Scheffler Wins 6th Title of Year at Travelers

Scottie Scheffler continued his white hot 2024 season on Sunday winning the Travelers Championship, the final Signature Event of the 2024 PGA Tour Season. The title, his sixth of the season, makes him the fourth to win 6x on Tour in the last 40 years joining Tiger Woods (6x), Vijay Singh and Nick Price. He is the first golfer to win 6x on the Tour prior to July 1st since Arnold Palmer accomplished the feat in 1962.

Scheffler’s win concluded a dramatic week that saw Cameron Young on Saturday become the 13th player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59 in competition in a round where he eagled 2 par 4’s. Young started his final round making birdie on his first four holes. Tom Hoge made 8 birdies on Sunday to finish solo 3rd. At one point on the back nine 5 golfers were tied for the lead. Rounds 2 and 3 saw lengthy weather delays with 3 spectators injured by lightning on Saturday. Tom Kim, who turned 22 on Friday, led the field at the end of each of the first three rounds and found himself on the 18th green one stroke behind Scheffler needing a birdie to force a playoff.

Protestors Delay the 72nd Hole

Things turned chaotic on the 18th green as Scheffler, Kim and Ashkay Bhatia were lining up their putts. Six members of a radical environmental group, Extinction Rebellion NYC, stormed the course from various directions. The protestors ran thru a bunker and onto the green throwing paint onto the green surface. Officers of the Cromwell Police Department quickly tackled and subdued each of the intruders.

While it is difficult to know what was going through Scheffler’s head as he saw all the police running onto the course in his general direction, Bhatia was very specific about his reaction. “I was scared for my life. I didn’t even really know what was happening. I was in shock and my heart rate was high. It got low and then once that kind of happened I was just freaked out, I just tried [to] get over where everyone was.”

As a result of the paint on the green, Bhatia with the assistance of a Rules Official had to relocate his mark to an area where the paint was not in his line of play. A birdie would have made him solo 4th. He two putted to finish T-5.

Scheffler putting from the right fringe missed his birdie opportunity, tapped in for par and awaited Kim’s birdie try. Kim rolled his uphill 9 footer and confidently walked it into the cup for a tying birdie.

Due to the damage caused by the environmental extremists, the Tournament Committee decided to move the hole location to the front right of the green, just over a bunker. In an almost anti-climactic finish, on the 73 hole Scottie reached the green in two while Kim came up short finding himself with a buried lie in the bunker. His bunker shot ended well past the hole and he wasn’t able to complete the up and down for par. Scheffler easily 2 putted to take home his sixth trophy this year.