MARC LEISHMAN, PAUL CASEY COMMIT TO 2019 TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

By
Bruce Berlet
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Marc Leishman earned the first of his four PGA Tour victories at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell in 2012, and Paul Casey, ranked No. 15 in the world, have committed to play in the Travelers Championship scheduled June 20-23 at TPC River Highlands.

HARTFORD, Conn. – The Travelers Championship field added two more Top 20 players on Wednesday when 2012 winner Marc Leishman and Paul Casey became the latest to commit to the $7.2 million tournament.

“Marc and Paul are fierce competitors who are often found near the top of our leaderboard,” Travelers Championship tournament director Nathan Grube said. “Adding them to our field certainly builds on the competition, which can only make our tournament that much more exciting for the fans.”

Leishman earned the first of his four PGA Tour victories at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell in 2012, when he rallied with an 8-under-par 62 in the final round. In eight tournament appearances, Leishman has made seven cuts and finished in the top 20 three other times. He won twice on the PGA Tour in 2017, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and BMW Championship, and his fourth win came this season at the CIMB Classic. The 35-year-old from Australia has played in the past three Presidents Cups and is currently No. 18 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Casey finished second in the Travelers Championship in 2015, when he lost to three-time champion Bubba Watson on the first playoff hole and again in 2018, when he tied for second. With two-time winner Stewart Cink, J.B. Holmes and Beau Hossler. Casey is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour with victories in the 2009 Shell Houston Open and 2018 Valspar Championship. Casey has 13 wins on the European Tour, most recently at the KLM Open in 2014. A 41-year-old from England, he has represented Team Europe in four Ryder Cups (2004, 2006, 2008, 2018), has been as high as No. 3 in the world golf rankings and is currently ranked No. 15.

Leishman and Casey join six other top-20 players entered in the tournament on June 20-23 — Brooks Koepka (No. 3), Justin Thomas (No. 5), Bryson DeChambeau (No. 6), Francesco Molinari (No. 7), Tony Finau (No. 14) and defending champion Bubba Watson (No. 17). Koepka repeated as U.S. Open champion last year and later captured the PGA Championship. In between, Molinari became the first Italian to win a major championship when he rallied to capture the British Open. Watson, who donated $200,000 of his $1.226,000 winnings last year to enable tournament to raise a record $2 million for charity, will be trying to tie World Golf Hall of Famer Billy Casper for most Travelers Championship victories.

www.TravelersChampionship.com.

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Bruce Berlet
Worked as sports writer for The Hartford Courant for 38 years before retiring in 2008. His major beats at the paper were golf, the Hartford Whalers, University of Connecticut men’s and women’s basketball, Yale football, United States and World Figure Skating Championships and ski columnist. He has covered every PGA Tour stop in Connecticut since 1971, along with 30 Masters, 25 U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships, 12 Deutsche Bank Championships, 15 Westchester (N.Y.) Classics and four Ryder Cups. He has won several Golf Writers Association of America writing awards, including a first place for a feature on John Daly, and was elected to the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame in 2009. He also worked for the Connecticut Whale hockey team for two years when they were renamed by former Hartford Whalers managing general partner Howard Baldwin, who had become the marketing director of the Hartford Wolf Pack, the top affiliate of the New York Rangers.

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