Almost a year to the day after Travelers announced a 10-year extension of its title sponsorship, the golf tournament made one of its biggest player announcements as far as the world rankings are concerned.

Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, the world's second-ranked golfer, No. 4 Jason Day and defending champion Kevin Streelman were the first players committed to the Travelers Championship to be held June 25-28 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

"We were able to finalize all three of them over the weekend," Travelers tournament director Nathan Grube said. "We've never been able to announce this early two of the top 5 for sure. There will be more to come."

Watson moved up to No. 2 from third in the rankings this week. Watson's first PGA Tour win was at the 2010 Travelers Championship. He's won six times since, including last year's Masters. This will be his eighth straight appearance at River Highlands.

Day returns for a third time. He finished tied for 18th place last year. Day won the Farmers Insurance Open on Feb. 1 in a sudden-death playoff. He has yet to win a major title, but has seven top-10 finishes in just 17 starts.

Streelman (pictured above) became the first PGA Tour player to make seven straight birdies to win a tour event, birdieing holes 12-18 last June at River Highlands. He is currently 20th in the FedExCup standings and 66th in the world rankings.

Grube and Andy Bessette, executive vice president and chief admintstrative officer for Travelers, met with all three players, or their representatives, at last week's Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles. It was the first trip the two have made to a PGA Tour event since last September's Tour Championship.

"We've gone to the Northern Trust the last three or four years," Grube said. "It's a good spot to catch them on the calendar. The players here begin to look at their schedules through the beginning of summer. To have the title sponsor out there (recruiting) matters to these guys. To have Andy out there is huge. It's not easy to get guys to commit so early."

Grube said he and Bessette will head to Miami next week for the WGC-Cadillac Championship, then to the Masters in April and the Players Championship in May. Normally, those recruiting trips have a Tuesday morning arrival and a departure before the tournament begins on Thursday.

"It looks like we will have a few new names for the first time since Travelers has been title sponsor," Grube said. "You will see some names fans will be very excited about."