Harris English Wins Travelers Championship In Historic Playoff

CROMWELL, CT — Day 4 of the 2021 Travelers Championship started with some big names at or near the top of the leaderboard, and ended with an historic 8-hole playoff between a steady competitor with three previous PGA Tour victories and a virtual unknown who roomed with Jordan Spieth at the University of Texas and briefly caddied for him at a Tour event.

Harris English, who won a playoff earlier this season at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, outlasted Kramer Hickok by draining a 16-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, the seventh time each competitor had played the par-4 in a three-hour span. Each completed 72 holes of regulation play at 13-under par 267.

English made his winning putt as sunset began descending on the course.

"It was definitely getting dark when that last putt went in," he said. "I was kind of having a hard time getting my eyes adjusted to the green. We probably could have gone maybe one more, maybe two more max. It just gets tough to judge out there, judge distances, judge the greens. I'm happy that I ended it on the eighth hole. It was definitely becoming a factor."

Hickok said, "It was a huge learning experience for me. It was just a tremendous day. I mean, it was just a hard-fought battle out there. Played tough. Kudos to Harris. He battled so hard. There was times I put him in a tough spot, he put me in a tough spot, and he came out on top and he's a true champion."

Playing in the third-to-last pairing of the day, English sank a 27-foot birdie putt on 18 to take the lead. About 20 minutes later, Hickok knocked a wedge shot to within nine feet of the cup, then made the putt to force the first playoff at the TPC River Highlands since Spieth thrilled the golf world by sinking a bunker shot to top Daniel Berger in 2017.

Both players had chances to win earlier in the playoff, which tied for the second-longest in PGA Tour history. Hickok lipped out a 43-foot birdie attempt, while English missed a 7-foot putt to win on the sixth extra hole.

The day started with Hickok playing in the final group with 3-time Travelers champion Bubba Watson. The popular Floridian, also a 2-time Masters winner, birdied the ninth hole to move to 13-under, but made four bogeys and a double bogey on his final five holes to drop out of contention.

Former major winners Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau and defending champion Dustin Johnson all started Sunday within three strokes of the lead, but never mounted a challenge. Day (70) finished four strokes off the pace, DeChambeau (70) was six off the lead and Johnson (71) finished seven strokes behind.

English won $1,368,000 with his victory, and moved into second place in the FedEx Cup points standings.

Video: pgatour.com

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