Courtesy of the Associated Press

Jordan Spieth, the world’s sixth-ranked player, committed to the tournament Thursday morning for the first time. That’s three in the top six, joining No. 2 Rory McIlroy, also committed for the first time, and No. 3 Jason Day.

The tournament will be held June 22-25 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

Spieth is only 23, but has already won nine times on the PGA Tour, including the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. He won his two majors, the Masters and U.S. Open, in 2015, when he also won the Tour Championship, the FedExCup title and was the top-ranked player in the world.

Travelers also boasts Justin Thomas, a three-time winner on Tour this year and the 13th-ranked player, and No. 18 Patrick Reed, along with two-time champion Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk and former winners Marc Leishman and defending champion Russell Knox.

Three more golfers committed to play in the Travelers Championship next month: Patrick Reed, Brandt Snedeker and Marc Leishman.

Reed, ranked 15th in the world, becomes the fourth player in the top 15 to commit to play, joining Rory McIlroy (2), Jason Day (3) and Justin Thomas (11). Reed has five PGA Tour wins, including the Barclays in last year’s FedExCup playoffs. But he is probably best known for beating McIlroy in Ryder Cup singles play last fall to help the United States win back the Cup.

Reed tied for 11th last year at the Travelers, his best finish in five starts.

Snedeker also has played TPC River Highlands five previous times, his best finish a tie for 10th place in 2015. The 2012 winner of the FedExCup championship, Snedeker has eight PGA Tour wins to his credit and is ranked 32nd in the world.

Leishman, ranked 36th, won the Travelers in 2012, his first tour victory. His second came at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

The good news just keeps on coming in what is shaping up to be the best field the Travelers Championship has ever had.

Jason Day is the latest big name to commit to playing in the Travelers Championship in June. Day, the former PGA Championship winner, is ranked No. 3 in the world golf rankings.

Nathan Grube, the Travelers Championship tournament director, said Day’s commitment came “around lunch time” on Wednesday.

“We knew it was coming. We’ve had really good conversations with Jason,” Grube said Thursday morning.

That now makes three players from the top 10 in the latest world golf rankings in the field: Rory McIlroy at No. 2, Day at No. 3 and Justin Thoma at No. 10.

Day, who has spent a lot of time ranked No. 1, won the PGA Championship back in 2015. He’s played the TPC River Highlands course in Cromwell twice, finishing tied for 18th in 2014 and tied for 27th in 2008.

CHECK OUT MORE ON JASON DAY

Tom Aiken
Tyler Aldridge
Robert Allenby
Abraham Ancer
Aaron Baddeley
Blayne Barber
Ricky Barnes
Daniel Berger
Zac Blair
Jonas Blixt
Steven Bowditch
Keegan Bradley
Scott Brown
Bronson Burgoon
Angel Cabrera
Chad Campbell
Miguel Angel Carballo
Paul Casey
Bud Cauley
Alex Cejka
Greg Chalmers
Kevin Chappell
Chad Collins
Erik Compton
Ben Crane
Jon Curran
Brendon de Jonge
Bryson DeChambeau|
Jamie Donaldson
Luke Donald
Ken Duke
Ernie Els
Derek Ernst
Derek Fathauer
Tony Finau
Jim Furyk
Robert Garrigus
Brian Gay
Lucas Glover
Andres Gonzales
Retief Goosen
Jason Gore
Branden Grace
Chesson Hadley
Adam Hadwin
James Hahn
Brian Harman
Padraig Harrington
Russell Henley
J.J. Henry
Charley Hoffman
Morgan Hoffmann
Tom Hoge
J.B. Holmes
John Huh
Billy Hurley III
Hiroshi Iwata
Freddie Jacobson
Zach Johnson
Matt Jones
Sung Kang
Smylie Kaufman
Jerry Kelly
Michael Kim
Si Woo Kim
Whee Kim
Patton Kizzire
Soren Kjeldsen
Colt Knost
Russell Knox
Brooks Koepka
Jason Kokrak
Kelly Kraft
Matt Kuchar
Martin Laird
Andrew Landry
D.H. Lee
Marc Leishman
Justin Leonard
Spencer Levin
Luke List
Andrew Loupe
Jamie Lovemark
Shane Lowry
Will Mackenzie
Hunter Mahan
Peter Malanti
Steve Marino
Ben Martin
Lee McCoy
George McNeill
Troy Merritt
Bryce Molder
Francesco Molinari
Ryan Moore
Jordan Niebrugge
Seung-Yul Noh
Henrik Norlander
Sean O’Hair
Geoff Ogilvy
Louis Oosthuizen
Rob Oppenheim
Carlos Ortiz
Greg Owen
Rod Pampling
Tim Petrovic
Martin Piller
Scott Pinckney
Ted Potter, Jr.
Dicky Pride
Jon Rahm
Adam Rainaud
Chez Reavie
Patrick Reed
Kyle Reifers
Wes Roach
Patrick Rodgers
Rory Sabbatini
Sam Saunders
John Senden
Robby Shelton
Webb Simpson
Vijay Singh
Heath Slocum
Cameron Smith
Scott Stallings
Kyle Stanley
Brendan Steele
Shawn Stefani
Brett Stegmaier
Darron Stiles
Kevin Streelman
Chris Stroud
Brian Stuard
Daniel Summerhays
Hudson Swafford
Nick Taylor
Vaughn Taylor
Justin Thomas
Michael Thompson
Brendon Todd
David Toms
Tyrone Van Aswegen
Dawie van der Walt
Camilo Villegas
Johnson Wagner
Bubba Watson
Boo Weekley
Steve Wheatcroft
Tim Wilkinson
Mark Wilson
Four available spots for Monday’s Open qualifier

