The 2026 Travelers Championship begins Thursday at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, with nine of the top 10 in the FedExCup standings and eight of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking in the 72-player field. It is the last of eight Signature Events on this season’s PGA TOUR schedule, carrying a $20 million purse and 700 FedExCup points to the winner. Sixty-one of the 72 players in the field competed at last week’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Five former Travelers champions are entered: Jordan Spieth (2017), Harris English (2021), Xander Schauffele (2022), Keegan Bradley (2023, 2025) and Scottie Scheffler (2024).

TPC River Highlands Sets Up a Shorter Test

After Shinnecock, the field faces a shorter, more scoreable course. At par 70 and 6,844 yards, TPC River Highlands was the second-shortest course on the PGA TOUR in 2025, behind only Port Royal Golf Course at 6,828 yards.

The venue’s scoring history reflects that. Jim Furyk shot 58 in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship, the lowest 18-hole score in tournament history. Cameron Young posted a 59 in round three in 2024. Keegan Bradley holds or shares the tournament’s 36-hole (125, with Denny McCarthy), 54-hole (189) and 72-hole (257) scoring records from his 2023 victory. Two sub-60 scores have been recorded at this event, and there have been four rounds of 60 on TOUR this season alone.

Scheffler and Clark Bring the Season’s Best Form

Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 and reigning Travelers champion, reclaimed the FedExCup lead after a T4 finish at the U.S. Open. He holds 3,111 points, 241 clear of Matt Fitzpatrick. The 20-time PGA TOUR winner has one victory this season, at The American Express, but his consistency across the calendar has been relentless: 77 consecutive cuts made, the longest active streak on TOUR, dating to the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. He leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total (2.204), greens in regulation (71.69%), scoring average (68.44) and birdie average (4.71 per round). He and Si Woo Kim share the season lead with eight top-10 finishes each.

The U.S. Open was also Scheffler’s first attempt to complete the career Grand Slam. He has now finished inside the top 10 in 12 of his last 15 major championship starts.

Wyndham Clark arrives on the back of the best run of form of any player on TOUR. His wire-to-wire victory at the U.S. Open was his fifth career PGA TOUR title and second major, and it capped a four-start run of two wins and no finish worse than T11: victory at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, third at the Memorial Tournament, T11 at the RBC Canadian Open, and victory at Shinnecock.

Five weeks ago, Clark sat No. 82 in the FedExCup standings. He enters this week at No. 4 and has moved to No. 8 in the world ranking. He is one of four players with multiple wins on TOUR this season, alongside Matt Fitzpatrick (three), Cameron Young (two) and Chris Gotterup (two). Clark is making his eighth consecutive Travelers start and ninth overall, with a best finish of T9 in 2024.

His final-round 73 at the U.S. Open was the highest closing score by a TOUR winner since Rory McIlroy’s 73 at the 2025 Masters Tournament.

Bradley and Fleetwood Bring Last Year’s Finish Back Into View

The 2025 Travelers Championship ended with Keegan Bradley draining a 5-foot-8-inch birdie putt on the 72nd hole to beat 54-hole leader Tommy Fleetwood by one stroke. Both return this week.

Bradley is the defending champion and a two-time winner of this event. A third title would put him alongside Bubba Watson (2010, 2015, 2018) for the second-most victories in tournament history, trailing only Billy Casper’s four. He would also become the first player since Phil Mickelson in 2001–02 to win back-to-back Travelers titles. In 15 career starts here, Bradley has 13 made cuts, seven top-25 finishes and four top-10s.

His 2026 season has been quieter. The Woodstock, Vermont native has four top-25 finishes in 15 starts, with T12 at the RBC Heritage his best result. He finished T32 at the U.S. Open and ranks No. 76 in the FedExCup standings.

Fleetwood, the 2025 FedExCup Champion, enters after back-to-back T11 finishes at the RBC Canadian Open and U.S. Open. His Travelers record is strong: three top-15 finishes in five starts, including T2 last year. He held a three-stroke lead through 54 holes in 2025 before a final-round 72 that included bogeys on two of his final three holes.

The Englishman has six top-10s in 13 starts this season, highlighted by top-five finishes at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T4), the Truist Championship (T5) and the Memorial Tournament (T4). He sits No. 11 in the FedExCup standings. A win would make him the second player this season to capture a tournament after finishing runner-up in the same event the prior year, following Gary Woodland at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.

It would also end a lengthy domestic streak. The Travelers Championship has not had an international winner since Russell Knox in 2016, the longest active run without one on TOUR.

Ben James Gives Connecticut a Local Interest

Ben James, a Milford, Connecticut native, is in the field on a sponsor exemption and has a strong amateur record. He earned PGA TOUR membership as the No. 1 player from the 2026 PGA TOUR University Ranking after four seasons at the University of Virginia, where he won seven individual titles, tying Ben Kohles’ school record for career victories.

James became only the fifth collegiate golfer in history to earn four All-America First Team honours, joining Gary Hallberg, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Bryce Molder. He represented the United States at two Walker Cups (2023, 2025) and two Arnold Palmer Cups (2023, 2024), and finished T2 at the 2024 NCAA Championship.

He made his professional debut two weeks ago at the RBC Canadian Open, finishing T54 with rounds of 67-63-78-69.

The Travelers Championship has a notable sponsor-exemption history. Past recipients include Webb Simpson (2008), Patrick Cantlay (2011), Justin Thomas (2013), Jon Rahm (2015), Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland (2019), Chris Gotterup (2022) and Ludvig Åberg (2023).

Field Depth and Season Context

Patrick Cantlay is making his 12th Travelers start with eight consecutive finishes of T15 or better here. He shot a career-low 60 in the second round at TPC River Highlands in 2011 as an amateur. Chris Gotterup, a third-year TOUR member, has won in each of his three seasons and owns two titles this year: the Sony Open in Hawaii and the WM Phoenix Open. Adam Scott enters the week after making his 100th consecutive major championship appearance, a streak dating to the 2001 Open Championship. Only Jack Nicklaus, with 146, has made more consecutive major starts.

Among the four sponsor exemptions alongside James are Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth and Keith Mitchell. Several players qualified through late-season pathways: the Aon Next 10 brought in names including Clark, Kristoffer Reitan, Alex Fitzpatrick, Min Woo Lee, Aaron Rai, Nicolai Højgaard and Adam Scott, while the Aon Swing 5 added Eric Cole, Brandt Snedeker, Jackson Suber, Mac Meissner and Mark Hubbard.

Across the 2026 season, there have been five first-time winners in 25 events, and the 54-hole leader or co-leader has gone on to win nine of 24 individual stroke-play tournaments. With 700 FedExCup points available and the regular season entering its final stretch, a strong result at TPC River Highlands can reshape the standings.