Travelers Championship Elevated to New Lofty Status on PGA Tour

By JOHN TORSIELLO

Back a decade and a half ago it would be difficult to imagine that a golf tournament struggling to survive would one day be elevated to a status that few PGA Tour events attain.

After losing its title sponsor and scrambling to immediately find a replacement, organizers of the now Travelers Championship were considering possibilities to keep the event afloat before cobbling together a one-year lineup of sponsors that gave the tourney. Insurance giant Travelers stepped up the following year and not only saved the event for Connecticut and its rabid golf fans, but slowly and surely over 16 years brought it to new levels of success. Today, the tourney stands among the top tournaments in the world as the PGA Tour designated the event with elevated status. Elevated status, given to several events this year, brings with it a large purse that will attract the best players in the game.

The Travelers Championship, which annually has some of the largest crowds on Tour, will this year offer an increased purse ($20 million with first place worth $3.6 million) that is drawing the best and deepest field of Tour players the event has ever seen. Overall, the move by the PGA Tour provides golf fans with the opportunity to see the Tour’s top players compete against each other more often. World number one Jon Rahm, four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, defending champion Xander Schauffele and many of the other top players in the world including Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Max Homa, have committed to play in the event, which will be held June 19-25 at the Tournament Players Club at River Highlands in Cromwell.

Andy Bessette, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers, said,

“Over the years we’ve seen this tournament go from good to great, from better to best, all aimed at helping the community. We appreciate the support of the players over the years, and we’re proud that the PGA Tour felt we earned this opportunity. We intend to show everyone, once again, why the Travelers Championship is one of the top stops on the schedule.”

Tournament Director, Nathan Grube, said of the only PGA Tour event in New England, “Our fans have seen some of golf’s biggest stars in years past, and this year’s event will include even more. We’re working hard to make sure that everyone coming to TPC River Highlands will be treated to another unforgettable, worldclass experience.”

Grube added, “We’ve been given this incredibly shiny new toy that we and our sponsors are excited about, that other markets are excited about. We feel a massive sense of responsibility to turn this into more people and more lives being impacted from the charitable dollars derived from the event.”

Bessette added, “In 2007 when we took over as title sponsor of the tournament, and Nathan and I every year, every day for the last 17 years have never accepted the status quo. That’s been our rallying cry, and we’re always trying to get better, and we want to be world class, and we’ve worked really hard to get here. When the call came last August at the Tour Championship, when PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan announced that they were going to have designated events, we immediately put our hat in. Nathan and I started strategizing and talking about how we could be one of the selected events to be designated. We’ve been negotiating with the PGA TOUR ever since.”

Bessette said, “It started in August of 2022, and it was in place by December. I was at a Tour meeting in late October and Tiger (Woods) and Rory were there, and they both came up and said, ‘You guys have earned this’. To have Tiger and Rory say that we earned this meant the world to me and to us and our entire team. That’s how it evolved. It’s negotiation. It’s positioning and all the great work that Nathan and his staff do. We have a world class staff and tournament director that we couldn’t have done this without.”

Bessette said there will be a small number of designated events going forward, and that tournament officials are in “deep conversation” with the Tour on remaining a designated event. “It will probably come out sometime in July that they announce the 2024 season. We’re working. It’s important to us to be designated beyond 2023. We’ll see how that all ends up, but I feel pretty good.”

The Travelers Championship has generated more than $25 million for nearly 900 local charities since Travelers became title sponsor in 2007. The bigger purse and better player field could bring more fans and sponsors, which, officials said, may increase the amount of money generated for charity this year. In 2022, more than $2.5 million was distributed to over 140 organizations, including The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, The First Tee of Connecticut, animal shelters and local Boys & Girls Clubs.

Television host and Connecticut resident, Chris Berman, said at the tournament’s media day in May, “Elevated on top of everything the Travelers has done? With apologies to UConn basketball and Quinnipiac hockey, this is our annual week. We can count on this every year being big-time in sports in Connecticut. We as Nutmeggers are pretty proud of that.”

Defending champion Xander Schauffele, who shot a final round 68 to finish two shots ahead of the field last year, said the Travelers Championship always produces one of the most exciting finishes on Tour. “It’s so great to watch for people on TV or in person because you can have someone with a five-shot lead entering the back nine and they may struggle to get home. For me to feel comfortable I would want a nine-shot lead. You can hit it in the water, and all of a sudden you’re scrambling for bogey. You’re supposed to hit it on the green on 16, and you can hit it in the water. There are just so many opportunities there, but also danger looming around the corner that makes it a really exciting finish.”

The tournament will also have its popular fan zone where activities for all ages will be offered, the traditional pro-am day and other events.

Travelers, a leading provider of property and casualty insurance for auto, home and business, is the Official Property Casualty Insurance Provider of the PGA Tour. The company has been a corporate sponsor of the event each year since its inception in 1952.

Tournament details are available at www.TravelersChampionship.com