This week's PGA Tour Travelers Championship is being played more than a month later than usual to accommodate golf's return to the Olympics, and though the date is different, it "doesn't change the Travelers experience for the golfers," according to Matthew Conyers of the HARTFORD COURANT. It is a tournament with a "respected course and a small-town feel, something many of the golfers find attractive." Despite the absence of some "bigger names (Jordan Spieth has yet to play and Tiger Woods never did), the tournament still draws a quality field" (HARTFORD COURANT, 8/4). USA TODAY's William Paxton notes when Travelers took over title sponsorship of the event in '07, its goal was to "do more than just recruit the top players in the game to play." Travelers "wanted to form a relationship with them as well." Travelers Exec VP & Chief Administrative Officer Andy Bessette said, "It’s the way we run our business. It’s the way we run our company." Paxton writes the extended hospitality is "something that is not lost on the golfers, who often spend the summer traveling with their family members and are looking for things for them to do while they are playing the course." Bubba Watson, who is skipping the Rio Opening Ceremony to play in Hartford, said, “With the kids’ zone (among other activities), they go beyond what other tournaments do" (USA TODAY, 8/4).
IT'S ALL GOOD: In Hartford, Tom Yantz notes there was "initial uneasiness among officials of the Travelers Championship when the PGA Tour announced last July that the tournament's date would change." Yantz: "Would the quality of the Travelers Championship field, corporate support, the number of volunteers and general admission ticket sales be diminished with the tournament sandwiched between the PGA Championship and the Olympics?" Now, the "answer is no to all of the above." This week, 18 of the world's top 50 players"are in the field." The "only other time that high a number has participated" was in '13. Tournament Dir Nathan Grube said corporate support for this year's event is "higher with the help of Farmington Bank being a tournament founding partner." Grube added that general admission ticket sales "are the same as last year." The hope is they will "increase with the good weather forecast." Attendance last year for tournament week "was about 225,000" (HARTFORD COURANT, 8/4).
