Jordan Spieth will play in Travelers
The Travelers Championship begins next week and the tournament is still landing big names.
The tournament announced a commitment from former champion Jordan Spieth late Monday afternoon. Spieth holed out a bunker shot on the 18th hole in a suddendeath playoff for birdie that ended up giving him the 2017 championship over Daniel Berger.
“Nobody will ever forget what Jordan accomplished two years ago at TPC River Highlands,” said Travelers Championship Tournament Director Nathan Grube in a statement. “The way he won — his reaction, and the reaction from the crowd around the 18th hole — shows the type of excitement he can bring to the event. We’re thrilled that he’ll be playing this year.”
Although this is the third straight year Spieth, 25, will be playing at the Travelers, Spieth was non-committal about returning at last year’s tournament, citing the difficult travel schedule from the U.S. Open being played at Pebble Beach, California.
But the changes in this year’s tour schedule has seemingly put many golfer’s schedules in flux. Although the dates for the Travelers hasn’t changed, several other summer events have, including the PGA Championship moving from August to May and the FedExCup playoffs being moved up a month. Also, the PGA Tour added two new tournaments to the schedule, the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the 3M Championship to follow the Travelers.
Grube said the tournament received word that Spieth was coming midMonday afternoon.
“We knew the schedule change was going to have an impact on how the players viewed their schedule this year,” Grube said in a text message. “Some guys knew early (world No. 1 Brooks Koepka was the first to commit in mid-January), some guys told us they needed to see how the season unfolded. Jordan was one who was evaluating his schedule in a different way. We stayed in touch all year and were waiting for him to evaluate his schedule postU.S. Open. We are thrilled he is coming back.”
When specifically asked if he was surprised Spieth was coming back again, Grube said, “I try not to say if I’m surprised or not surprised. We stay in touch until we get a no.”
The deadline for players to commit to play in the tournament June 20-23 is Friday night, approximately an hour after the U.S. Open’s second round is completed.
Spieth has 11 PGA Tour victories to his credit, including three major championships: the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015 and the Open Championship in 2017, his last victory. Spieth’s world ranking fell into the mid-30s, but three straight top-8 finishes — including a tie for third at last month’s PGA Championship — helped move Spieth to 28th.
The tournament now has 16 of the top 28 in the field for next week: Koepka, Francesco Molinari (No. 6), Justin Thomas (7), Patrick Cantlay (8), Bryson DeChambeau (9), Tony Finau (14), Paul Casey (15), Jason Day (16), Tommy Fleetwood (18), defending champion Bubba Watson (20), Marc Leishman (21), Louis Oosthuizen (22), Patrick Reed (23) two-time winner Phil Mickelson (24), Kevin Kisner (27) and Spieth.