Weighing in at just 6,800 yards, TPC River Highlands is one of the shortest—and easiest—stops on the PGA Tour calendar. That usually is just fine with players, many of whom have just come off the business end of the U.S. Open.

However, the Travelers Championship is no longer a nice little respite from major championship golf, as the Connecticut tournament is now a designated event on the tour schedule. And with such a loaded competition—statistically, the Travelers had the best field in golf this season—it’s fair to wonder if the venue is perhaps too easy for what is on the line. There were two 60s, a 61, and five 62s on the week, with Keegan Bradley breaking the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record and just one shot away from tying the tour’s all-time 54-hole scoring mark.

Following his final round, Rory McIlroy was asked if the course is now too gettable for today’s players, and he replied in the affirmative.

“I don’t particularly like when a tournament is like this. Unfortunately, technology has passed this course by, right?” McIlroy said after a Sunday 64, good enough for a T-7 finish. “It sort of has made it obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had. So, again, like the conversations going back to, you know, limiting the golf ball and stuff like that, when we come to courses like this they just don’t present the challenge that they used to.”

McIlroy’s stance is not necessarily a surprise; he has made similar remarks regarding easy set-ups on the DP World Tour in Europe. Moreover, McIlroy has been one of the few players to be in favour of the golf ball rollback proposed by the USGA and R&A.

Whatever rollback may come, however, won’t be instituted for years. With that in mind, McIlroy was asked what else courses can do to toughen their set-ups in the short run. He responded by saying it’s not a matter of simply growing out of the rough.

“That bunches everyone together,” McIlroy explained. “The blueprint is something like LACC where you have wide targets, but if you miss it’s penal. This isn’t that sort of golf course. It’s not that sort of layout. It doesn’t have the land to do that. So, you know, unfortunately, when you get soft conditions like this and you’ve got the best players in the world, this is what’s going to happen.”

For all four rounds this year at TPC River Highlands, where par is 70, the scoring average was 68.40, which is the lowest number on tour this season. Coincidentally, the tour’s toughest scoring average also came this month at the Memorial, which finished with a 73.52 mark.

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After a riveting US Open, the PGA Tour travels just down the road from Massachusetts to Connecticut for the Travelers Championship. TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, takes the baton from The Country Club, hosting a field that features the top four players in the FedEx Cup rankings led by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

Joining Scheffler are Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and Harris English, the tournament’s defending champion. English will look to win another Travelers after last year’s exhilarating (and exhausting) eight-hole playoff over Kramer Hickok, which was golf’s version of a war of attrition ultimately ending in the second-longest playoff in PGA Tour history.

This is the first year since before the COVID-19 pandemic that the Travelers will have full attendance. Will they be seeing another playoff? It’s quite possible as there have been extra holes at this event 25 times in the event’s 70-year history.

The winner will receive 500 points and a $1.494 million share of the $8.3 million purse.

MORE: Koepka withdraws from Travelers with Liv announcement expected

First round tee times and pairings

First tee
6.45am — Henrik Norlander, Roger Sloan, Stephan Jaeger
6.55am — Kelly Kraft, Sam Ryder, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
7.05am — Scott Piercy, JJ Henry, Chesson Hadley
7.15am — Cam Davis, Mark Hubbard, Brandt Snedeker
7.25am — Lucas Glover, Si Woo Kim, Nate Lashley
7.35am — CT Pan, Martin Trainer, Danny Willett
7.45am — Andrew Landry, Brendon Todd, Lanto Griffin
7.55am — Martin Laird, Richy Werenski, Charley Hoffman
8.05am — Jason Kokrak, Jim Herman, William McGirt
8.15am — Brice Garnett, James Hahn, John Huh
8.25am — Emiliano Grillo, Cameron Tringale, Tommy Fleetwood
8.35am — Erik van Rooyen, Andrew Novak, Conrad Shindler
8.45am — Bo Hoag, Dylan Wu, Cole Hammer
12 noon — Wyndham Clark, Aaron Rai, Adam Svensson
12.10pm — Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Hank Lebioda, Taylor Moore
12.20pm — Andrew Putnam, Brendan Steele, Lee Hodges
12.30pm — JJ Spaun, Dylan Frittelli, Kevin Tway
12.40pm — Patrick Cantlay, Harris English, Marc Leishman
12.50pm — Sam Burns, Joel Dahmen, Keegan Bradley
1pm — Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Zach Johnson
1.10pm — Joaquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell, Kramer Hickok
1.20pm — Troy Merritt, Jhonattan Vegas, Scott Stallings
1.30pm — Matt Wallace, Harry Higgs, Vince Whaley
1.40pm — Adam Schenk, Alex Smalley, Christopher Gotterup
1.50pm — Ben Kohles, Nick Hardy, Callum Tarren
2pm — Seth Reeves, Justin Lower, Benjamin James (a)

