CROMWELL, Conn. (KeynoteUSA) — No hard feelings, Rory.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he understands why Rory McIlroy withdrew from the Travelers Championship, the final marquee event on the calendar, to recover from a Sunday night meltdown at the US Open.
“Sometimes you just need to focus on what you need to focus on,” Monahan said Wednesday, a day before the tournament at TPC River Highlands outside Hartford. “And that’s what he’s doing and that’s exactly what he should be doing because he believes that’s the right path.”
McIlroy twice held a one-stroke lead at Pinehurst No. 2 before making bogeys on three of the final four holes, missing a pair of putts from within 4 feet. Instead of McIlroy’s fifth major championship, and first in 10 years, Bryson DeChambeau earned his second.
On Monday, McIlroy said on social media that he was taking three weeks off to “rebuild.” He plans to return July 10-13 for the Scottish Open, where he is the defending champion, followed by the British Open the following week at Royal Troon in Scotland.
Without him, there will be 71 players playing Thursday in the exclusive limited-field, no-cut event at TPC River Highlands. McIlroy is the only one in the top eight of the world rankings or top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings who will miss it.
“If you look at the quality of the field we have this week, we’re going to have a great Travelers Championship,” Monahan said. “And I’m looking forward to Rory returning to Scotland.”
enemy territory
The Travelers Championship is the only week of the year when Keegan Bradley has bragging rights over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Not only is Bradley the defending champion at TPC River Highlands, but the New England native can remind his Texan rival how the NBA Finals turned out. Bradley’s Boston Celtics beat Scheffler’s Dallas Mavericks in the decisive Game 5 on Monday night.
When asked about arriving in Celtics country so soon after Boston won its unprecedented 18th NBA championship, Scheffler joked, “Do I have to answer that question?” Scheffler said he didn’t hear any taunts on the field, but a fan asked him to sign a Celtics cap.
He said no.
“I don’t blame him,” Bradley said. “I wouldn’t want to do it either if I were a Dallas fan.”
Bradley grew up in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts as an avid Boston sports fan and married the niece of baseball Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk. At a news conference at Fenway Park last fall to introduce the local franchise to the new high-tech TGL circuit, he described the excitement of seeing the Red Sox clubhouse and giving Englishman Tyrrell Hatton a tour of the ballpark.
The Travelers presented Bradley with one of Fenway’s wooden seats at the tournament’s media day in April.
“It’s one of the coolest gifts I’ve ever received; probably the coolest gift I’ve ever gotten in my life,” he said. “Having a Fenway Park seat in your home is pretty spectacular.”
Paris Preview
The Travelers will feature 22 players of the 60 who have qualified for the Paris Olympics, including the four Americans: Scheffler, defending gold medalist Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
Others include Ludvig Aberg (Sweden), Viktor Hovland (Norway), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) and Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick. Although they will be playing for their countries, the Olympics are a 72-hole stroke-play tournament that will award medals to individuals with low scores.
“There is no team aspect to this. It would be great if there was,” said Morikawa, who finished fourth in Tokyo, losing in a seven-man sudden-death playoff for the bronze medal on the fourth extra hole. “The caddies will definitely explore the course together, do all the preparation together, share a lot of information, like it’s a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup in that sense. But when it comes time for Thursday, it’s our event, it’s our individual event.”
That doesn’t mean there isn’t patriotism involved.
“I’m not necessarily going to go out and try to play too many practice rounds with someone from a different country,” said Scheffler, who will be making his Olympic debut and confessed that he hadn’t really thought about it. “We’re trying to go there and win a medal for the United States, so it’ll probably be a tighter circle as we get there.”
The qualifications to determine Olympic berths ended with the conclusion of the US Open. Countries are limited to two players, unless their third and fourth best players are ranked in the top 15 in the world.
Golf was in the Olympic Games at the beginning of the last century before being removed from the program for more than 100 years. He returned to Rio de Janeiro in 2016, this being the third round.
Scheffler said he is excited to be a part of the Summer Games and try other sports, including basketball and tennis. He also wanted to take a trip to the Olympic Village to watch the other athletes train.
“I grew up playing a lot of sports, so being able to see the best in the world at their craft would be very special,” he said.
___
___
Keynote USA
For the Latest Sports News, Follow Keynote USA Sports on Twitter.