Tommy Fleetwood leads Travelers as Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas fade
Tommy Fleetwood leads the Travelers after a flawless 63, while Scottie Scheffler falters early and Russell Henley vaults into contention with a 61.
CROMWELL, Conn. – On a day when two rounds of 62 had already been posted before he even teed off, something rare happened to Scottie Scheffler at 3:15 p.m. Saturday at the Travelers Championship: his name slid off the first page of the leaderboard.
Scheffler, who began the day tied for the lead at 9 under with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood, made a triple-bogey seven on the first hole and followed it with a bogey on the fourth. Suddenly, the No. 1 player in the world — arguably the steadiest golfer on Earth — had gone from tied for first to a tie for 10th.
Then on the fifth hole, Scheffler's frustrations mounted. He watched as an 11-foot par putt burned the right edge and his jaw dropped. He was stunned. Flabbergasted. Pick your adjective.
Moments earlier, Fleetwood had buried a 66-foot birdie putt on the fifth to reach 11 under and take the lead. A few seconds later, Keegan Bradley — the Vermont native who won here in 2023 — drained an 18-footer to reach 10 under. Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, tapped in a par and a front-nine 31 to join a logjam at 9 under that included Thomas, Russell Henley, Nick Taylor, and Jason Day.
The Travelers Championship was once again delivering excitement, as it does every year, and by sunset, Fleetwood stood alone atop the leadboard following a bogey-free 63. He stands at 16 under, three clear of Henley and Bradley, and five ahead of Day at 11 under.
Fleetwood, whose lone bogey of the week came Friday on the par-4 fourth, is ranked No. 17 in the Official World Golf Ranking and took home the silver medal at the Paris Olympics last year. Despite 41 career top-10 finishes, he has yet to win a PGA Tour event.
'I would love to win on the PGA Tour. I think it's like an element of your career that everybody wants,' Fleetwood said Saturday evening. 'I've given myself like a back-end chance a couple of times this year, but I've not been in contention. So this is like my first real chance, so I'm really excited about that and looking forward to it.'
Saturday, he was spotless off the tee—14 of 14 fairways—and hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation. But it was the putter that made the difference. He rolled in birdies from 13 feet, 66 feet, and 19 feet. His highlight? A 31-footer from off the green on 13 that dropped for eagle—his second of the week on the par-5.
'Today, hit the ball great off the tee,' Fleetwoods said. 'I didn't really know the numbers but I hit every fairway, so that's a really cool stat, that's a really nice stat.'
Russell Henley, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March, vaulted up the leaderboard with a 61.
'I putted great, I feel like I did everything pretty well,' Henley said Saturday evening. 'I had a couple really good breaks that kept the round going. I somehow made birdie on four from the left rough -- kind of hit like a chaser kind of shot up to about eight or 10 feet. Also, I saved par on 14 after I skulled a wedge into a tree limb. So, two good things there to kind of keep my round going, but also just putted really well. I feel like I hit it really well, too.'
Keegan Bradley, Ryder Cup captain and defending Travelers champ, shot a bogey-free 63 as fans chanted 'USA! USA! USA!' around TPC River Highlands.
'I sort of have come to this epiphany that no one has ever experienced what I'm going through right now,' Bradley said Saturday after being asked about his unique situation, playing on the PGA Tour while also being a Ryder Cup captain. 'Arnold Palmer did in 1962, I think it was, but for the most part, captains are done playing or at the end of their career or playing the Champions Tour. So, it's pretty cool, I'm experiencing something that not a lot of people have.'
As strong as Fleetwood's 63, Henley's 61, and Bradley's 63 were, the collapse of Saturday's early leaders may have been more surprising.
Scheffler has three wins this season on the PGA Tour — more than the number of tournaments where he's finished outside the top 10 (two: Phoenix and the Players). But a front-nine 39 — thanks to a triple, a double on the par-3 eighth, and two bogeys — had him reeling. He steadied himself with a 33 on the back to finish at 7 under, but would likely need something close to Jim Furyk's record-setting 58 (shot at this event in 2016) just to sniff contention Sunday.
Playing in the same group, Justin Thomas opened with a birdie but bogeyed No. 2 and strung together eight pars before disaster struck on the par-5 13th. A tee shot left — way left — onto the train tracks led to a quadruple-bogey nine. Thomas released the driver mid-swing and sent it flying over a volunteer's head, then apologized twice before walking off after his provisional shot.
Thomas finished the day with a 73, falling into a tie for 14th at 6 under.
Rory McIlroy, surging early, but made a double bogey on the 12th after flying the green with his second and needing two more to get on. He finished the day at 7 under, nine shots behind Fleetwood.
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