10th tee
6.45am — Brian Harman, Jonas Blixt, Danny Lee
6.55am — Davis Riley, Sahith Theegala, Max McGreevy
7.05am — Doug Ghim, Scott Gutschewski, Brandon Wu
7.15am — Stewart Cink, Charles Howell III, Jason Day
7.25am — Luke List, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau
7.35am — Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Tom Hoge
7.45am — Rory McIlroy, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson
7.55am — Chad Ramey, Chez Reavie, Sung Kang
8.05am — Harold Varner III, Matthew NeSmith, Mito Pereira
8.15am — Bill Haas, Morgan Hoffmann, Trey Mullinax
8.25am — Brian Stuard, Rory Sabbatini, Anirban Lahiri
8.35am — Dawie van der Walt, Paul Barjon, Patrick Flavin
8.45am — Greyson Sigg, Austin Smotherman, Michael Thorbjornsen (a)
12 noon — Russell Knox, Doc Redman, Hayden Buckley
12.10pm — Austin Cook, Maverick McNealy, David Lipsky
12.20pm — Tyler Duncan, Aaron Wise, Matthias Schwab
12.30pm — Ryan Brehm, Robert Streb, Luke Donald
12.40pm — KH Lee, Sepp Straka, Patton Kizzire
12.50pm — Cameron Champ, J.T. Poston, Matthew Wolff
1pm — Garrick Higgo, Carlos Ortiz, Ryan Palmer
1.10pm — Seamus Power, Rickie Fowler, Adam Long
1.20pm — Peter Malnati, Nick Watney, Denny McCarthy
1.30pm — Mackenzie Hughes, Kevin Streelman, Brandon Hagy
1.40pm — Joseph Bramlett, David Skinns, Jared Wolfe
1.50pm — Michael Gligic, Joshua Creel, Ben Silverman
2pm — Curtis Thompson, Brett Drewitt, Adam D’Amario

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By Christopher Powers
As Dustin Johnson showed on the weekend at the Travelers Championship, he’s a baaaad man when he gets the putter rolling. He gained over two strokes on the greens in each of the final two rounds, and finished sixth in the field in strokes-gained: putting for the week. When he can combine a hot putter with his elite off-the-tee play, DJ is extremely difficult to beat.

The thing is, Johnson’s off-the-tee game was not elite this past week at TPC River Highlands, and it wasn’t even average. It was downright poor, as Johnson hit just 35 of 56 fairways for the week and ranked 83rd in strokes-gained: off-the-tee. On Sunday, a few poor tee shots nearly cost him the tournament. For what felt like the first time in a very long time, Johnson’s putter (and some very strong iron play) literally saved him.

As PGA Tour Senior Editor Sean Martin pointed out on Monday, this marked the first time in Johnson’s career that he won a tournament while losing strokes off-the-tee. Of Johnson’s 21 career wins, his Travelers win was the 14th to have all four rounds measured by ShotLink. Johnson lost 0.043 off-the tee for the week, his worst performance coming on Sunday, when he lost 1.342. His next-worst driving performance that ended in victory came at the 2017 WGC-Mexico Championship, where he gained 1.46 strokes off the tee.

For a player who relies on his driving prowess as much as anyone, that is incredibly impressive stuff. While it’s always hard to win on the PGA Tour, it helps when every part of your game is clicking. When you’re able to win without your A game, especially in an area where you’re always on your A game, that’s what separates the great ones from the good ones. Johnson continues to prove he is certainly an all-time great, though a few more majors would help increase his legend.

RELATED: Dustin Johnson, golf’s gunslinger, gets hot then stays cool at Travelers

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But they do collect their bounty.

