The 2023 Travelers Championship was a birdie barrage as seemingly every player went low at TPC River Highlands this past weekend.
Rory McIlroy fires ‘obsolete’ distaste for Travelers Championship course amid Keegan Bradley domination
Bradley won the Travelers Championship at 23-under-par, and McIlroy was not too fond of the course that produced such low scoring.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Rain and overcast skies throughout the tournament produced soft conditions, which allowed the field to score well. But, this course did not get the stamp of approval from Rory McIlroy.
“I don’t particularly like when a tournament is like this,” McIlroy said after his round. “Unfortunately, technology has passed this course by, right? It sort of sort of has made [TPC River Highlands] obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had.”
TPC River Highlands is already one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour and yields plenty of birdies each year.
But with the benign conditions, players attacked this golf course, making it look even easier than usual.
Keegan Bradley stood tall as the victor when the tournament ended, finishing at 23-under par. His score of 257 over four rounds set a new Travelers Championship record. It was also just four strokes off Justin Thomas’ 253 record for lowest total strokes across a 72-hole tournament in PGA Tour history.
“Every hole is a birdie hole,” Bradley admitted after his three-shot victory.
The 2023 Travelers Champion opened with an 8-under 62 Thursday. He then carded a 7-under 63 and a 6-under 64 on Friday and Saturday to set himself up on Sunday.
McIlroy played well too, as he recorded his first hole-in-one in a PGA Tour event Thursday. He tied for 7th at 18-under overall after carding rounds of 68, 64, 66, and 64.
Typically, whenever a player shoots three rounds of 66 or better, they have a great chance to win.
Not this week.
“I knew I was never going to win with the way Keegan was playing,” Mcllroy admitted. “I felt like I probably needed a couple more birdies to finish Top 5. Still, it’s another good week and a solid performance after a long run, and looking forward it a couple of weeks off.”
McIlroy applauded Bradley for his spectacular efforts, especially knowing how much this tournament means to the New Englander.
“It’s amazing, especially when it’s sort of like his home tournament,” McIlroy said. “I know what that pressure feels like when I go back to Ireland and play the Irish Open. So for him to do what he’s doing is really impressive.”
But the Northern Irishman was not impressed with the course.
McIlroy admitted that increasing the length of the rough and making fairways tight would not help.
Instead, he feels the tour should play at venues like the Los Angeles Country Club.
“The blueprint is something like LACC where you have wide targets, but if you miss, it’s penal,” McIlroy said. “This isn’t that sort of golf course. It’s not that sort of layout. It doesn’t have the land to do that.”
“Unfortunately, when you get soft conditions like this, and you’ve got the best players in the world, this will happen.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
