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The Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., is the only PGA Tour event in New England.
As longtime golf fans well remember, Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Mass., used to host one as well. From the 1960s through the 1990s, Pleasant Valley was home to 32 PGA Tour events in addition to 13 LPGA Tour events.
Anyone who drives from the Worcester area to the Travelers at TPC River Highlands receives a reminder of Pleasant Valley’s glory days.
About a mile from the road leading to TPC River Highlands, you pass Pleasant Valley Road in Rocky Hill, Conn., just over the town line from Cromwell.
Last October, the Travelers paid homage to Pleasant Valley CC by holding its fall media day at the Sutton club.
“We like to name streets after every place we host media days,” Travelers tournament director Nathan Grube joked during the Travelers media day at TPC River Highlands earlier this month. “So there was a TPC Boston Street. I don’t know if you saw that. And a Pleasant Valley Road.”
In reality, Grube admitted he had never noticed Pleasant Valley Road. There isn’t a TPC Boston road, but he mentioned TPC Boston because in 2024, the Travelers held a fall media day at that club in Norton. TPC Boston hosted 17 PGA Tour events from 2003-2020 and will host the LPGA Tour’s FM Championship for the third consecutive year Aug. 27-30.
Andy Bessette, Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer, enjoyed attending the media day at Pleasant Valley CC last fall. He was well aware that Millbury resident Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s chief rules official, was head pro at PV for 12 years before joining the PGA Tour in 2007.
“Pleasant Valley is such a special place,” Bessette said. “To go there was just phenomenal.”
For the past two years, a different Pleasant Valley Country Club, one in Little Rock, Arkansas, has hosted the Simmons Bank Championship, a PGA Tour Champions playoff event.
The Travelers, which will take place June 25-28, embraces its role as New England’s PGA Tour event.
“One hundred percent,” Grube said. “No question. That’s why we do a fall media day. That’s why we do a media day in the spring here. When you look at zip codes of where people are buying tickets, it is New England’s event.”
Grube said people from 38 states purchase tickets to the Travelers Championship, but most are from New England.
Bessette said more people from Massachusetts attend the Travelers than any state other than Connecticut. The number is well into the thousands.
The Travelers also has volunteers from throughout New England and distributes funds to charities across the region.
Defending Travelers champion Keegan Bradley was in attendance during media day at Pleasant Valley last fall and he met with the media via Zoom during the Travelers’ spring media day on May 5.
More: Keegan Bradley manages 'insane' scene to birdie final hole, win Travelers Championship
Bradley, who also won the Travelers in 2023, gives the tournament a champion from New England. He grew up in Vermont, won an individual state golf championship in Massachusetts for Hopkinton High and has a home in Newburyport. His aunt, World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, grew up in Westford.
“For me,” Bradley said, “I really take representing New England very seriously in terms of golf. There's not a lot of us out there. So I feel an obligation to the region, but also to the younger players to show them that this is possible growing up in that area.”
The Travelers was the first PGA Tour event that Bradley attended as a child.
“Already a crazed golfer,” he said, “and had kicked it into hyperdrive being there. When I got my PGA Tour card, the first thought was, ‘Wow, I get to play in the Travelers, the tournament I always dreamt to play in.’”
Bradley struggled in the Travelers the first few years because he tried too hard to impress his fellow New Englanders.
“I learned how to manage that sort of pressure,” he said. “Now it’s turned into one of my better or best events that I play in. To be the champion of Travelers means everything to me. It truly does.”
“To listen to Keegan talk about how he dreamt about playing in this tournament,” Bessette said, “and being a part of this tournament for so many years is mind-boggling to me. He’s a little kid and he’s dreaming about this. I always think that’s really special.”
Bessette compared Bradley living his dream to when he was 7 years old and he dreamed of making the U.S. Olympic team. Bessette’s dream also came true. In 1980, he threw the hammer a record distance to win the U.S. Olympic Trials, but he didn’t compete in the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow because the U.S. was one of 65 nations that boycotted the Games due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“I love it when little kids’ dreams come true,” Bessette said, “because I’m one, he’s one. And I think that’s a special, special thing.”
Grube referred to Bradley, a New Englander, winning two of the last three Travelers Championship events as “storybook.”
