care about you . ... Probably just put too much pressure on myself coming here.”
So Stegmaier, in the midst of a rough year that’s put his PGA Tour card in jeopardy, took a different approach in advance of the Travelers. He lowered expectations.
The result was his lowest round of the year. It included a stretch of seven birdies in nine holes that vaulted him alone atop the leaderboard after 12 holes. Though he cooled down considerably, closing his day with five pars and a bogey, Stegmaier enters today’s second round at 6-under, one stroke behind leader Jordan Spieth.
Of course, Stegmaier isn’t planning his victory celebration just yet.
“It’s only one round,” he said.
Stegmaier was a golf prodigy who quickly mastered the game despite being limited by freezing Connecticut winters. By age 11 he’d already beaten his father, a 9-handicap; at 16 he broke the New Haven Country Club course record with a 63.
At Daniel Hand, he won an individual state championship. Three years later, as a freshman at the University of Florida, he won the first of two Southeastern Conference individual championships.
Returning home to compete, however, was never a simple task. When Florida qualified for the NCAA Regionals, a tournament held at Yale, he struggled, finishing 15over par and 68th overall.
Stegmaier’s professional career has been a constant battle for consistency. It took a shade under a decade to earn a tour card, secured in the fall of 2015. He nearly quit the tour a few years back, accepting a job as an assistant pro at Ridgefield Country Club when a wrist injury required multiple surgeries to heal.
Life on the tour, and the lure of massive paychecks, led him back to pro golf.
“It’s hard to let go because there’s such a big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Last year yielded a bit over $1 million in prize money, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open in Las Vegas, enough for another year on the tour.
This season has been succession poor performances. To date he’s made just seven of 20 cuts. He hasn’t placed in the top 25 since finishing 21st at the RSB Classic in Georgia last November. Six of the previous seven events have ended after two rounds.
“It’s been a rough year,” Stegmaier said. “Things have been coming together last couple months, even if results don’t show it. To shoot a low round is a big confidence boost.”
Only one Connecticut native has ever won this championship. Fairfield’s J.J. Henry went 14-under par to take home the trophy in 2006. Three more rounds are still on tap against arguably the most accomplished field in tournament history, one that includes first-time participants Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Spieth.
Stegmaier is positioned well after 18 holes. If he continues to keep expectations low for the next three days, he just might have a chance. Chip Malafronte, the Register sports columnist, can be reached at cmalafronte@ nhregister.com. Follow Chip on Twitter @ ChipMalafronte. Brand hat, the company he has started.
“Tonight was supposed to be a good night. Definitely was, and now I’m just focused on playing,” Lonzo Ball said. “Just want to get on the court.”
The Celtics then took Duke’s Jayson Tatum at No. 3 after moving down two spots in the trade with Philadelphia, drawing cheers from a large contingent of their fans at Barclays Center wearing green. The Suns took Josh Jackson of Kansas, the Sacramento Kings took Kentucky guard De’Aaron Fox at No. 5 and the run of freshmen continued when the Orlando Magic selected Jonathan Isaac.