The Travelers Championship was won by desperado Dustin Johnson, who got hot then stayed cool, beating Kevin Streelman by one at TPC River Highlands.

A bad man in these parts for more than a decade, it had been some time since Johnson rolled into town. His last top five was more than a year ago, a byproduct of lingering knee issues in the second half of 2019. He underwent arthroscopic surgery following the Tour Championship and was back in the saddle come January. He wasn’t bad in return, notching a T-7 in Kapalua and T-10 in Los Angeles. He also wasn’t the force the sport knew him as, ranking 52nd in strokes gained and 103rd in the FedEx Cup prior to Travelers while falling outside the World Ranking’s top five for the first time since his U.S. Open win in 2016.

However, any beliefs that the 36-year-old was losing a step were soundly shattered on Saturday, Johnson turning in a bogey-free 61 to earn a spot in Sunday’s final pairing.

“I hadn’t played very well,” said Johnson, who shot a Sunday 67 to finish at 19-under 261 for the week. “But I put in a lot of good work the last couple weeks after Colonial, and so it’s nice to see the game just start coming around.”

Johnson began his final round two shots behind 54-hole leader Brendon Todd. Spotting any professional golfer two shots for 18 holes is less than ideal. Conversely, so is going mano a mano against golf’s Dirty Harry.

Johnson erased the deficit by the fifth hole, and though he bogeyed the seventh, birdies at the eighth, ninth and 10th put him up two with eight holes to go. While the driver is usually Johnson’s weapon of choice, he was making his charge with the putter, sinking a 27-footer on the eighth and 24-footer at the 10th.

The tournament was seemingly sealed on the 12th. After his approach shot on the par 4 nestled 10 yards from the hole in thick rough, Todd—perhaps rattled by a rattle of thunder—sent a shot soaring through the air, it’s trajectory so foreign it could only be described as a UFO. He was too delicate with his fourth, the ball rolling back off of TPC River Highlands’ shaved greens, with his fifth barely reaching the putting surface. The sixth didn’t come close. The final damage was a triple-bogey 7 for Todd. Even as Johnson missed his 12 footer for birdie, DJ now held a five-shot advantage over Todd. His closest competitor was Streelman, three shots back. The parade was on.

Except the parade’s float stalled out and rammed into a street light on the next tee box.

RELATED: DJ wins and four other takeaways from Sunday at the Travelers

The 13th played as the second-easiest hole this week, surrendering 12 eagles and 197 birdies. However, there’s a lake to the right of the fairway, a perilous visual for Johnson’s left-to-right ball flight. So he tried to play safe, only to get hurt. Hitting driver, his tee ball barreled left towards the train tracks. It came to rest a foot out of bounds at the same time Streelman sank an eight-footer on the green for bird. The issue, closed just minutes before, was re-opened.

“It’s a tough tee shot. I pulled it just a hair,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t that bad of a tee shot.”

Such a fate would unnerve men of lesser grit. But Johnson is a fusion of restraint and swagger, staring at trouble as if trouble is the one in trouble. He saved bogey off his provisional and erased the mistake by sticking his approach at the 14th and converting a 15-footer for birdie. Lead back to two.

What transpired next is something of a Rorschach test. The par-4 15th at TPC River Highlands is risk-reward incarnate, just 294 yards but water on the left and the green’s contours kicking away anything less than right. Johnson gave himself the greenlight by ripping a hybrid, but the shot was left the entire way. It headed into the penalty area, although, miraculously, stayed dry.

=Johnson’s wayward drive on the 15th stayed dry, even if he didn’t as he played his second shot. (Maddie Meyer)

That Johnson went for it had to drive a sect of observers mad. They assert, with a lead like Johnson’s, the play is to lay up, pitch safely onto the green and walk away with par.

There is credence to that strategy, especially after Johnson’s second shot—after rolling up his pants and jumping in the lake—fell short of the green. Yet it discounts the moxie that buoyed Johnson over the previous two holes, the same moxie that allowed him to save par by chipping his third to three feet. Besides, gunslingers don’t pick their spots. They open the chamber and ask questions later.

“I had the confidence,” Johnson said. “I was ready to finish out the golf tournament.”