“You don’t get a ton of guys from this part of the country that make it in that sport,” Grube said. “Could we have scripted it any better?”
Bradley has won a PGA Tour event in each of the last four years and owns eight PGA Tour victories in all, including the 2011 PGA Championship.
As one of the PGA Tour’s eight Signature Events, the Travelers will be limited to 72 players, but nearly all of the top players are expected to take part to compete for a $20 purse.
“I always say in any professional league, NBA, NHL, baseball, football,” Bessette said, “you never really see the top 72 athletes in that sport in one day. So golf is very unique.”
Bradley said he’s no longer experiencing the twice-a-week nightmares he suffered for quite a while after captaining the U.S. Ryder Cup team to a 15-13 loss to Europe in September at the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Bradley also played for two U.S. Ryder Cup teams that lost to Europe in 2012 and 2014 despite his 4-3 record in those matches.
“It's such a weird thing to love something like the Ryder Cup as much as I do,” he said, “and have it kick the (crap) out of you your whole life.”
Bradley, who turns 40 on June 7, hasn’t given up on returning to the Ryder Cup as a player.
“It’s in the back of my mind certainly,” he said. “I would love to go out there.”
Bradley was criticized after the U.S. Ryder Cup defeat and Grube feels bad for him.
“Whatever team you were rooting for, you knew what it meant to Keegan,” Grube said. “So yeah, watching it was hard, but yet exciting. It’s sports. You’re there to root for things. So it was amazing to watch and he was so open and honest about it.”
The Travelers does not announce attendance numbers, but the event usually draws 125,000-150,000 fans, second only to the WM Phoenix Open.
Last year, the Travelers donated more than $4 million to more than 215 non-profits, both record highs.
Among the media members who attended the Travelers media day at TPC River Highlands was Tom Roche, a coordinating producer for CBS Sports and former longtime producer for ESPN. Roche grew up in the Burncoat section of Worcester and he graduated from St. John’s High School.
—Contact Bill Doyle at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Kicked by the Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley is ready for a home game
Continue reading...
As longtime golf fans well remember, Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Mass., used to host one as well. From the 1960s through the 1990s, Pleasant Valley was home to 32 PGA Tour events in addition to 13 LPGA Tour events.
Anyone who drives from the Worcester area to the Travelers at TPC River Highlands receives a reminder of Pleasant Valley’s glory days.
About a mile from the road leading to TPC River Highlands, you pass Pleasant Valley Road in Rocky Hill, Conn., just over the town line from Cromwell.
You must be registered for see images
Last October, the Travelers paid homage to Pleasant Valley CC by holding its fall media day at the Sutton club.
“We like to name streets after every place we host media days,” Travelers tournament director Nathan Grube joked during the Travelers media day at TPC River Highlands earlier this month. “So there was a TPC Boston Street. I don’t know if you saw that. And a Pleasant Valley Road.”
In reality, Grube admitted he had never noticed Pleasant Valley Road. There isn’t a TPC Boston road, but he mentioned TPC Boston because in 2024, the Travelers held a fall media day at that club in Norton. TPC Boston hosted 17 PGA Tour events from 2003-2020 and will host the LPGA Tour’s FM Championship for the third consecutive year Aug. 27-30.
Andy Bessette, Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer, enjoyed attending the media day at Pleasant Valley CC last fall. He was well aware that Millbury resident Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s chief rules official, was head pro at PV for 12 years before joining the PGA Tour in 2007.
“Pleasant Valley is such a special place,” Bessette said. “To go there was just phenomenal.”
You must be registered for see images
For the past two years, a different Pleasant Valley Country Club, one in Little Rock, Arkansas, has hosted the Simmons Bank Championship, a PGA Tour Champions playoff event.
The Travelers, which will take place June 25-28, embraces its role as New England’s PGA Tour event.
“One hundred percent,” Grube said. “No question. That’s why we do a fall media day. That’s why we do a media day in the spring here. When you look at zip codes of where people are buying tickets, it is New England’s event.”
Grube said people from 38 states purchase tickets to the Travelers Championship, but most are from New England.
Bessette said more people from Massachusetts attend the Travelers than any state other than Connecticut. The number is well into the thousands.