Two players with six combined major championships and a member of the current U.S. Olympic men’s golf team have committed to play in the Travelers Championship Aug. 4-7.

Ernie Els brings his 19 PGA Tour victories, including two wins each in the U.S. Open and Open Championship, back to TPC River Highlands for a third time. Now 46, Els was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.

Matt Kuchar is one of four members from the United States to participate in the men’s golf portion of the Olympics in August. Kuchar is currently ranked 17th in the world golf rankings, has seven tour wins and is making his ninth trip to the Travelers.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen is making his third appearance at the Travelers, tying for fifth in 2010.

HARTFORD >> Bubba Watson (above) has played his best golf on the PGA Tour on some of the most well-known and difficult courses: Augusta National, Riviera and Torrey Pines, accounting for a combined five of his nine tour victories.


You may or may not include TPC River Highlands in that elite group, but the home of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell will always hold a special place in Watson’s heart. It was the scene of his first tour win in 2010 and he added another title at River Highlands last year.


“I feel comfortable here since I won it before,” Watson said at the Marriott Hartford Downtown Monday morning. “I’ve won in different areas, all on different grass. I’ve won in China, the Bahamas, L.A. a couple of times (Riviera) and Augusta, Georgia.”



Less than 24 hours after finishing tied for 51st place at the U.S. Open at Oakmont CC in Pennsylvania, Watson was in Hartford, then in Cromwell for Travelers Championship Media Day.

Read what else Buba had to say about the USGA's ruling on Dustin Johnson and making the U.S. Olympic team for golf in August.

Patrick Reed (above), currently the 11th ranked player in the world, was one of four golfers announced Friday to play in the Travelers Championship Aug. 4-7 at TPC River Highlands.

Joining Reed will be 2012 Travelers champion Marc Leishman, three-time major champion Padraig Harrington and Charley Hoffman. Reed is currently the second-highest ranked player in the field behind defending champion Bubba Watson (4). He has two runner-up finishes this season and has four victories on the PGA Tour.

Leishman was in a three-way playoff for last year’s Open championship with eventual champion Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen, both of whom have committed to play in the Travelers. He is currently ranked 40th in the world.

Hoffman is currently ranked 36th and won the Texas Valero Open in April. He tied for second the year Leishman won in Cromwell. Harrington, ranked 163rd, is making his seventh appearance at TPC River Highlands.

CROMWELL >> For the first time since Travelers took over title sponsorship in 2007, the Travelers Championship golf tournament will not be played the week after the U.S. Open.


Instead, it will be held Aug. 4-7 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. A number of tournaments on the summer PGA Tour schedule were moved because of the Summer Olympics in Rio the week after the Travelers is played.



That change has provided some extra time to renovate TPC River Highlands. The multi-million dollar project did not lengthen the course (6,820 yards), but did make enough changes where spectators who have attended the tournament for years will notice the different nuances.

Some of those nuances include a new, flattened out viewing area behind the 16th green (pictured above).

What else will be different for this year's tournament? Check out the full story here.

Three former major championship winners, led by reigning Open championship winner Zach Johnson, will be playing in the Travelers Championship Aug. 4-7 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

Johnson won the Open, his second major title, last July. Now ranked 16th in the world, Johnson also won the 2007 Masters. He has 11 total wins on the PGA Tour and will be making his 11th appearance at River Highlands.

Webb Simpson, winner of the U.S. Open champion in 2012, makes his seventh appearance at the Travelers but first since 2013. Simpson has three other tour wins and is currently 81st in the world rankings. Keegan Bradley makes his sixth straight appearance at the Travlers. Among his three tour victories is the 2011 PGA Championship. He is ranked 98th.

