Saturday, June 22 Recap
Trailing at one point by six shots during the third round of the 2019 Travelers Championship, Chez Reavie went on a back-nine birdie blitz to seize control of the tournament with a record-setting performance and build a six-shot lead through 54 holes. Saturday saw plenty of sun and warm temperatures, delighting the big crowd that came out to TPC River Highlands for great golf and an evening concert.
Reavie, a 37-year-old who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, shot a 7-under-par 63, pushing his total to 16-under-par. He leads Keegan Bradley (69) and Zack Sucher (71) by six shots, with Roberto Diaz (67) and Jason Day (68) another shot back at 9-under. Reavie tied the tournament’s lowest back-nine score with a 7-under-par 28, and his six-stroke lead through three rounds is the most in Travelers Championship history. The old record had been four shots.
It has been 250 PGA TOUR starts since Reavie’s lone victory, which came at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open.
After making a bogey on the par-5 sixth hole, Reavie trailed Sucher by six strokes. But then Reavie birdied the par-3 eighth, and followed with birdies on five of his first six holes on the back nine – Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 – to jump in front. He added another birdie at No. 17 and drained a 5-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to cap his back-nine 28.
Reavie’s charge into the lead was helped by Sucher’s mid-round struggles. The second-round leader jumped out to a fast start, playing his first eight holes in 4-under, and had a short birdie putt at No. 9 to take a six-shot lead. Sucher missed that putt, the start of a rough stretch. He bogeyed the par-4 10th and doubled bogeyed the next two holes, falling out of the lead.
Earlier on Saturday, The First Tee of Connecticut’s annual breakfast awarded deserving students with school scholarship money. After third-round action had concluded, country band LOCASH took the stage in the Stanley Black & Decker Fan Zone to perform in the Concert Series presented by Powerstation Events and Xfinity. Also, many of the approximately 3,500 volunteers celebrated tournament week at the Volunteer Party in the Pro-Am tent.
Can Reavie hold on and secure his second win on the PGA TOUR? Last year, Bubba Watson came from six shots back in the final round to win. Golf Channel will provide final-round coverage from 1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., with CBS broadcasting the action from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
