2025 Travelers Championship at TPC Highlands – Preview

After a thrilling U.S. Open that saw J.J. Spaun overcome a four-shot deficit on the back nine at Oakmont to capture his first major, the Tour heads to the Northeast and back to familiar territory for the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. One of the most popular tournaments among players, caddies, and fans, its huge crowds make it the second-most attended Tour event, behind only the Waste Management Open. The Travelers is a “signature” event for the third consecutive year, featuring 71 of the best players in a no-cut format.

TPC River Highlands is a classical, tree-lined par-70 Pete Dye design where shot-shaping is almost required and players are encouraged to get creative and utilize every club in their bag. It is very scoreable yet will challenge players simultaneously thanks to its penal rough, challenging pin placements on small tiered greens, and subtle changes in direction. Players who are accurate with their position off the tee, who can separate from the field with their wedges and short irons, and who can get on a roll with the putter have the best chance for success. 2019 winner, Chez Reavie summed up the course quite succinctly. “You can shape it both ways off the tee – hit every club in your bag from longer irons to short irons. It’s just a test of all your shots.”

The average winning score since 2010 has been -17 and has included a variety of golfers. There has, however, been a recent trend of more quality, upper-tier players winning this event. The average odds of the last nine winners is +3500 and includes elite players such as Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Bubba Watson (twice), Jordan Spieth, and Dustin Johnson. Thanks to its tremendous finishing stretch of holes, it regularly delivers a climactic ending with 15 of the last 21 events being decided by one shot or less, including a playoff in six of the last 13 years. In 2023, the scoring average was -1.60 per round as Keegan Bradley torched the course, finishing at -23. This led Tour officials to “toughen” up the layout. But scoring was even easier last year at -2.37 per round, with Scheffler winning at -22.

The Field

With this being the third tournament in the last four weeks as either a signature event or a major, fatigue may become a factor at TPC River Highlands this week. This is especially true when considering the mentally taxing courses and difficult scoring conditions of Muirfield Village and Oakmont. For now, every eligible player in the top 40 of the world rankings will be in attendance, except Justin Rose and the injured Billy Horschel and Sahith Theegala.

TPC River Highlands – History

Designed in 1928 by Robert Ross and Maurice Kearney, the club was originally known as Middletown Golf Club and became one of the most popular courses in Connecticut. By the early 1980s, it was bought by the PGA Tour, which hired famed architect Pete Dye to completely redesign the course to fit professional tournament standards. In 1984, the course reopened as the “TPC of Connecticut” and became host to the Greater Hartford Open.

The course underwent another renovation in 1989 by architect Bobby Weed, who had Tour players Howard Twitty and Roger Maltbie helping as consultants. The club reopened again in 1991 with almost a completely new front nine holes and was renamed the TPC at River Highlands.

Last year, players arrived to find a course that had undergone some “competitive enhancements” thanks to how easy scoring was last year, combined with Rory McIlroy‘s comments about technology having rendered the layout obsolete. While length has not been added, six holes experienced significant changes.

“We want the golf course to be a challenge no matter what yardage you drive the ball to,” said Gary Young, senior vice president of rules and competition for the PGA Tour. “So from the longest hitter to the shortest hitter, you’re looking at whether they are basically taking on the same risk for the same reward. Everything we did was, we don’t want to take it away entirely. But we want to make it even riskier for that guy who’s going to try. And that risk should be rewarded.”

The fairway at No. 1, a 434-yard par-4, was narrowed significantly and replaced with rough, particularly in the area where tee shots tended to settle on the left side. Players will be required to be more precise with their tee shots, with right-handed players likely needing to cut the ball back against a right-to-left slope to hold the fairway.

The par-4 dogleg-right ninth hole was also altered by moving the tee box and changing the angle of the drive by bringing the tree line and houses more into play. The heaviest hitters would often cut the dogleg off the tee and take a more direct route to the green. That will be more difficult now. “I’m not saying they can’t do it,” Young said, “but they’re certainly going to have to take on a greater risk. We also shrunk the size of the green, significantly.”

Other changes of note include the narrowing of the fairway, and mounding added, at the par-5, 6th; a much smaller green at the 103-yard, par-3 downhill 11th; a patch of rough replacing a section of the fairway 300 yards out from the tee at the par-4 12th, potentially taking driver out of players’ hands; mounding added and the fairway narrowed at the par-5 13th.

Finish Position and Strokes Gained History at TPC River Highlands (2016-2024)

This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round since 2015 for each of the categories. Players are sorted by SG: Total. TPC River Highlands is the 12th most predictive annual course on Tour.