Confident Scottie Scheffler ready to defend Travelers title

Scottie Scheffler needs no more reminders that his caddie, Ted Scott, was on Bubba Watson's bag when he won the Travelers Championship three times.

"After a few holes, that can get pretty annoying listening to Teddy talk about when Bubba won," Scheffler joked with reporters Tuesday about his practice rounds with Scott at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn.

How annoying?

"If you keep saying when Bubba won here, I'm going to hit you with my club," Scheffler said with a laugh.

The top-ranked Scheffler is the defending champion this week at the Travelers Championship, where he defeated Tom Kim in a playoff last year. He is coming off a T7 finish at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday and has won three of his last five events, including the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

In all seriousness, and even though Watson (Travelers champion in 2010, 2015 and 2018) is left-handed, Scheffler said Scott has helped him to put the signature event's 6,844-yard, par-70 layout in perspective.

"What we talk about on that golf course is I think there's a stigma around it that you have to make a ton of birdies, but it's really about getting the most looks," Scheffler said. "There's certain holes where you have to play really conservative and play to the middle of the green and just get as many looks for birdie as possible."

Scheffler shot 65-64-64-65 to finish 22 under par last year, then bested Kim on the first playoff hole with a par at the 18th.

"The Travelers is a great golf course in the sense you get very rewarded for good shots," he said. "If you start hitting offline, you can be punished pretty severely. The closing stretch enhances that, and that's why you have such great finishes there year after year."

Scheffler, 28, said he appreciates the small-town atmosphere and friendly reception from the fans in Connecticut.

"I think playing in front of the crowds that we get out there is really fun for us. The crowd is always really, really good there," he said.

"... It's great. You get such a big crowd, and they're always rowdy and they're having fun, and it gets loud in there. You have those finishing holes like 18, the scene around 18 green every year is always so special for us.

"I always dreamt of winning that tournament. I remember Jordan (Spieth) hitting that bunker shot when I was in college (in 2017) and trying to become a pro. It's just one of those golf courses where there's really great opportunity for you to have a very special finish."

--Field Level Media