The Travelers also has volunteers from throughout New England and distributes funds to charities across the region.
Defending Travelers champion Keegan Bradley was in attendance during media day at Pleasant Valley last fall and he met with the media via Zoom during the Travelers’ spring media day on May 5.
More: Keegan Bradley manages 'insane' scene to birdie final hole, win Travelers Championship
Bradley, who also won the Travelers in 2023, gives the tournament a champion from New England. He grew up in Vermont, won an individual state golf championship in Massachusetts for Hopkinton High and has a home in Newburyport. His aunt, World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, grew up in Westford.
“For me,” Bradley said, “I really take representing New England very seriously in terms of golf. There's not a lot of us out there. So I feel an obligation to the region, but also to the younger players to show them that this is possible growing up in that area.”
The Travelers was the first PGA Tour event that Bradley attended as a child.
“Already a crazed golfer,” he said, “and had kicked it into hyperdrive being there. When I got my PGA Tour card, the first thought was, ‘Wow, I get to play in the Travelers, the tournament I always dreamt to play in.’”
You must be registered for see images attach
Bradley struggled in the Travelers the first few years because he tried too hard to impress his fellow New Englanders.
“I learned how to manage that sort of pressure,” he said. “Now it’s turned into one of my better or best events that I play in. To be the champion of Travelers means everything to me. It truly does.”
“To listen to Keegan talk about how he dreamt about playing in this tournament,” Bessette said, “and being a part of this tournament for so many years is mind-boggling to me. He’s a little kid and he’s dreaming about this. I always think that’s really special.”
Bessette compared Bradley living his dream to when he was 7 years old and he dreamed of making the U.S. Olympic team. Bessette’s dream also came true. In 1980, he threw the hammer a record distance to win the U.S. Olympic Trials, but he didn’t compete in the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow because the U.S. was one of 65 nations that boycotted the Games due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“I love it when little kids’ dreams come true,” Bessette said, “because I’m one, he’s one. And I think that’s a special, special thing.”
Grube referred to Bradley, a New Englander, winning two of the last three Travelers Championship events as “storybook.”
“You don’t get a ton of guys from this part of the country that make it in that sport,” Grube said. “Could we have scripted it any better?”
You must be registered for see images attach
Bradley has won a PGA Tour event in each of the last four years and owns eight PGA Tour victories in all, including the 2011 PGA Championship.
As one of the PGA Tour’s eight Signature Events, the Travelers will be limited to 72 players, but nearly all of the top players are expected to take part to compete for a $20 purse.
“I always say in any professional league, NBA, NHL, baseball, football,” Bessette said, “you never really see the top 72 athletes in that sport in one day. So golf is very unique.”
Bradley said he’s no longer experiencing the twice-a-week nightmares he suffered for quite a while after captaining the U.S. Ryder Cup team to a 15-13 loss to Europe in September at the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Bradley also played for two U.S. Ryder Cup teams that lost to Europe in 2012 and 2014 despite his 4-3 record in those matches.
“It's such a weird thing to love something like the Ryder Cup as much as I do,” he said, “and have it kick the (crap) out of you your whole life.”
Bradley, who turns 40 on June 7, hasn’t given up on returning to the Ryder Cup as a player.
“It’s in the back of my mind certainly,” he said. “I would love to go out there.”
Bradley was criticized after the U.S. Ryder Cup defeat and Grube feels bad for him.
You must be registered for see images
“Whatever team you were rooting for, you knew what it meant to Keegan,” Grube said. “So yeah, watching it was hard, but yet exciting. It’s sports. You’re there to root for things. So it was amazing to watch and he was so open and honest about it.”
The Travelers does not announce attendance numbers, but the event usually draws 125,000-150,000 fans, second only to the WM Phoenix Open.
Last year, the Travelers donated more than $4 million to more than 215 non-profits, both record highs.
Among the media members who attended the Travelers media day at TPC River Highlands was Tom Roche, a coordinating producer for CBS Sports and former longtime producer for ESPN. Roche grew up in the Burncoat section of Worcester and he graduated from St. John’s High School.
—Contact Bill Doyle at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Kicked by the Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley is ready for a home game
Continue reading...
