Ted Kroll Wins First Travelers Championship/ Insurance City Open in Driving Rain – 1952

Ted Kroll Wins First Travelers Championship/ Insurance City Open in Driving Rain – 1952

The first round of the 2019 Travelers Championship is being played under lift-clean-and-place rules, but at least they’re not playing in the tail end of a hurricane.

At the first Travelers Championship (then known as the Insurance City Open), Ted Kroll won in a driving rain from tail end of category 2 Hurricane Baker.

Thus the big golf festival is would up and the crowd yesterday, estimated at about 6,000 which boosted the total for the five days to nearly 20,000 saw golf played uner the worst possible conditions. A rain and wind storm, part of a hurricane, threatened to call off the tournament, but players kept coming in while Harvey Raynor, PGA tournament director inspected the course — but decided the affair could be finished. Many of the greens were water covered and numerous players took shelter.

Hartford Courant, Sept. 2, 1952

The greens became so bad that Bill Markham had to use his wedge on the putting surface of the 16th with the result that he needed three strokes to get down.

Hartford Courant, Sept 2, 1952

Players weren’t the only ones to suffer from the rain storm.

The terrific rain storm put the parking lots in a quagmire and 1,000 automobiles were mired … farmers had to be called in to haul the vehicles out and where the charge was two dollars each, the owners paid half the cost with the Jaycees “kicking” in with the other dollar.

Hartford Courant, Sept. 2, 1952

1952 Travelers Championship / Insurance City Open Final Scores

Ted Kroll 69-70-67-67 = 273 $2,400
Skee Riegel 66-67-71-73 = 277 $1,466.66
Lawson Little 68-72-68-69 = 277 $1, 466.66
Earl Stewart 68-71-69-69 = 277 $1,466.66
Ed Oliver 74-67-67-70 = 278 $1,000
Doug Ford 71-70-71-68 = 280 $750
John Palmer 67-70-72-71 = 280 $750
Marty Furgol 70-71-72-69 = 281 $513.33
Billy Markham 68-70-71-73 = 282 ineligible
Julius Boros 70-71-68-73 = 282 $400
Ed Burke 73-6971-70 = 283 $360
Dow Finsterwald 73-73-71-67 = 284 $264