It was a Travelers for the ages. Though neither are big names, Harris English and Kramer Hickok etched their names in Connecticut golf history with their epic on Sunday in Cromwell, capped by English's tournament-winning birdie putt on the eighth playoff hole. It not only surpassed the previous tournament record of seven sudden-death playoff holes, set in both 1961 and '62, but it nearly set a PGA Tour record for length.
The 2021 event goes down in a tie for the second-longest playoff in Tour history, with five other events over the past 60 years. Here's the company English and Hickok joined in their memorable duel on Sunday:
1949 Motor City Open (11 holes): Three years before Hartford played its first PGA Tour event, the Motor City Open set a sudden-death playoff record that still stands 62 years later... and it could have been longer! World Golf Hall of Famers Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum finished their final rounds in Detroit at 11-under, then kept matching each other in a sudden-death playoff. The pair played 11 holes evenly before darkness set in and play had to be stopped. Instead of resuming the next morning, though, tournament officials and the players agreed to a tie, with Middlecoff and Mangrum being declared co-winners.
It would (sort of) be decided in the ensuing years, as Mangrum (1950) and Middlecoff ('52 and '54) would combine to win the next three Motor City Opens.
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2021 Travelers Championship (8 holes): When English drained a 28-footer on 18 to take a one-shot lead into the clubhouse, it began a stretch for Hickok in which he basically couldn't miss a putt. He saved par on 17, then made a pressure 8-footer on 18 to force the sudden-death playoff, where he nearly won his first PGA Tour event twice. On the second playoff hole he lipped out on a 43-footer that would have won, then did it again on the fifth playoff hole from a much closer distance. English, himself, missed a 7-foot winning putt on the sixth playoff hole.
2012 Mayakoba Golf Classic (8 holes): Prior to Sunday, the most recent PGA event to last as long in a sudden-death playoff came nearly a decade ago in Mexico. Robert Allenby had a two-stroke lead heading into the 72nd hole before double-bogeying, and the marathon was on. He went to a playoff with John Huh, the 2012 PGA Rookie of the Year, who overcame a seven-shot deficit on Sunday in just his fifth Tour start. Going shot-for-shot through seven holes, Allenby finally cracked first, missing a par putt on the eighth playoff hole to give Huh his first (and only) PGA Tour victory.
1983 Phoenix Open (8 holes): How rare is an eight-hole sudden-death playoff? Sunday was just the second in nearly 40 years, though neither of the first two had the manpower of the '83 Phoenix Open. Through 72 holes there was a four-way tie for first place, with Rex Caldwell, Bob Gilder, Johnny Miller and Mark O'Meara all going to a playoff. The latter two were knocked out after two holes, and it was Gilder and Caldwell going head-to-head for another six. Finally on the eighth hole Gilder secured his final PGA Tour victory (though he'd see another 10 on the Senior Tour).
1981 Quad Cities Open (8 holes): You think a four-player playoff is exciting? How about a FIVE-player extravaganza? At what is now known as the John Deere Classic, Dave Barr, Woody Blackburn, Frank Conner, Dan Halldorson and Victor Regalado were all 10-under, setting up the rare five-person sudden-death playoff. Barr and Blackburn each birdied the first hole, eliminating the other three quickly, but it was far from over. The two matched each other hole-for-hole until the eighth, when finally Blackburn buckled first by bogeying. It was enough for Barr to win the first of two career PGA events in his career.
1978 Greater Milwaukee Open (8 holes): A battle of Lees. Lee Elder and Lee Trevino faced off head-to-head in a playoff for the second time in 1978 -- the first time came in Hartford, when Trevino edged Elder on the first playoff hole at the GHO in 1972. Six years later, this one took a bit longer. All square through seven holes, a par on the eighth was enough for Elder to win his third PGA Tour event, and that was kind of the norm for Elder. Each of his four career victories came by either one stroke or in a playoff.
1965 Azalea Open Invitational (8 holes): Dick Hart only won once in his professional career, but it came in a classic. At the Azalea Open Invitational in North Carolina he and Phil Rodgers dueled each other for eight holes, before a par finally gave Hart the victory.