An hour weather delayed attempted to derail Johnson’s victory lap over the final three holes, and a bogey out of a greenside bunker at the 16th appeared to create a showdown with Streelman. But Streelman missed a birdie putt at the 17th and a wayward drive and pulled approach did the veteran in at the 18th. Johnson took care of business by cleaning up a four-footer for par on the 17th.

Then, in case the previous 71 holes failed to convey the message, Johnson fired a 351-yard drive on the final hole, leaving just 80 yards off the carpet. Through the smoke, a wedge to 20 feet, with a lag to inches the final blow to Streelman.

“I knew where we stood,” Johnson said. “I knew what I needed to do, but sitting there, you’re cold, you’re coming out, you start on a par 3, it was difficult. But I managed to get it done.”

= Johnson now has 21 PGA Tour wins and a victory in 13th straight seasons. (Elsa)

Johnson’s reward is his 21st win on tour. With a trophy case that mammoth—filled with prizes from the U.S. Open, WGCs, playoff events, Player of the Year honours—it’s easy and fair to wonder what shelf, if any, this tournament occupies. But, mentioned above, Johnson’s been gone for some time. Though few were wondering if he’d come back, there’s always the possibility of not returning from the wilderness. Not that Johnson was among the doubters.

“I put in the work, so I feel like I’ve put in enough hard work to where my game should be spot on all the time,” Johnson said. “Obviously coming off of an injury, or surgery last fall, and then only playing a couple tournaments before our shutdown, so I didn’t really get a lot of golf to get back in a rhythm.

“I felt like it was really good, it was really close to being great at Hilton Head, and then obviously coming here, I really felt good about things.”

Even with a substandard past 12 months, it’s worth noting Johnson did win in 2019, and Sunday marked the 13th straight season Johnson has notched a victory on his belt. In his estimation, he’s never had a bad year on tour. “And I hope I don’t start anytime soon,” he added.

With that, the desperado left with the sunset. Expect him back real soon.

The post Dustin Johnson, golf’s gunslinger, gets hot then stays cool to win Travelers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
On what is called moving day for an entirely different reason, the PGA Tour moved up third-round tee times several hours in an effort to beat afternoon thunderstorms in the forecast.

Good move, though not as impressive as the moves made by Brendon Todd and Dustin Johnson, who each had career-best rounds of 61, nine-under par, on the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn.

The duo occupies the top two places on the leader board heading into Sunday’s final round. As for the weather, the final minutes of the round were played in the rain, but ahead of the thunderstorms. Alas, the forecast for Sunday is for scattered thunderstorms beginning around 11 a.m. (EDT).

The resumption of Brendon Todd’s resurgence

Todd was among the headliners when this season began last October, winning two in a row, at the Bermuda Championship and the Mayakoba Golf, but as the calendar changed to 2020, followed by the COVID-19 suspension, he was largely forgotten again.

When play resumed recently, he missed the cut in the first two starts, but on the strength of his 61 on Saturday, he is in position to add a third victory this season.

“It seems like since the fall, whenever I get a two- or three-week stretch in a row, I tend to be playing better by the end of it,” he said. “That’s just something I’m using to my advantage now after missing two cuts. I’m peaking in the third week and hopefully I can get it done tomorrow.”

Todd made nine birdies and nine pars, and hasn’t made a bogey since the fourth hole of the first round on Thursday.

Recall that Todd went through a barren stretch that had him contemplating an early retirement. He had missed 37 cuts in 40 starts at one point.

DJ’s alarm finally went off

Maddie Meyer

It’s not true that Johnson is sleep-walking through his career, of course, though it does seem like it at times. When the season resumed three weeks ago, he did not play as though he was sufficiently prepared for the restart, missing the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge, then tying for 17th at the RBC Heritage.

Whatever the cause, he appears to have rediscovered the gear that has made him a future World Golf Hall of Famer. He has had rounds of 69, 64 and 61. He is, as they say, trending in the right direction.

He was asked about whether he ever experiences stress on a golf course.

“A lot more than you think I do,” he said. “I just try not to show it. Today I hit a lot of good iron shots, so there wasn’t really any much of a struggle. I felt like I gave myself really good birdie opportunities on every hole.”

Phil’s bid goes off the rails

Elsa

Literally, off the rails. Phil Mickelson, the 36-hole leader of the Travelers, already was struggling to keep in contact with the leaders on Saturday, when he did the unthinkable at the par-5 13th hole.

