The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Watson rallies to win third Travelers Championship
Watson rallies to capture third title in Connecticut
CROMWELL — So Bubba Watson didn’t shoot the number he felt he had to in order to win his third Travelers Championship title. He came up three strokes short.
He could now save those strokes for a try at a recordtying fourth crown in 2019.
Watson fired a 7-underpar 63 Sunday at TPC River Highlands to win by three shots over four golfers.
“I wasn’t thinking about winning. I was thinking about playing golf,” Watson said. “When I made the putt on 15 (to tie for the lead), I realized I had a shot at it.”
It’s the third win in the last eight years for Watson, winning titles in 2010 and 2015. Stewart Cink, Beau Hossler, J.B. Holmes and Paul Casey all tied for second.
Casey was the victim once again. In 2015, his first trip to the Travelers, he lost in a playoff to Watson.
Three years later, Casey entered the final round with a four-shot lead. Watson was six strokes back — the same deficit he faced when he won in 2010, his first PGA Tour title.
Watson said after Saturday’s third round that he felt he needed to shoot 10-under to have a chance. So he just focused on playing golf and got the momentum going after chipping in for birdie from behind the 10th green.
Watson then birdied 12, 13 and 15 to vault into a share of the lead with Casey. Then, after a booming drive on the 18th hole, Watson skipped a 71-yard pitch shot almost into the hole. It settled under 3 feet away. That birdie gave Watson the lead for good.
“For it to come off perfect like that, I knew as soon as I hit it, you could tell the distance was right,” Watson said. “It was one of those shots where it just came out perfect at the right time and the rest was history.”
Casey made sizable par
saves on 10 and 14, but he couldn’t get up and down for par on 16, then hit his tee shot on 17 into the water.
“I need to go in and digest it and see what I could have done differently. Probably not much at all. I fought as hard as I could, which I’m proud of,” Casey said. “How many times do you put me on a golf course and I only make one birdie?”
Casey birdied the first hole from off the back of the green and that was it. He shot a 2-over-par 72,
failing to hold a four-shot lead heading into the final round, similar to what happened at the Tour Championship last fall. This is his eighth runnerup finish on the PGA Tour.
Casey said he was battling a sore neck during the early stages of his final round.
“My neck was tight this morning and it was a struggle warming up,” Casey said. “Neck didn't bother me all the way around, but, yeah, just fighting it. It is what it is. I've got a lot of fight in me, but just not enough. … Yeah, if I play the way I wanted to, then we've got ourselves in a different position. Don't
know the outcome, but wouldn't be what I'm talking about right now.”
Cink, who won won the Travelers in both 1997 (his rookie year) and 2008, would have been the first to win the tournament in three different decades. His final-round of 62 was the best on the day and his finish was the best of the season.
His last win came at the Open Championship in 2009 in a playoff over Tom Watson.
Holmes shot 67 Sunday. He said he didn’t look at a leaderboard throughout the round.
“I actually didn't look at the scoreboard all day. I
didn't really know. I was just trying to do the best I could,” Holmes said. “I knew in the last (hole) I had to hole out that wedge, and I just hit a bad shot and got a squirrely lie over there (in the rough greenside). I hit a decent chip and hit my putt where I was looking, but missed it. It's the way it goes.”
It’s been quite the transformation for Watson since his first win at River Highlands. From the passing of his father shortly after the first one, to becoming a family man, to actually considering retirement last year and to now have three victories on tour this season, the most out of anyone,
it’s been quite the transformation indeed. He also won the Genesis Open in February and the WGCDell Technologies Match Play in March.
And despite not getting a text shortly after the win from U.S. captain Jim Furyk, Watson has secured a spot on the Ryder Cup team, something he missed out on as a player two years ago.
“The part of me winning when my dad was about to pass away of cancer in 2010, having my kids here like we joked about in the other room, without kids one year, only one kid one year, and now with both kids, it's pretty cool,” Watson said. “All these videos and all these things, it will be a great story when we start talking about it in the future.”
And just in case anyone had any doubts if Watson would be back to defend in 2019 with the U.S. Open being held at Pebble Beach, California, Watson provided his definitive answer.
“You always show up as defending champ,” Watson said. “I’m definitely going to be here. I’ve never played good in a U.S. Open, so it will probably be a short week.”