Travelers Championship 2012 Notes

Dates: June 18–24, 2012

Where: TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, CT

Par/Yards: 35-35—70/6,837 yards

Field: 156

2011 champion: Fredrik Jacobson

Purse: $6,000,000/$1,080,000 (winner)

FedExCup: 500 points to the winner

Format: 72-hole stroke play

Website: http://www.travelerschampionship.com

Facebook: Travelers Championship

Twitter: @TravelersChamp

A look at the 2011 Travelers Championship

Fredrik Jacobson, fresh off of a T14 finish at the U.S. Open, carded a final-round 4-under 66 to claim his first win on the PGA TOUR (188 starts) by one stroke over John Rollins and Ryan Moore. His previous-best finishes on TOUR were runner-up finishes at the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic, 2008 AT&T National and 2010 Valero Texas Open.

Amateur Patrick Cantlay turned in a final-round even-par 70 to finish T24. Earlier in the week, Cantlay set the TPC River Highlands course record and equaled the Travelers Championship low 18-hole score (Tommy Bolt, 1954, Wethersfield CC) with a second-round 10-under 60 – the lowest score ever by an amateur on the PGA TOUR. The World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL created a display feature Cantlay’s historic round at the Travelers Championship.

More on Fredrik Jacobson and the Travelers Championship

Jacobson became the seventh Swedish-born player to win on the PGA TOUR, joining Jesper Parnevik, Daniel Chopra, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Carl Pettersson, Richard S. Johnson and Henrik Stenson.

Jacobson, a native of Gothenburg, Sweden, became the first international winner of the Travelers Championship since Greg Norman in 1995.

Jacobson led the field in the new statistical category – Strokes Gained – Putting. He picked up 2.246 strokes per round over the field.

Jacobson played the first 63 holes without a bogey, with his only one of the week coming on the par-4 10th hole when he missed a putt just under 12 feet for par. He was seeking to become the first winner since Lee Trevino at the 1974 Greater New Orleans Open to go bogey-free over 72 holes.

Jacobson had missed his last two cuts at the Travelers Championship in 2007 and 2009. His only other start in Hartford was in 2006 (T48).

A glance at the field with just nine weeks (11 events) remaining in the PGA TOUR Regular Season:

There are 13 major championship winners in the field, including the last three major champions: New England’s Keegan Bradley (2011 PGA Championship), Masters champion Bubba Watson and U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson. The others include: Angel Cabrera, Ben Curtis, Lucas Glover, Padraig Harrington, Zach Johnson, Justin Leonard, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Vijay Singh and Y.E. Yang.

Watson returns to the Travelers Championship where he picked up his first TOUR win in 2010.

Bradley finished T63 in his Travelers Championship debut in 2011.

Five past champions of the Travelers Championship: Fredrik Jacobson (2011), Bubba Watson (2010), Kenny Perry (2009), Hunter Mahan (2007) and J.J. Henry (2006).

Mahan is one of three two-time winners on the PGA TOUR in 2012 (WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and Shell Houston Open).

Matt Kuchar won THE PLAYERS in May and ranks inside the top 10 in the FedExCup standings and the Official World Golf Ranking.

20-year-old Japanese phenom Ryo Ishikawa makes his Travelers Champion debut as a sponsor exemption. Ishikawa is well on his way to obtaining his PGA TOUR card for 2013.

Webb Simpson, who won the U.S. Open last week, won twice in 2011 and finished second overall in the final FedExCup standings.

20-year-old Patrick Cantlay, who posted a second-round 60 last year at the Travelers Championship, returns to TPC River Highlands in 2012 as a sponsor exemption. Cantlay is a rising junior at UCLA.

Amateur Patrick Rodgers, a 2011-12 first-team PING All-American in his freshman season at Stanford University, will also play on sponsor exemption at the Travelers Championship. Rodgers, currently the No. 3 amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, will be making his first-ever PGA TOUR start.

Source: PGA Tour