{"id":3441,"date":"2022-06-21T20:01:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/?post_type=article&p=3441"},"modified":"2022-06-21T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:02:00","slug":"the-2022-travelers-championship-what-the-players-are-saying","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/article\/the-2022-travelers-championship-what-the-players-are-saying\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2022 Travelers Championship: What The Players Are Saying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a grind of the U.S. Open, the PGA heads to a much friendlier track at TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship. The Travelers is a popular stop on the PGA Tour which is obvious again this week with a strong field, which is impressive considering that it falls after the US Open every year on the schedule which Patrick Cantlay noted today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A PGA Tour Success Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this tournament’s a big success story. I think that they get a great field on a tough week on the schedule,\u201d Cantlay said. \u201cThe week after the U.S. Open is probably not a week that you would expect a lot of the best players to play. It’s definitely one of the best tournaments of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarities to The Country Club At Brookline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TPC River Highlands is located in Cromwell, Connecticut just a couple of hours south of The Country Club in Brookline there are some similarities as Ron noted in his excellent course preview<\/a> which defending champion Harris English noted today, \u201cI mean coming down from Boston it’s an easy transition with the same grass, the same type of greens, so it’s pretty easy to get used to this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPC Riverhighlands is a special place for Cantlay. He made his PGA Tour debut in 2011 a week after playing the U.S. Open at Congressional. After rain washed out the Thursday round, Cantlay played 36 holes on Friday and shot a then course record 60 in the second round. He says that driving accuracy is important here and the course has some bite despite being the fourth shortest course on tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hit It Straight, Make Birdies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it rewards driving the ball in the fairway and if you can do that you can make a lot of birdies around here. I think it’s a good design. It usually holds its own, despite being a shorter golf course and having some reachable par-5s and a reachable par-4. It’s just a fun golf course to play and I think one of the better ones that we play all year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TV Doesn’t Do The Course Justice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cantlay and English are veterans of The Travelers Championship so their experience will be wildly different from Cole Hammer\u2019s experience. The talented 22-year-old is fresh off a National Championship at Texas. He played last week on the Korn Ferry Tour before getting a sponsor\u2019s exemption to play this week. He says that watching this event doesn\u2019t do the course justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe golf course is different than I thought it was or thought it would be on TV.\u201d Hammer said. \u201cI got on the first tee box and I couldn’t believe how downhill it was. Then the second hole is straight back up the hill. Sometimes, unfortunately, TV doesn’t show that just because of where the cameras are. But the golf course is in perfect shape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get a chance to walk the course and you\u2019ll definitely agree with what Hammer had to say about the first hole and the rest of the course in general. It\u2019s a narrow track, though not as narrow as some we\u2019ve seen in recent weeks. With rain in the forecast for Wednesday and early Thursday, the course may be soft and scoreable, but will make the rough, which is already plenty thick, even more difficult than it already is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The back nine at TPC River Highlands is a lot of fun. Ten is similar in a lot of ways to 1 and 11 is a downhill-par three. Holes 12 through 14 run along some houses so you don\u2019t have any room to miss. Those holes each have unique characteristics that make them fun and they set up a really interesting final four-hole stretch starting with the driveable par-4 15th, although it looks narrower in person than it does on TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect Fireworks On The Back Nine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Travelers has a history of close finishes with 12 of the last 15 events decided by one stroke or fewer with six playoffs. There have been so many memorable finishes, from Jim Furyk\u2019s 58 to Jordan Spieth\u2019s hole out on 18 in 2017, to the epic 8-hole playoff that English won over Kramer Hickok last year. English thinks the back nine is perfectly set up for drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis course leads to unbelievable things happening coming down the stretch. 15 being one of the best short par-4s we play,\u201d English said. \u201cI mean, in my eye, I mean you can go shoot an easy 3-, 4-over on the back nine or you can go shoot 6-, 7-under. And that leads to anybody winning the tournament coming down the stretch and makes for an exciting nine holes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we won\u2019t see something as magically as Spieth in the bunker or mind-boggling as an eight-hole playoff, but Hammer summed up this event nicely, \u201cThere’s just so much that can happen. No wonder there’s so many fireworks every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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