Len Mattiace (above, blue shirt) came to TPC River Highlands on June 25 not knowing if he was in the field for the Travelers Championship.


The tour pro was staying at his home in Rhode Island and found out the night before that no alternates were on site. He knew if the call came Thursday morning, Mattiace had to be there ready to play.


“Evidently, nobody came in last night or this morning,” Mattiace said.



When D.A. Points withdrew on the morning of June 25, Mattiace was in the Travelers Championship. It’s the life of a former full-time member of the PGA Tour who no longer has much status to get into weekly events.

“I don’t know what (number alternate) I was. More than 10,” Mattiace said.



According to the PGA Tour, the former two-time winner was the 21st alternate. That normally translates into it’s not going to happen. But with more than half of the alternates instead going to the Web.Com Tour event, Mattiace got the chance to play in his third event of the year.

READ MORE ABOUT MATTIACE AND WHAT STATE GOLFER QUALIFIED FOR THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP.

The Travelers Championship announced on its Twitter account Monday afternoon that Jason Day has withdrawn from this week’s tournament.

Day tied for ninth place at the U.S. Open Sunday despite battling vertigo for most of the weekend. He collapsed on his final hole on Friday and almost withdrew on Saturday. He ended up tied for the lead heading into the final round.

Day moved up two spots to No. 8 in the latest world rankings released Monday. He tied for 18th place in last year’s Travelers Championship.

Blake Adams
Steven Alker
Robert Allenby
Mark Anderson
Stuart Appleby
Ryan Armour
Eric Axley
Aaron Baddeley
Sang Moon Bae
Blayne Barber
Ricky Barnes
Charlie Belijan
Kyle Bilodeau
Zac Blair
Jonas Blixt
Jason Bohn
Steven Bowditch
Keegan Bradley
Scott Brown
Angel Cabrera
Chad Campbell
Paul Casey
Alex Cejka
Kevin Chappell
Stewart Cink
Tim Clark
Chad Collins
Eric Compton
Jon Curran
Brian Davis
Jason Day
Brendon DeJonge
Graham DeLeat
Luke Donald
Ken Duke
Ernie Els
Harris English
Derek Ernst
Matt Every
Derek Fathauer
Gonzalo Fdez-Castano
Tony Finau
Martin Flores
Oscar Fraustro
Sergio Garcia
Brice Garnett
Robert Garrigus
Tom Gillis
Lucas Glover
Andfres Gonzales
Jason Gore
Branden Grace
Luke Guthrie
Adam Hadwin
Brian Harman
Padraig Harrington
JJ Henry
Jim Herman
Morgan Hoffman
Tom Hoge
Max Homa
Billy Horschel
Mark Hubbard
John Huh
Billy Hurley III
Ryo Ishikawa
Zach Johnson
Matt Jones
Jerry Kelly
Whee Kim
Colt Knost
Russell Knox
Jason Kokrak
Martin Laird
Neal Lancaster
Scott Langley
Danny Lee
Marc Leishman
Spencer Levin
David Lingmerth
Davis Love III
Bill Lunde
Will MacKenzie
Hunter Mahan
Leee McCoy
William McGirt
John Merrick
Troy Merritt
Bryce Molder
Francesco Molinari
Kevin Na
Seung-Yul Oh
Sean O’Hair
Louis Oosthuizen
Carlos Ortiz
Jeff Overton
Greg Owen
S.J. Park
Cameron Percy
John Peterson
Tim Petrovic
Carl Pettersson
Scott Pinckney
D.A. Points
Alex Prugh
Andrew Putnam
Michael Putnam
Jon Rahm
Jonathan Randolph
Chez Reavie
Patrick Reed
Kyle Reifers
Jim Renner
Patrick Rodgers
Andres Romero
Carlos Sainz Jr.
Vijay Singh
Roger Sloan
Heath Slocum
Byron Smith
Brandt Snedeker
Kyle Stanley
Brendan Steele
Richard Sterne
Kevin Streelman
Chris Stroud
Brian Stuard
Zack Sucher
Daniel Summerhays
Andrew Svoboda
Hudson Swafford
Nick Taylor
Justin Thomas
Michael Thompson
Nicholas Thompson
Brendon Todd
David Toms
Peter Uihlein
Tyrone Van Aswegen
Bo Van Pelt
Jhonattan Vegas
Johnson Wagner
Nick Watney
Bubba Watson
Mike Weir
Steve Wheatcroft
Will Wilcox
Tim Wilkinson
Mark Wilson
Gary Woodland

Five more golfers committed to the Travelers Championship on Monday.

Billy Horschel, the reigning FedExCup champion, 2012 winner Marc Leishman, Kevin Na, Paul Casey and David Lingmerth will participate in the tournament June 25-28 at TPC River Highlands.

