Travelers not lacking in star power
Contrary to predictions, tournament winning in player recruitment
Jordan Spieth was wrong.
Rory McIlroy was wrong.
These giants of golf came to our state last summer and, before departing the Travelers Championship, essentially told us no one of interest would be back in 2019.
And, thank goodness, they were dead wrong.
Brooks Koepka was announced as part of the Travelers field on Jan. 21. A commitment from Justin Thomas followed seven days later on Jan. 28. Bryson DeChambeau joined them Feb. 5.
That’s three of the world’s top-five ranked players, three headlining winter commitments to remind us that the Travelers this summer will look and feel the way it always does – topped and packed with star power.
And this is the year the field was supposed to be a little flat, what with the U.S. Open taking place way out in Pebble Beach, Calif., the week before the Tour hits Cromwell. Anyone prone to overanalysis, Spieth and McIlroy included, wondered if top players would make the cross-country trip on the heels of golf’s most grueling event.
The answer is yes. They’re coming to back Cromwell this June just like any June.
Spieth, whose winning bunker shot in 2017 is among the tournament’s iconic moments, returned last summer and before leaving said, “Next year will be a tough go for this tournament to get players in general.”
McIlroy followed with, “I think a lot of guys are in the same boat there, especially with the way the schedule is. There’s going to be quite a lot of events leading into the U.S. Open. So, yeah, I think when the U.S. Open is back at Winged Foot [in Mamaroneck, N.Y.] in 2020 you’ll have a really stellar field again, but just to go from West Coast to East Coast after playing such a big tournament might be a bit of a stretch for some guys.”
Alas, maybe Spieth and McIlroy won’t tee off in Cromwell. But the past two PGA Tour players of the year are in, Koepka and Thomas, as well as one of golf’s most interesting and improving players, DeChambeau. Whoever and whatever follows, this is already a hell of a field.
“The more you get to know these guys and develop relationships with them, they know what it means to the tournament when you’re able to announce them early,” said Nathan Grube, in his 15th year as Travelers tournament director.
Top players are doing for Grube what they don’t typically do. The tournament can center its spring marketing campaign on Koepka, Thomas and DeChambeau.
But what the heck do those players get out of jumping on board four or five months in advance? They get pressure from other PGA Tour events to commit just as early. They leave themselves no scheduling wiggle room. What if they have a change of heart? What if they’re ultimately worn down by a string of events and want the week off? The worst thing would be having to pull out, making no one look good.
It’s risky for players of this ilk to commit so early. They certainly don’t have to. Any of the aforementioned players could prob- ably call Grube in the hours before the Travelers’ opening tee times and a red carpet would be rolled out at TPC River Highlands.
But here we are. Good for the tournament and its aggressive approach. Good for these players stepping up. Good for a sense of cooperation. We’re all winners because of it. These are huge names, the present and future of golf. Koepka, 28, won the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship in 2018. Thomas, 25, won the 2017 PGA Championship. DeChambeau, 25, is golf’s mad scientist and one of the sport’s most productive players over the past couple years.
Bubba Watson will be back in 2019 because he has another title to defend and, well, because he’s always in Cromwell as the face of this event. Others with similar name recognition will follow.
Maybe Spieth and McIlroy can’t be convinced to be among the 50 or so players the Travelers will fly via charter to Connecticut shortly after the Open. Either way, it’s clear that a major championship taking place some 3,000 miles away won’t be a major disruption to what Grube and Andy Bessette of Travelers do.
“If you would have asked me this question back in 2007, when we first got our [pre-U.S. Open] date, what’s going to hap- pen with West Coast
Opens I would have said I’m not sure,” Grube said. “But we’ve had four West Coast Opens that we’ve followed. It hasn’t affected our fields the way a decade ago I would have thought.”
The Travelers followed U.S. Opens held on the West Coast in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2015, and its field has never been noticeably damaged. The tournament is humming along, the fields improving, its title sponsor never more engaged.
We shouldn’t bother wondering anymore about who might be interested in playing coming off the emotional and mental grind of the Open, no matter where that tournament is held. Travelers was named the recipient of the Players Choice Award from the PGA Tour in 2017 and 2018. There are reasons for this. There are reasons the players return.
“It’s the details,” Grube said. “Our transportation committee, player relations committee, day care committee – just, every little step of the way we try to think of everything that the players or their families or their caddies might need. So I think our general attitude plays itself out to 100 little things. If it was one thing, you’d see every tournament doing it every week. Talking to players about what it’s like when they come to Connecticut, they say it just feels so comfortable.”