Vermont native and PGA TOUR rookie Keegan Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship this past weekend at Atlanta Athletic Club to become just the third golfer in history to win a major in his first attempt. Bradley shot a final round 68 and beat Jason Dufner in a three-hole playoff to earn the victory.

He has now won two times during his rookie season, earning his first victory at the 2011 HP Byron Nelson Championship in May.  He has pretty much locked up the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Award and has a chance to win the PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award with a strong showing during the PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs. If he wins both awards, it would be the first time in history that a player has won both the Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year Award from the PGA TOUR.

Bradley is originally from Woodstock, Vermont and went to college at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. He has a love for all New England sports and is a diehard Red Sox fan. His aunt is World Golf Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley who has 31 career victories on the LPGA TOUR, including six major championships.

At the 2011 Travelers Championship, Bradley had the opportunity to play in his first PGA TOUR event in New England and had a great following of family and friends at TPC River Highlands. He shot a four-under 276 and finished T63 in his first visit to Cromwell. We wish Keegan the best of luck during the PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs and hope to see him next year at the 2012 Travelers Championship.

For the fifth-straight year, the Travelers Championship will continue to expand its charitable giving initiatives to benefit tournament charities. This year is no exception with the new “TEXT TO DONATE” program.

By texting “TCHAMP” to 50555, fans can donate $10 to help the tournament achieve its goal of generating more dollars for charity and helping the community.

Since its inception in 1952, the tournament has generated more than $28 million dollars for charity, including $1.1 million in 2010 alone. To learn more about the charities that benefit from the Travelers Championship, click here.

• $10.00 donation to Greater Hartford Community Foundation/Travelers Championship. Charges will appear on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your prepaid balance. All purchases must be authorized by account holder. Message and Data Rates May Apply. Text STOP to 50555 to STOP. Text HELP to 50555 for HELP.
• Full Terms: www.mGive.org/T. Privacy Policy

Join the Travelers Championship for a fun-filled day of free golf activities, clinics and fun for all ages, Tuesday, June 21, for Farmington Bank Fan & Family Day. With the support of the Connecticut Section PGA, the event will feature PGA Play Golf America Day, and will offer 10 minutes of free expert instruction to golfers of all ages and skill levels.

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Play Golf America Day presented by the Connecticut Section PGA

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Golf is Cool with Eric Eshleman, PGA professional- an entertaining and educational golf show for kids

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Hitting Bays Open

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
PGA Sports and SNAG Academy with Suzy Whaley

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Hitting Bays Open

1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Women’s Clinic featuring Suzy Whaley and Susan Bond

2:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Hitting Bays Open

The BlumShapiro5K for Camp Courant at the Travelers Championship welcomed more than 500 runners to TPC River Highlands Saturday morning to take part in a 5K road race and Kids Fun Run. The race helped raise funds and awareness for Camp Courant, the largest free day camp in the nation.

In the male division, Aaron Szotka, from Windsor, Conn., set a new course record with a time of 16:01. Fourteen-year-old Kaeli Baker, from Farmington, Conn., claimed her second-straight female division victory with a finish of 20:37.

The Travelers Championship would once again like to thank all who helped make Tuesday’s Media Day a tremendous success, in particular, our gracious participants in the afternoon golf outing. Even though the rain put a damper on things, we were still able to get in 9 holes.

We’d like to acknowledge the following winners of the nine-hole shamble:

LOW GROSS – Brian Rice, Tracy Rice, Cathy Morway, Eric Clark (-4)

Low Gross - Tracy Rice, Brian Rice, Cathy Morway and Eric Clark

LOW NET – Brian Remsberg, Kevin Nathan, Bob Connors, Bob Gelb (-9)

Low Net - Kevin Nathan, Bob Connors, Brian Remsberg and Bob Gelb

Bob Connors also took home a trophy for getting closest to the pin on hole No. 16.

Paul Ferrone secured longest drive honors for his blast on hole No. 7.

Media Day was just one more sign that June is right around the corner. Only 31 more days until opening ceremony will commence the 2011 Travelers Championship. We look forward to another successful event and look forward to seeing everyone June 20-26 at TPC River Highlands.

The Travelers Championship and MetroHartford Alliance hosted a Rising Star Breakfast this morning at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. The event helped kickoff Media Day for the Travelers Championship and defending champion Bubba Watson made the trip up for the festivities. Some of the highlights from the breakfast included the announcement of Governor Malloy as the 2011 Honorary Chairman for the Travelers Championship, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center announced a multi-year Presenting Sponsorship and Bubba Watson was interviewed by ESPN analyst Chris Berman.

PING Long Drive Contest - HIT IT BUBBA LONG

These were all great reasons to make it out for the breakfast, but another feature was the PING Long Drive Challenge where business leaders had an opportunity to take one swing on the first tee at TPC River Highlands to see if they are BUBBA LONG.

Everyone was dressed in business suits and dress shoes, which help add to difficulty on a wet day at the course. The prize for the longest male and female participant was a Bubba Watson pink shafted driver fit to Bubba’s specs by PING and was signed by our defending champion personally following the competition.

The winners for the PING Long Drive Challenge were Lynn Scully and Mark Lukas. Both of them received a driver and a photo with Bubba following the breakfast!

Long Drive Winners - Lynn Scully and Mark Lukas

We are less than 60 days until the start of the 2011 Travelers Championship and to help add to the excitement we have launched a new website to make it easier for our fans, volunteers, charities, sponsors and media to learn about the upcoming event. Thanks to the support and design efforts from the Silverman Group, we are able to make some great new improvements to the site.

In designing the new site, we spent a lot of time researching data traffic from our old site to learn the popularity of different pages, as well as trends that resulted in increased site traffic numbers during the year. In addition to the data, we also studied different professional sports’ teams websites to learn new features and layouts that made it easier for people to learn about your organization. Finally, we looked to add new elements to the website that offer a better experience for our fans and some of these new additions include:

• Interactive Countdown on the homepage
• Photo/Story Slide Show on the homepage
• Photo and Video Galleries to show the visual side of our event
• Google Maps for Directions & Parking, as well as off-site Handicap Accessible Parking
• Facebook and Twitter widgets on the right column of most pages to keep you updated on our latest posts
• Interactive Toolbar that gives our fans a chance to post stories on their own social media sites
• Comment Section for each Press Release and Blog Post to allow for the ultimate in fan interaction
• Championship Blog, which is the first-ever blog for a PGA TOUR event

These are just some of the new elements to the website and we hope you have an opportunity to test out each feature. Also, we are hoping for your feedback to the new website, so please let us know how we did with the new site:

DID WE GET IT RIGHT?

• NOPE
• ALMOST
• OH YES WE DID

Welcome to the Championship Blog, which is an inside look into Connecticut’s PGA TOUR event. This is the first blog of its kind for a PGA TOUR event and we look forward to creating a unique experience for our tournament fans. In addition to our posts on the Blog, fans will have a chance to interact by submitting their comments and/or sharing recent posts on their own social media sites.

The whole reason behind the CB is to keep you informed with everything happening surrounding the Travelers Championship. Pretty simple, right? While some of the content we produce here will be featured as top stories on the website, the Championship Blog will look to offer an exclusive behind the scenes access into the tournament.

We’ll keep you updated with our player field, special events, golf course operations, new tournament features and special reports from our Tournament Director, Nathan Grube, as he travels the country recruiting the top PGA TOUR players for our field.

Let us know your thoughts on the CB and what you think of the new website.