Travelers Championship Earns “Best Of” Award
at PGA TOUR Tournament Meetings

PGA TOUR event honored for Best Special Event in 2016

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., Dec. 12, 2016 — The Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut was honored by the PGA TOUR at the TOUR’s Tournament Meetings on December 7.

The Travelers Championship earned an award for Best Special Event — the Bruce Edwards Foundation Benefit Dinner — during the 2016 tournament at TPC River Highlands.

“On behalf of the PGA TOUR, I am pleased to congratulate the Travelers Championship for the special recognition it has received,” said Andy Pazder, PGA TOUR chief tournaments and competitions officer. “The Bruce Edwards Foundation Benefit Dinner was an inspirational evening and a success in raising significant funds for ALS research, an amazing testament to the hard work of Travelers and the tournament staff.”

The Best Special Event award recognizes a tournament that develops a unique, one-time event with a defined purpose to drive attendance, social media attention, ticket sales, media value or, in the case of the 2016 recipient, charity donations.

The Bruce Edwards Foundation Benefit Dinner, held on August 5 following the second round, was created as an additional fundraiser for ALS causes, the charitable focus of the 2016 Travelers Championship, and to remember those who have lost their lives to the disease. The event, which attracted a crowd of nearly 1,000 people to the Connecticut Convention Center, featured legendary PGA TOUR player Tom Watson, award-winning sports columnist and author of “Caddy for Life” John Feinstein and former Travelers Executive Chairman Jay Fishman, who had been diagnosed with ALS and passed away two weeks after the dinner.

A native of Wethersfield, Connecticut, Bruce Edwards was a longtime friend and caddie of Watson who actively worked on the PGA TOUR until a few months before his death from ALS in 2004. Watson and Feinstein founded the Bruce Edwards Foundation to help find a cure for the disease.

With Watson, Feinstein and Fishman sharing host duties, the dinner raised more than $1.3 million for ALS research and was attended by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem, CBS Sports Anchor Jim Nantz, dignitaries from Travelers and the Travelers Championship, members of the Edwards family and a number of PGA TOUR players and caddies.

“Partnering with Jay and working with Travelers, we were determined to raise a substantial amount of money for the Bruce Edwards Foundation to help fund the fight against ALS,” said Travelers Championship Tournament Director Nathan Grube. “Andy Bessette, Travelers Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, led a very motivated group in organizing an evening few will forget. Their efforts, coupled with overwhelming support from the community and the PGA TOUR, made this tournament-week event an amazing success. We are extremely honored to receive this award.”

The Travelers Championship, won this year by Russell Knox, will be held June 19-25, 2017 at TPC River Highlands.

About PGA TOUR
The PGA TOUR is the world’s premier membership organization for touring professional golfers, co-sanctioning more than 130 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Web.com Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR China.

The PGA TOUR’s mission is to entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back, generate significant charitable and economic impact in the communities in which it plays, and provide financial opportunities for TOUR players.

Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to more than 1 billion households in 227 countries and territories in 30 languages. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations in order to maximize charitable giving. In 2015, tournaments across all Tours generated a record $160 million for local and national charitable organizations, bringing the all-time total to $2.3 billion.

The PGA TOUR’s web site is PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, and the organization is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

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