Mickelson was in a bunker right of the green in two shots, facing a 39-yard shot to the green. Instead, one of the best players ever with a wedge in his hands, he bladed his third over the green, out of bounds, and off some railroad tracks.

He took a drop in the bunker, then got up and down for a bogey six that dropped him four off the lead.

Mickelson, who turned 50 less than two weeks ago, will need a heroic effort on Sunday to become the eighth player in his 50s to win on the PGA Tour. He’ll start the final round six shots off the lead.

Will Gordon’s prime-time debut

Elsa

A 23-year-old from Vanderbilt University attempting to play his way onto the PGA Tour, Gordon played his way into the final pairing on Saturday by virtue of a second-round 62 on Friday. He was playing alongside 36-hole leader Mickelson and Mackenzie Hughes.

The good news was that Gordon played Mickelson to a draw. The downside was that each shot a one-over 71, which dropped Gordon to a tie for 12th, seven shots behind the leader.

His goal now would seem to be a top 10, which would get him into the Rocket Mortgage field without having to spend a sponsor’s exemption. Currently, he is in the field on a sponsor’s invitation.

Jason Day keeps COVID-19 in golf headlines

Maddie Meyer

It is becoming increasingly apparent that COVID-19-related news is going to be a daily occurrence with the PGA Tour’s return.

The latest was Jason Day, who on Saturday morning at the Travelers Championship requested a test. As a result, he was sent out in the third round playing as a single.

The test, however, came back negative, allowing Day to continue playing. Had the test been positive, he would have had to withdraw.

Denny McCarthy withdrew after the first round because of a positive test. Bud Cauley, who was paired with McCarthy, also withdrew as a precautionary measure.

Prior to the start of the Travelers, Cameron Champ withdrew after testing positive for the virus. Brooks Koepka and brother Chase Koepka both withdrew for precautionary reasons after Brooks’ caddie Ricky Elliott tested positive. Graeme McDowell similarly withdrew after his caddie tested positive. Webb Simpson withdrew amid concerns about a family member being positive, though he announced on Saturday that turned out not to be the case.

There, too, was the PGA Tour announcing an update to its testing protocol.

The post Brendon Todd beats the weather and the course, and four other takeaways from Day 3 of the Travelers Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The PGA Tour announced Saturday that individuals will not be allowed on tournament properties until passing a COVID-19 test.

The announcement comes after players and caddies ultimately diagnosed with coronavirus visited both the RBC Heritage and Travelers Championship venues while awaiting their results.

“Over the past three weeks as part of its return to golf, the tour has been committed to learning from an operational standpoint and adjusting protocols in place in order to mitigate risk and promote the health and safety of all involved, including players, caddies, staff and volunteers,” read a statement. “Effective immediately with the Rocket Mortgage Classic, players and caddies, along with all other individuals ‘inside the bubble,’ will not be allowed on property until first being cleared with a negative in-market test.”

Due to lags in turnaround times, this change will not be implemented for the Korn Ferry Tour.

Earlier in the week, tour commissioner Jay Monahan held an impromptu press conference at TPC River Highlands, announcing that further changes would be implemented to its plan while reminding his constituents what was at stake.

“All of us have an extraordinary responsibility to follow those protocols. For any individual that does not, there will be serious repercussions, and I’m not going to get into the specifics of it,” Monahan said. “But everybody knows and needs to know that our future, our ability to sustain this business and to impact the communities where we play and to create so many jobs is contingent on our ability to follow those protocols.”

Changes to date have included additional testing for those travelling on the tour’s charter flights between events and the return next week of the tour’s fitness truck to encourage use of on-site facilities.

Currently, eight players have withdrawn from tour events due to coronavirus-related concerns, seven of the WDs coming this week at the Travelers. Or those, two players tested positive this week—Cameron Champ before the tournament and Denny McCarthy after the first round.

The post PGA Tour announces players, caddies will only be allowed on tournament sites following negative COVID-19 tests appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
There are numerous procedures and protocols spelt out in the PGA Tour’s health and safety plan, but it’s a less specific understanding that binds them together: To make it work, players and caddies must be honest in assessing their own health and be willing to put personal interests aside to protect everyone involved in running tour events.

