“Better not be opposite anything (on the Champions Tour)”, said Kelly, who gave Knox a hug as the victor made his way to the scoring trailer.
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“Once it started kind of creeping left, I knew it was going in, and what an unbelievable feeling”. “I could have ripped my shirt off”.
Knox made a 12-foot par putt on No. 18 to finish at 14 under overall, one stroke ahead of the hard-charging Kelly.
The win ensures Knox joins World No. 1 Jason Day, US Open victor Dustin Johnson along with Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott as a double victor on this year’s 2015/16 PGA Tour wraparound schedule following his success in November’s WGC HSBC Champions event.
Kelly, an alumnus of the nearby University of Hartford, took second after a final-round 64. When he finished play in the tournament to chants of “58” on No. 18, he was four shots off the lead and tied for fifth. “No, wait, 56.” Geiberger said from the airport in Minneapolis, where he was waiting to fly back to the desert after participating in pro-am activities at the PGA Tour Champions 3M Championships this week.
He upped his consecutive birdie streak to seven at holes 10 through 12, then parred 13, 14 and 15, lipping out a birdie attempt at 15.
Furyk’s only other birdie was a 23-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th. He pitched out short of the hole, setting up a putt that went straight into the hole. He didn’t tear his shirt off, but did send his hat flying in celebration. He hasn’t won since last year’s RBC Heritage, but what got him into a tie for fifth place Sunday was more notable than Russell Knox’s victory. He mustered just six (of 14) fairways but hit 13 greens in regulation, posting a tidy 1.692 putts per GIR though a pedestrian 0.289 in SG: Putting. “I’m trending in the right direction which is what I wanted to do going into the [FedEx Cup] Playoffs”.
Justin Thomas was nearly an afterthought despite shooting a 62 and stringing together five straight birdies close out the front nine. Thomas began the day outside the top 30 but wound up in a tie for third after shooting a 62.
Rodgers shot a 2-under 68.
In a fun twist, Furyk was the last of six players in PGA Tour history who had come closest to the number, carding a 59 in the third round of the 2013 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill.
That will be $36,000 more than Bubba Watson earned for his second Travelers win past year at TPC River Highlands.
The previous record at the 6,841-yard TPC River Highlands was set by then-amateur Patrick Cantlay at the 2011 Travelers.
“I guess I look at it is it’s one day versus a career, but it’s also one day that no one else on the PGA Tour has ever done”.
What it means: Furyk stole the show with an unprecedented 58 to race up the standings before the leaders even teed off, and once they did it seemed like this could be a coronation for Berger who led by three shots.
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About the time Berger was imploding, Kelly hit his biggest shot of the day: a 113-yarder for eagle on No. 12. In 2010 he was the FedEx Cup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year. “They kept wanting to plan a 40th anniversary of the 59 for next year, and I said you can’t do that”.
