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World No. 2 Golfer Rory McIlroy has recently committed to playing at the 2024 Travelers Championship. The news comes as a surprise, since last year McIlroy had expressed his distaste for the Travelers Championship course, the TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.
The course for the Travelers Championship has always been the same, and the 2024 edition will also be held there. Rory McIlroy was not a fan of the course last year, especially due to its low-scoring rounds.
He publically criticized the tournament in a post-round interview in 2023, saying via Sky Sports:
"I don't particularly like when a tournament is like this. Unfortunately, technology has passed this course by, right? It sort of has made it obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had."
Despite feeling like the course is obsolete, Rory McIlroy was officially announced as a part of the field for the signature event. Last year, McIlroy carded an overall score of -16, which saw him finish tied for T7. The Travelers Championship was claimed by Keegan Bradley, with an overall score of -23.
The Travelers Championship will be held from June 20 to 23, boasting a prize purse of $20 million due to its signature event status.
Rory McIlroy criticizes the layout for the 2023 Traveler Championship course
Rory McIlroy was disappointed by the soft conditions and said that even growing the rough did not help much, since the course did not have a good layout. He compared it to the Los Angeles Golf Club, where despite the ample fairway, the penalty for missing is large.
"The blueprint is something like Los Angeles Country Club, where you have wide targets, but if you miss it's penal. This isn't that sort of golf course. It's not that sort of layout. It doesn't have the land to do that. Unfortunately when you get soft conditions like this and you've got the best players in the world, this is what's going to happen."
The Travelers Championship has been held at the TPC River Highlands since 1984 and is managed by The Greater Hartford Community Foundation. Keegan Bradley is not only the defending champion but has also set the course record last year at 23 under 257.