So it is that Graeme McDowell withdrew from this week’s Travelers Championship on Wednesday after learning that his caddie, Ken Comboy, had tested positive for COVID-19.

McDowell outlined his intentions on Tuesday night in a Golfweek report, where he stated that he had gotten news that afternoon of his caddie’s test result.

According to Golfweek, McDowell passed a COVID-19 test upon arrival at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., on Monday. But Comboy, back home in Orlando, received a positive test result on Tuesday for a test he took over the weekend after beginning to feel COVID-19 symptoms. And given the numerous hours the two spent together the last few weeks, McDowell decided it was best that he pull out of the tournament in case he might be carrying the virus and keep from exposing other players, caddies and tournament officials to it.

“I’m just uncomfortable being here,” McDowell told Golfweek.

RELATED: Cameron Champ tests positive for COVID, WDs from the Travelers

McDowell was in a car for six hours with Comboy, driving from Orlando to Hilton Head last week, where they competed at the RBC Heritage. They roomed together in South Carolina, and then when McDowell missed the cut, they drove together back to Florida.

After returning to Orlando, Comboy filled out a daily questionnaire on Saturday mentioning a sore throat. A doctor reading the questionnaire advised the caddie to get tested again, so Comboy drove back to Hilton Head to take a test at the PGA Tour facility. This is the test, according to Golfweek, that returned the positive result.

Rather than travel to Connecticut, Comboy quarantined himself in Florida while waiting for the test result. McDowell did travel to TPC River Highlands, where Golfweek reported he played a practice round on Tuesday with Brooks Koepka, Chase Koepka and Shane Lowry.

McDowell said he will take another COVID test on Wednesday, and then fly on a private plane to Orlando, where he’ll await the result.

The post Graeme McDowell withdraws from Travelers Championship after caddie tests positive for COVID-19 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
Tiger Woods once famously said that second place sucks.

Zack Sucher disagrees.

“It’s life changing, to be honest,” an emotional Sucher said after his tie for second at the Travelers Championship on Sunday.

That’s not an overstatement.

With birdies on four of his final six holes at TPC River Highlands, including a chip-in to see par on the last, the 32-year-old recorded his best-ever finish on the PGA Tour. It was also the biggest payday of his career, by a lot.

Sucher’s runner-up netted him $633,600. Prior to Sunday’s final round, he’d earned just over $850,000 in a career that spanned a half-dozen years mostly on the Web.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour).

But this is a story not just about a big payday, though it helped a lot considering the trials and tribulations Sucher endured. In 2017, his second year on the PGA Tour, he missed the cut 11 times in 14 starts, battling ankle problems along the way that were severe enough that the injury also started to affect his knee. After the 2017 Travelers, Sucher underwent surgery and took a medical extension.

It would be another 13 months before the University of Alabama Birmingham alum and Hooters Tour player could swing a club. He also had to wait seven months for the PGA Tour’s disability policy to kick in.

The combination proved a heavy burden.

“We had seven months with no income at all coming in two years ago,” Sucher said. “During that, we had to take out some credit cards.”

When he did return to play, the path was fraught with obstacles. Sucher had just six starts to earn 347 FedEx Cup points and had to endure the difficulty (and cost) of far-flung trips to Colombia and Panama in the early part of the Web.com season.

He continued to bet on himself, though, and the decision began to pay off. He tied for fourth at the Dormie Network Classic at Briggs Ranch in San Antonio in April and three weeks ago finished runner-up at the Rex Hospital Open to lock up his card on the developmental circuit for next year.

Then came the Travelers.

Sucher was initially an alternate in the field before getting in. With just three starts remaining on his extension he still needed to make up 322 FedEx Cup points and by midway, through the third round, he was cruising, leading by five strokes and seemingly en route to a life-altering victory.

Or not.

In the span of just over 30 minutes, he went bogey-double-double and suddenly found himself trailing. Over the course of nine holes, he’d gone from five up to six back.

A day later, though, he’d put the implosion behind him, closing with a 30 over his final nine holes to earn the tie for second. In addition to nearly doubling his career earnings, he nabbed 245 FedEx Cup points to climb to 126th in the season-long race and inside the re-shuffle on the priority ranking, which will provide for additional starts after the medical extension runs out, should he need them.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what all this does for points-wise, for next year,” Sucher said. “I don’t even know how that works. I know that like two months ago we had credit card debt. So I know we don’t have that anymore.

