Travelers Championship: Memorable moments

Talk about fantastic finishes – Kevin Streelman birdied the last seven holes to win by one shot at TPC River Highlands. Streelman’s streak was a record for most closing birdies for a tournament winner.

Charlie Sifford became the first African American to win a regular PGA Tour event when he came from five strokes behind in the final round to win by one. Another African American, Pete Brown, had won the Waco Turner Open in 1964, but that tournament existed for only four years.

If a Connecticut native couldn’t win at Hartford, someone from Rhode Island is the next best thing. Not only did Rhode Islander Brad Faxon win, he came from behind with a then-course record-tying 61 to get into a playoff with Tjaart van der Walt, which he won with a birdie on the first extra hole. In the playoff, Faxon drove into a fairway bunker, but then stuck a 7-iron shot to 3 feet and made the winning birdie.

It took Ken Duke 187 starts to earn his first PGA Tour win, but he made it an unforgettable one at the Travelers Championship. Duke appeared to have the tournament won when he saved par on the 72nd hole, but Chris Stroud chipped in from 50 feet to force the playoff. Duke, then 44, won with a 3-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole.

June 2011 was a pretty good month for Patrick Cantlay. First, the then-rising sophomore at UCLA received the Jack Nicklaus Award as the college player of the year. Then he qualified for the U.S. Open. Then he finished the Open as low amateur. That was all prelude to his appearance in the Travelers Championship, where in the second round he shot a course-record 60 at TPC River Highlands, the lowest score ever made by an amateur on the PGA Tour. Trivia alert: The 60 came in Cantlay’s second round of the day. Because of weather delays, he had to play 36 holes on Friday.

Arnold Palmer’s first win in the United States came at Hartford in the Insurance City Open. He beat Ted Kroll on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Afterwards, he praised his opponent, saying, “Ted is a great guy – he even gave me the putter that beat him.”

Paul Azinger called his first Hartford win, in 1987, “very sweet.” His second, in 1989, was “a relief.” The difference? In 1989 he hadn’t won in more than a year and was beginning to question himself. But those questions went away when he chipped in for birdie and a one-shot win over Wayne Levi. Levi, incidentally, came back the following year and won.

It’s always a popular result when a local product wins the tournament. So it was in 2006 when J.J. Henry, born and raised in Fairfield, Conn., recorded a three-shot victory over Hunter Mahan and Ryan Moore. Henry used to attend the tournament as a child. “Every time I’d leave here I’d go back to the putting green or the driving range and pretend I was winning the tournament,” he said. “I thought how cool that would be someday if I could be one of those guys and play against the best players in the world. It means the world to me.”

Suzy Whaley qualified for the 2003 Greater Hartford Open by winning the 2002 Connecticut PGA Championship. Her victory was controversial, though, as she played from tees that were 10 percent shorter than the ones played by men (6,239 yards to 6,938). The PGA of America subsequently passed the “Whaley rule,” requiring everyone at qualifying tournaments, regardless of gender, to play from the same tees. In the GHO, Whaley shot 75-78 and missed the cut. Whaley was one of six women to play in a men’s event in 2003, joining Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie, Laura Davies, Jan Stephenson and Se Ri Pak. Only Pak made a cut.

Jordan Spieth had to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the 18th hole just to get into a playoff with Daniel Berger (who had made his own up-and-down). But the Connecticut crowd hadn’t seen anything yet, as on the first playoff hole Spieth found himself in the same bunker. This time he holed the shot, which turned out to be a winner once Berger missed his third shot. The finish was so good, the PGA Tour named this event its tournament of the year for 2017.