FRANCESCO MOLINARI, TONY FINAU COMMIT TO TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP
FRANCESCO MOLINARI, TONY FINAU COMMIT TO TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Tournament has commitments from five players ranked among the world’s top 11
HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 11, 2019 – The Travelers Championship today announced that Tony Finau and 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari have committed to play in this year’s tournament at TPC River Highlands.
Molinari (No. 10) and Finau (No. 11) join three top-5 players in the current Official World Golf Ranking – Brooks Koepka (No. 2), Justin Thomas (No. 4) and Bryson DeChambeau (No. 5) – as early commitments for the 2019 tournament.
“It’s exciting to announce this many players this early in the year,” said Travelers Championship Tournament Director Nathan Grube. “Adding Francesco and Tony not only gives us two more elite players; it also adds two more PGA TOUR winners and two players who were in the Ryder Cup last year. We couldn’t be happier with the way our field is developing.”
Francesco Molinari became the first Italian to win a major when he captured the 2018 Open Championship. That win came three weeks after Molinari’s first PGA TOUR victory, at the Quicken Loans National. He made history at the Ryder Cup, teaming with Tommy Fleetwood to win all four of their partners matches, then beating Phil Mickelson in singles to cap the first 5-0 week by a European player. Molinari, who also won the European Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai in 2018, played in the Travelers Championship in 2015 and 2016.
Tony Finau joined the PGA TOUR in 2015 and won his first TOUR event a year later, at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. A 29-year-old from Utah, Finau already has a runner-up finish on TOUR this season, at the HSBC Champions. In 2018, he represented the United States in the Ryder Cup and finished in the top 10 in three of the four major championships: He tied for 10th at the Masters, finished fifth at the U.S. Open and was T9 at the Open Championship. Finau has played in the Travelers Championship three times, with a T17 in 2017 his best finish.
“Each year, we strive to improve the tournament in every aspect – we owe it to our fans, sponsors and most importantly, the charitable organizations that benefit from the Travelers Championship,” said Andy Bessette, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers. “The addition of these two players is another step in ensuring that this year’s tournament is world-class.”
The 2019 Travelers Championship will be held June 17-23 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. For more information on this year’s tournament, visit www.TravelersChampionship.com.
About the Travelers Championship
The Travelers Championship, held in Cromwell, Connecticut, is one of the premier events on the PGA TOUR and part of the FedExCup series. Named by the PGA TOUR in 2017 and 2018 as the recipient of the “Players Choice” award, the Travelers Championship proudly supports the TOUR’s Tradition of Giving Back by donating 100 percent of net proceeds to charities. Travelers, a leading provider of property and casualty insurance for auto, home and business, is the Official Property Casualty Insurance Provider of the PGA TOUR. The company became the tournament’s title sponsor in 2007. Travelers has been doing business in the Hartford community for more than 160 years and has been a corporate sponsor of this event each year since its inception in 1952. Complete details are available at www.TravelersChampionship.com.
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CONTACT:
Tara Gerber, Travelers Championship, 860.502.6815, tgerber@travelerschampionship.com
