2016 Travelers Championship results: Russell Knox solidifies Ryder Cup roster spot with win

It’s now August on the PGA Tour and in a Ryder Cup year, every round, every shot, every tournament is viewed through the lens of that team competition and the finalization of its rosters. Sunday was a big day for one European, Russell Knox, who sped past Daniel Berger to win his second PGA Tour event of the season. It was also a nice little narrative bump for one veteran American, who made history and whose round will overshadow the Knox win.

Add Knox, now a two-time winner this season on the PGA Tour, to potential Ryder Cup rookies who could crush American hopes and dreams at Hazeltine. Knox won the Travelers with the kind of nails sand-save on the 18th hole that wins matches and deflates entire nations at the Ryder Cup. After a middling bunker shot, the Scot put a 12-footer right in the center of the jar and immediately performed one of the all-time celebratory hat tosses on the PGA Tour.

Knox would be a Ryder Cup rookie and probably unknown to most of the American audience, but the guy is among the top 20 in the world rankings and fourth in the FedExCup standings. He should be on captain Darren Clarke’s team after a breakout season that includes a WGC title and a Travelers win. The other multiple winners this year on Tour? Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott. That’s incredible company for a relatively unknown Scotsman.

Knox was steady all day but was able to clinch his second win largely because his playing partner, Daniel Berger, flamed out in the final round. We spent Saturday night discussing Berger’s Ryder Cup bona fides, and those remain after just one round. But his second win this summer would have propelled his position in a big way for Davis Love III’s team. Berger is one of the up-and-coming talents often cited as a candidate to start turning over the U.S. roster and getting new blood on a team that’s been whupped by the Euros for the better part of two decades. Berger, along with Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, are the American names that usually jump out as popular rookie choices for team events. Koepka is probably in, Thomas is on the outside unless he closes big over the next month and Berger needed to make a move up the points standings.

Berger will pick up some critical points but the win would have took him to a new level, especially with the captain. Instead, after shooting an 8-under 62 on Saturday to take a three-shot lead, the Florida State alum ejected in the final round with an ugly 4-over 74 on a TPC River Highlands course that was not playing particularly hard. He’ll have some more chances but this was a big opportunity blown.

We already covered Jimmy Furyk’s big day earlier, but, whether fair or not (it’s not!), his round will probably be juxtaposed with Berger’s disappointing finish. One round should not impact one’s standing in the Ryder Cup discussion. It’s insane, but it does this time of year. While Berger blew it late on Sunday, Furyk became the first player in some 1.5 million rounds on the PGA Tour to post a 58. He’s also now the first ever to break 60 twice.

Furyk has not exactly played lights-out since returning from the wrist injury that kept him out the first half of the year, but this kind of record will put a bunch of steam behind the narrative that he’s a veteran presence making a push for a spot. And captain DL3 cannot stop talking about his contemporary and where he would be on the points standings had he not been injured.

The leaderboard was not the strongest of the season, but this was an historic Sunday at an event that the players rave about, despite its tough spot on the schedule (usually after the U.S. Open, this year sandwiched between the PGA and Olympics at the end of a crazy stretch). Here are your final results from Hartford:

1 -- Russell Knox -- -14
2 -- Jerry Kelly -- -13
T3 -- Justin Thomas -- -12
T3 -- Patrick Rodgers -- -12
T5 -- Jim Furyk -- -11
T5 -- Robert Garrigus -- -11
T5 -- Tyrone van Aswegen -- -11
T5 -- Daniel Berger -- -11
T9 -- Marc Leishman -- -10
T9 -- Brooks Koepka -- -10
T11 -- Shawn Stefani -- -9
T11 -- Alex Cejka -- -9
T11 -- Patrick Reed -- -9
T11 -- Spencer Levin -- -9
T11 -- Daniel Summerhays -- -9
T11 -- Russell Henley -- -9
T17 -- Brendan Steele -- -8
T17 -- Matt Kuchar -- -8
T17 -- Louis Oosthuizen -- -8
T17 -- Tyrrell Hatton -- -8
T17 -- Carlos Ortiz -- -8
T17 -- Andres Gonzales -- -8
T17 -- Ryan Moore -- -8
T17 -- Paul Casey -- -8
T25 -- Henrik Norlander -- -7
T25 -- Si Woo Kim -- -7
T25 -- Keegan Bradley -- -7
T25 -- Charley Hoffman -- -7
T25 -- Tony Finau -- -7
T25 -- Blayne Barber -- -7
T25 -- Bubba Watson -- -7
T25 -- Scott Brown -- -7
T25 -- Jon Rahm -- -7
T34 -- Jason Kokrak -- -6
T34 -- Webb Simpson -- -6
T34 -- Aaron Baddeley -- -6
T34 -- Cameron Smith -- -6
T38 -- Lucas Lee -- -5
T38 -- Rod Pampling -- -5
T38 -- Seung-yul Noh -- -5
T38 -- Derek Ernst -- -5
T38 -- Hudson Swafford -- -5
T38 -- Vaughn Taylor -- -5
T38 -- Chris Stroud -- -5
T38 -- Brian Stuard -- -5
T38 -- Gary Woodland -- -5
T47 -- Greg Chalmers -- -4
T47 -- Ernie Els -- -4
T47 -- Retief Goosen -- -4
T47 -- Chez Reavie -- -4
T47 -- Bryson DeChambeau -- -4
T47 -- Zach Johnson -- -4
T47 -- Stuart Appleby -- -4
T47 -- Cameron Percy -- -4
T47 -- Francesco Molinari -- -4
T56 -- Rory Sabbatini -- -3
T56 -- Miguel Angel Carballo -- -3
T56 -- John Senden -- -3
T56 -- Vijay Singh -- -3
T56 -- Bryce Molder -- -3
T56 -- Abraham Ancer -- -3
T62 -- Zac Blair -- -2
T62 -- Martin Laird -- -2
T64 -- Matt Jones -- -1
T64 -- Nick Taylor -- -1
T64 -- Soren Kjeldsen -- -1
T64 -- Padraig Harrington -- -1
68 -- Ricky Barnes -- E
69 -- Scott Pinckney -- 1
T70 -- Hunter Mahan -- 2
T70 -- Sung-hoon Kang -- 2
T70 -- Bud Cauley -- 2
73 -- David Toms -- 3