Photos by Bill Harper
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| Jordan Spieth kisses his trophy after winning the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell on Sunday. |
CROMWELL – Jordan Spieth needed an extra hole, a little
bit of luck and an amazing final shot to finish off a wire-to-wire victory in
the Travelers Championship played at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. The
two-time major champion holed out from 60 feet for birdie from a green-side
bunker on the first hole of a playoff with Daniel Berger on Sunday. With the
win in Cromwell, Spieth an exclusive club with only one other member—Tiger
Woods—as the players with 10 Tour victories since World War II. Woods won 15
times before he turned 24.
“That was one for the ages,” said the 23-old Dallas native
after his dramatic Travelers victory. Spieth, the 2015 FedEx Cup champion, also
copped the Pebble Beach championship in February.
Spieth held a one-stroke edge after each of the first three
rounds. He closed with an even-par 70 to match Berger—who birdied three of the
final six holes for a 67—at 12-under 268. Berger, who won in Memphis two weeks
ago, just missed a 50-foot putt from off the 18th green left that would have
forced a second playoff hole.
“Jordan does Jordan
things,” said Berger, who rebounded with a strong performance in the Nutmeg
State after missing the cut at the U.S. Open last week. “So there's not really
much you can say. I'm obviously disappointed, but happy to be in the position I
was in today.”
Berger began the round in third place, three shots back. He
tied Spieth for a lead with a five-foot birdie putt on 15 as Spieth was making
bogey on 14 and tied him again with a birdie from eight feet at 17. The pair,
playing a group apart, both hit their approach shots on 18 into the same
green-side bunker. Both chipped out close to the hole and both saved par to
force the playoff.
Berger hit his drive on the first playoff hole left and into
the crowd behind a fairway bunker. Spieth seemed to clip a tree left landing in
the fairway but about 150 yards short of his normal drive and 230 yards from
the hole.
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| Spieth celebrates with caddy Michael Greller upon winning dramatic playoff. |
Spieth's approach fell into bunker. Berger's ran off the green
to the left. He had to back up after hitting his bunker shot to see
the hole. When the ball rolled straight in the cup he threw his club and did a
flying chest bump into caddy Michael Greller.
“If I was in Berger's shoes, I be cursing Jordan Spieth
right now for the break off the tee and then holing a 30-yard bunker shot,
that's a lot of luck,” Spieth said, speaking in the third person.
Spieth survived a couple of major scares on the back nine.
The first came when his drive on 13 went right but stuck on the side of a hill
to stay out of the water. He missed a 7-foot birdie putt, but saved par. Two
holes later, he hit his tee shot on the 15th left, just avoiding the water and
the hazard line in the rough. He chipped to the middle of the green and made a
16-foot putt for birdie, which he thought he had missed.
His second shot at 17 also looked as if it might hit the
course's signature lake, but landed just on the edge of the green and he made
par. “That's a lot of luck, but I took advantage of the good breaks and am
happy to come out on top,” said Spieth.
Charley Hoffman finished with a second-best round on Sunday
with a 66. Danny Lee tied for third at 67, three strokes back.
Rory McIlroy tried to find his short game this week and used
his third putter Sunday to help him shoot a 64, his lowest round on the Tour this
season. He tied for 17th at 6-under. “I must say I felt a little more
comfortable on the greens than I did the previous three days,” said the 28-year-old
Irishman. “So, this might be one that stays [in the bag] for a few weeks,” joked
the former fiancé of Connecticut Tennis Open fan favorite Caroline
Wozniacki.
Defending champion Russell Knox had a poor round, with six
bogeys on his first 10 holes. He shot a 73 to finish at even par. Grayson
Murray had the tournament's only hole-in-one, acing the 177-yard eighth hole
with an 8-iron.
Spieth becomes just the third player to go wire-to-wire
alone as the leader in the Connecticut event—in its various incarnations. Gene
Littler did it in 1959 when the tournament was known as the Insurance City International.
In 1982, Tim Morris led start-to-finish when it was called the Sammy
Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open.
—Staff Reports
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