(CROMWELL—WTIC News) Two years after Keegan Bradley won the Travelers Championship here at -23, and a year after Scottie Scheffler won at -22 despite changes intended to make the course more difficult, notably low scores by the world’s best at TPC River Highlands are still a hot topic.
World #1 Scheffler assured reporters Wednesday that while everyone agrees this course represents less of a challenge than last week’s brutal U.S.
Open setup, it’s plenty tough, calling it a “fair test:”
“The most frustrating thing for me when I play a golf tournament is when you see good shots not getting rewarded and bad shots not being punished properly, that’s really all we look for. So, do I care that -22 wins this week? No.”
Rory McIlroy agrees that the course represents relief from the U.S. Open:
“I think it is welcome… There’s a lot of guys in the field this week where this is their fourth tournament in a row. So, they’ve been put through the ringer the last few weeks. This is a welcome setup where they feel like they can relax a little bit and not have to grind so much for your score.”
Scheffler plays with newly crowned U.S. Open champion J.J.
Spaun in the first round Thursday, teeing off at 1:45 pm. McIroy tees off at 10:35 am with Bradley, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
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As demonstrated by last year’s Travelers Championship, won in a playoff by Scheffler, golf packs plenty of drama.
That’s something a new participant in the sport, playing her first pro-am, can appreciate: She’s actor Mary Kate Morrissey, who recently starred in Wicked on Broadway.
Before teeing off in the Travelers Pro-Am on Wednesday, Morrissey described the sport, which she started playing last year, in theatrical terms:
“Every course is a story. Every hole is the scene. There’s hope.
Despair. Meltdowns. High drama. So, I love it.”
The tournament’s reputation for delivering on charity brings out the stars—Morrissey for the first time, several others for repeat performances.
Pro Football Hall of Fame member Andre Tippett, the great Patriots linebacker, came back to play with two other regulars, ESPN’s Chris Berman and famed quarterback Doug Flutie. PGA Tour legend Larry Nelson joined their group.
“Travelers and what they do in the community is part of why I like to come down here,” says Tippett. “I know that they do so much for the youth in the area. It’s amazing. We should have more people like that."
Tippett kept his goals for his round simple, saying, “My mission today… is to hit a good tee off the first hole. As long you see that first shot, I’m good to go, I don’t care how I play the rest of the day.”
As she prepared to tee off, Morrissey was just hoping to keep it together:
“It’s funny, I feel really, really nervous. I think I’ve sung in front of 800,000 people last year, and I feel more nervous now doing this in front of this group (about 100 people gathered around the tee), just because this is the thing that I’m not the pro at. It feels a little bit like a challenge to expand my character and practice what I preach.”