Horschel will be making his third appearance at the Travelers. He is 20th in the latest World Golf Rankings. Leishman is currently 53rd and has three top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season.

Na is ranked 22nd and has six top-10 finishes so far this season. Casey has five top-10 finishes and makes his first appearance at the Travelers. Lingmerth won his first tour event two weeks ago at The Memorial.

The Travelers field will be finalized on Friday except for four spots, which will be determined at next Monday’s qualifier.

Patrick Reed, Luke Donald and Branden Grace are the three latest golfers who have committed to this year's Travelers Championship June 25-28.

Reed, ranked 15th in the latest world golf rankings, makes his fourth straight trip to TPC River Highlands. Among his four PGA Tour wins includes the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He also played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team last fall.

This is the first appearance at the Travelers for Donald, the former No. 1 ranked player and a multiple-time member for Europe on the Ryder Cup team. Donald is currently ranked 65th. Grace is also making his first appearance. He has six European Tour victories and a No. 37 world ranking to his credit.

The Travelers Championship has already added its third golfer ranked among the top 10 players in the world to its field in June.

The tournament announced Thursday that Sergio Garcia, currently ranked eighth, Brandt Snedeker and 2007 champion Hunter Mahan are all returning to this year’s tournament to be held June 25-28.

In February, Bubba Watson, Jason Day and defending champion Kevin Streelman committed. Watson and Day are ranked third and fifth, respectively. All six players played at the Travelers last year.

Garcia returns to River Highlands for the fourth time. He finished tied for second last year behind Streelman.

Snedeker is up to No. 25 in the world rankings after capturing the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February. Mahan, ranked 32nd, returns to the Travelers for the 14th time, including that first PGA Tour victory in 2007.

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."

Adam Rainaud of South Hadley, Mass. and an assistant pro at the Black Hall Club in Old Lyme, won the 52nd PGA Match Play Championship last Friday in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Rainaud, 28, defeated Rich Berberian Jr. of Derry, New Hampshire, 5 and 4, in the final. Rainaud won the 24th Connecticut Section PGA Match Play Championship last October and was the only member of the Connecticut Section PGA to earn a spot in last year's Travelers Championship field.

Rainaud was the 2014 Connecticut Section Player of the Year.

From left, Mike McCallister, Humana Chairman of the Board, former President Bill Clinton, Billy Casper, and Gary Player pose for a photo on the Palmer Private Course at PGA West during the first round of the Humana Challenge PGA golf tournament Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, in La Quinta, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)      

Two former PGA Tour pros and former winners of the Insurance City Open died this week.

The most recent was Billy Casper Saturday night at 83. A three-time major championship winner, Casper won the ICO, now known as the Travelers Championship four times (1963, 1965, 1968 and 1973) all at Wethersfield Country Club. No other player has won the event more than twice.

Billy Casper Golf manages many golf course propertiess across the country, including several in Connecticut. One of them is Lyman Orchards GC in Middlefield, where Casper made his final public appearance in Connecticut in May of 2013.

Charlie Sifford, the first African-American on the PGA Tour, passed away on Tuesday at 92. His first win on tour was the 1967 ICO.

Roy Pace, Ted May and Betty Boyko will be inducted into the Connecticut State Golf Association Hall of Fame this evening at Great Neck Country Club in Waterford.

Pace, the former head professional at Wee Burn CC in Darien, played on the PGA Tour from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. He competed in 178 tour events, ending up with 15 top-10 finishes, including a victory at the 1971 Magnolia Classic.

May is entering the Hall for Distinguished Service to the game. He has been involved in virtually every aspect of what is now known as the Travelers Championship golf tournament for four decades and is now the chairman for the First Tee of Connecticut.

Boyko is also entering the Hall for Distinguished Service. She helped start the Southern New England Women’s Golf Association (SNEWGA) in 1956 and the Connecticut Women’s Amateur Championship event in 1966.

Adam Rainaud (pictured, above, courtesy of the CSGA)  was a spectator during the final round of the Travelers Championship, spending time on the 18th hole at TPC River Highlands. He witnessed eventual champion Kevin Streelman’s seventh consecutive birdie on the final hole.

“I couldn’t believe it. That’s unbelievable,” Rainaud said. “Just to birdie 16, 17 and 18 is unbelievable.”
Rainaud went virtually unnoticed for someone who had been competing on the other side of the ropes just 48 hours earlier. Rainaud, the only member of the Connecticut Section PGA to play in the Travelers, missed the cut by six strokes.

He was only there for the final round to return his courtesy car. “My girlfriend wanted to see the gallery on 18,” he said.

Read more about Rainaud's experience at the Travelers and a preview of the CSGA Junior Championship.