“Yeah, this is unbelievable.”

And second place doesn’t always suck after all.

The post Second-place finish proves life changing for Zack Sucher at Travelers Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
All that practice Joaquin Niemann was doing with a beach ball between his legs last week at TPC River Highlands, well, it looks to have paid off. The 20-year-old matched his best career finish on the PGA Tour with a tie for fifth at the Travelers Championship on Sunday.

More important, perhaps, is what the result might lead to for the formerly top-ranked amateur and 2018 Latin American Am champ.

In his second season on tour—technically he’s still a rookie after playing just a dozen tournaments last year as a non-member—Niemann has struggled mightily. In his first 20 starts of the year, he missed only six cuts and has netted just one top-25 finish before the Travelers.

This, following a 2018 that included a T-6 at the Memorial, T-5 at the Greenbrier and three other top-10 finishes, which helped the young phenom from Chile bypass the Web.com Tour and get his PGA Tour card by finishing greater than or equal to the top 125 on the 2016-’17 FedEx Cup points list through the Wyndham Championship as a non-members.

“It’s not the season I expected, but I know that my game is there,” Niemann said on Sunday. “I been playing good. I just need to be patient.”

It showed in the final round of the Travelers, where Niemann played bogey-free golf and posted four birdies en route to a 66. On Friday, he shot a 65 in the second round, to go with a pair of 69s in his other two rounds. His 11-under 269 was six strokes back of winner Chez Reavie.

Niemann’s use of the beach ball early in the week was to help create width between his knees during his swing to help hit shots higher. A big reason why Niemann succeeded on Sunday, however, came from a different part of his game: His putting. In the final round, he picked up 3.166 strokes gained/putting on the field. Comparatively, Niemann came into the week ranked 182nd in putting, losing almost 0.5 strokes to the field on the greens, which is why he says he turned to the Perfect Putter training aid for help.

“That helps me a lot to get a good read,” he said. “It’s all about the speed, also. Before, when I miss a putt, I always blame myself, like I was a bad putter. Now I know that I’m hitting a good putt, and if I miss it, it was probably because of the speed or it didn’t break much.”

Speaking of breaks, Niemann’s strong week could lead to an even bigger one. With the T-5, he jumped from 140th in the FedEx Cup standings, to 106th with less than two months before the Playoffs.

“I’m starting to feel really good with my game,” Niemann said. “The middle of the season this year I start struggling, and I was too worried about it. Now, I just try to enjoy it more again. Just go out there, try to hit good shots, and have fun.”

What’s more fun than a beach ball? A season-best result with a bright future on the horizon.

The post Joaquin Niemann gets the finish he desperately needed to kick-start his 2019 PGA Tour season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Standing on the 10th tee on Saturday at the Travelers Championship, Chez Reavie, playing in the final pairing, trailed Zack Sucher by six. A couple of hours later, Reavie holed a six-footer for birdie on the par-4 18th at TPC River Highlands to extend his own lead to six shots. No, that is not a typo.

With the help of a mid-round meltdown from Sucher, who went out in 31 to reach 15 under but then went bogey-double bogey-double bogey to begin his back nine, Reavie was able to quickly close the gap with four consecutive birdies. Only he didn’t just close the gap, he leap-frogged Sucher and then some, carding a course-record back-nine 28. He finished with a seven-under 63, putting him alone at the top at 16-under 194, six clear of Sucher and Keegan Bradley, who are tied at 10-under 200.

Reavie, 37, is looking for just the second win of his PGA Tour career, the first coming more than a decade ago at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open. He’s had plenty of close calls since then, including a pair of playoff losses, most recently at the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open and before that at the 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship. Last week, he tied for third at the U.S. Open, the best finish of his career in a major, and the only one inside the top 10.

He’ll play in the final group alongside Bradley, who got up and down for par at the 18th to post a 69. Sucher, who could have gone completely off the rails after the debacle at 10, 11 and 12, was able to settle in and make six consecutive pars to close his round. He finished with a one-over 71.

Roberto Diaz (67) and Jason Day (68) are tied for fourth at nine-under 201, while Bryson DeChambeau is among a group at eight under thanks to his third-round 64, which would have been the low score of the day if not for Reavie.

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