Michael Thorbjornsen missed his birdie putt, then tapped in for par at 18 and the crowd gathered around the amphitheater at the TPC River Highlands began to swell in volume. Thorbjornsen, a quiet teenager, walked over to his best friend and caddie, Drew Cohen, for a hug, then walked off, waving his club and tipping his hat.
“It’s surreal,” Thorbjornsen said. “I can’t even ... it’s better than how I dreamt about it.”
For a time in Sunday’s final round of the Travelers Championship, it looked as if Thorbjornsen, a sophomore at Stanford, might make major history. After an eagle on the sixth hole and four birdies, he was one shot off the lead, in contention to become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
Then he hit a bunker on No. 12 and the water on 13, bogeying both holes. He finished 15-under par, four strokes back from the winner, Xander Schauffele, and the best finish by an amateur at Connecticut’s PGA Tour stop since Jim Grant tied for sixth in 1966. Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, finished at 10 under, and No. 2 Rory McIlroy was at 9 under.
“It was overwhelming, but it was just overwhelming joy,” Cohen said. “Just to see my best friend, who is just an unbelievably talented player but a better person, just walking off that 18th green and getting everybody’s support. I know we didn’t get to the top of the leaderboard, but I hope he won a lot of people’s hearts.”
And Thorbjornsen did win hearts, as young golfers often do at the Travelers.
“I wish I knew what the formula for that is, because it makes for good drama, good viewership,” tournament director Nathan Grube said. “We obviously try real hard to get those top young players here. We do a lot of research. We have a group that looks into the next generation of players. Then, what is so cool about our fans, they embrace it. The cheers Michael was getting on the 18th green as he was finishing up, he’ll never forget that. When he did what he did, people were behind him and he felt that.”
Thorbjornsen and Cohen, both from Wellesley, Massachusetts, have been friends since seventh grade, their mothers getting them together since they both loved golf. Cohen, a personal finance major at Wisconsin, considered trying to walk on to the team there. Instead, he’s riding shotgun, learning the game and providing support — just a couple of college kids on an excellent summer adventure.
“He asked me to hop on his bag last summer,” Cohen said. “Just to be standing in front [of reporters], talking about this moment, it is surreal as he calls it. We had a chance. We really, really had a chance, and just to have a taste of that, it shows how much we want it, how much he wants it. He’s such a hard worker, and he deserves everything he has.”
The pair were rushing to catch a flight to London to play in a British Open qualifier. When the summer is over, Thorbjornsen, a second-team All-American who turns 21 in September, will return for his junior year at Stanford. Like most of the young golfers who make a name for themselves at the TPC, Thorbjornsen plans to return.
“The hospitality here is amazing,” he said. “Love the course, love the way it fits my game. I will definitely come back here.”
Here are some other takeaways from the 2022 Travelers Championship:
The crowd
Helped by almost perfect weather, the crowds at the Travelers returned to pre-pandemic levels, when rough estimates were well over 200,000 for the week. The tournament doesn’t release attendance numbers.
“I can say our merchandise numbers were up, our concession numbers were up, advance ticket sales were up,” Grube said. “All three of those metrics translated to an increase in the charity numbers.”
A number of new structures proved popular, Grube said, and officials were analyzing aerial photos to see how things might be improved for the 2023 Travelers Championship, scheduled for June 19-25, 2023.
The charities
The Travelers Championship raised $2.5 million for local charities, an uptick of about $300,000 from 2021 and $400,000 from 2019. All net proceeds go to charities, with the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford as the primary beneficiary.
“That’s the cool part of this event,” Grube said. “If we are able to run our business in the right way we can raise more money for charity. To go up $300,000 from last year, that’s not a small number. That means real money to real people.”
The course
When eventual champ Schauffele started out with 63s in the first two rounds and McIlroy fired a 62 in Round 1, there were murmurs of the course being too easy. But McIlroy, the No. 2 player in the world, fell out of contention after a quadruple-bogey on Friday, and Patrick Cantlay had a rough final round.
“I thought Xander said it best, something like, ‘This is a sneaky course, and it will bite you if you’re not careful,’” Grube said. “If you do not pay attention to every shot you hit, it can bite you. You saw that Sunday. It’s one of the ingredients. This is a very fun golf course, but it can produce some incredible drama.”
Making the cut
Schauffele, who celebrated his first wedding anniversary Sunday, earned $1.494 million with his win. Runners-up Sahith Theegala and J.T. Poston each pocketed $738,700. With its $8.3 million purse, the Travelers paid out a least $17,000 to all who made the cut.
Among those making the cut was Morgan Hoffman, who has been battling facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (which has atrophied his pectoral muscles) since 2016. Hoffman, 32, has been regaining strength through unconventional methods and made a cut for the first time since 2019. He is out of medical extensions from the PGA Tour and hopes for sponsor’s exemptions or to play his way into future events in Monday qualifiers.
The distraction
The golfers arrived at TPC River Highlands amid the fallout of defections to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, a story that will continue to hover over the PGA Tour. But after PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s combative press conference on Wednesday, the focus was back to golf. The emergence of young golfers such as Theegala, who nearly won his first tournament, and Thorbjornsen helped.
“There’s been a lot of talk about where golf is right now,” Schauffele said. “Some can say there’s a fracturing of our game, but the future’s bright. And I feel like an old guy. I’m 28 years old and I feel like I’m one of the old guys out here on the tour, unfortunately. I’ve got all these young guys winning around me that it just motivates me to push harder and be better. So thanks to them.”
