Travelers notes: Before the delay, third-place Collin Morikawa surged from nine shots back
· Yahoo Sports
CROMWELL – While leaders Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland failed to separate from the pack in the final round of the Travelers Championship on Sunday, World No. 9 Collin Morikawa came charging from nine shots back.
He had just gotten into the clubhouse at 20-under and devoured an ice cream sandwich when the round was delayed for 80 minutes due to dangerous weather conditions.
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“I was selfishly hoping they would keep playing, but you want everyone to be safe and it’s a waiting game now,” he admitted, before the leaders finished tied at 21-under to set up a playoff on Monday morning.
Morikawa, a two-time major champion and U.S. Olympian, found himself atop the leaderboard with Scheffler at 20-under after he hit a bunker shot to 8-feet, 11-inches on the 18th green and made birdie to finish his round – best of the day – at 9-under-par 61.
Travelers Championship set for Monday playoff between Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland
“I told my wife this morning the goal was to shoot 61 today. And you never know how things are going to go, but I think starting, when you’re that far behind, you just want to play a good final round. We’ve given ourselves a chance and all we can do is wait… I don’t think I’ve ever done this, I honestly don’t. I feel like the weeks I played well I’ve kind of been near the lead or at least the last few groups. Yeah, it’s a weird position to be in, but it’s a great position, there’s a lot worse problems you can have. So I’m happy, really, really happy with the way I finished,” Morikawa said, before he saw his score passed by Scheffler from a TV in the clubhouse.
He will settle for third place and a $1.38 million share of the purse regardless of how the playoff shakes out.
Hojgaard shoots 62Nicolai Højgaard posted a clean 8-under-par 62 on Sunday, which was the fourth of five rounds of 62 or better this week. The score helped the 25-year-old Dane move to 14-under for the tournament.
Unceremonious finish for Milford’s Ben JamesMilford’s Ben James played well through the first two days in his third Travelers Championship appearance, but he didn’t have the same fortune over the weekend. After shooting 1-over 71 on Saturday, James made bogey on his final two holes and finished Sunday’s final round at 3-over 73.
Still his best-ever finish at the tournament, where he missed the cut in 2022 and 2023, James placed in a tie for 62nd at 4-under 276.
“Just didn’t play good overall,” he said Sunday. “I played very poorly this weekend, but I’ve been having a lot of good rounds though. Been shooting some nice low scores in these last couple weeks outs here, so that’s something good to pat myself on the back. A 63 in Canada, a 64 here, 67 at the U.S. Open. So a lot of good, it’s just unfortunately out here you can’t shoot over par. A bad round has to be a couple under par and some things are definitely off. But a lot of good as well, so not all negative. A lot of good.”
Dom Amore: Another thrilling Travelers finish was disrupted and doused by ultimate variable, weather
James has had family and friends following him on the course all week and plans to hang out with his buddies in Connecticut Sunday night before he returns to golf. He said he plans on playing in the ISCO Championship in Louisville, Ky. in two weeks, and then the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic the week after that.
“I was ready to go. I had two good rounds. Definitely need to kind of sit back and think about this weekend. Not my best stuff,” he said. “It was really cool, every putt you make you get a big round of applause, every good shot. So overall it was a really fun week. Just not the finish I would like, but that’s golf. Again, very thankful for the support I had over this week.”
Implosion on No. 13JT Poston, who won the Memorial Tournament earlier this month, did not have the same fortune on Sunday at the Travelers Championship. The 33-year-old, playing at TPC River Highlands for the ninth time, was in a bunker 80 feet from the 13th hole after his second shot on the 526-yard par-5.
Nine strokes later, including three shots into the water across the green and three penalty strokes as a result, Poston finally sunk an eight-inch putt to move on with a 12. His disaster round continued on No. 15, when he found water off the tee and got off the hole with a double-bogey 6.
Poston, 5-under coming into Sunday, tumbled down the leaderboard after his 6-over 76, which put him at 1-over for the tournament.