![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/THC-L-Travelers-First-Day_13.jpg\")
Ben James of Milford signs autographs after finishing his first round during the 2026 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)\nMilford\u2019s James has a day<\/p>\n
CROMWELL \u2013 Matt Fitzpatrick, the English golfer ranked fourth in the world and second in the FedExCup standings entering the Travelers Championship, came to Connecticut with a different club in his bag.<\/p>\n
He struggled off the tee last week at the U.S. Open, and has been struggling since his driver cracked before the Truist Championship in May, a week after he won his third tournament of the season. Fitzpatrick, who won the U.S. Open in 2022, finished 22nd at Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to give yourself a chance at making some scores. Not only a chance of making birdies, but just trying to make comfortable pars. I think for me, that was the big thing last weekend that I struggled with. I just didn\u2019t hit my driver very well and I feel like that that was kind of what held me back most of all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After Thursday\u2019s round at the Travelers, Fitzpatrick may have found his answer.<\/p>\n
He hit 13 of 14 fairways and landed on 16 of 18 greens in regulation as he finished his round in the six-player group tied for second at 6-under-par 64, trailing leader Eric Cole by one stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I did, yeah,\u201d Fitzpatrick said, almost surprised to hear how he performed off the tee. \u201cI have a different driver this week. That\u2019s obviously new. Just getting comfortable with that and I had, you know, felt like I practiced well these first three days and just managed to find something that I felt was working a bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Englishman, who graduated from Northwestern, prefers to play more \u201cdifficult,\u201d higher-scoring, courses than TPC River Highlands is known to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis golf course is obviously renowned for lower scores, which is obviously nice to have that variation from week-to-week. \u2026 Last week I think Wyndham (Clark) wins at 4-under and this week, 4-under\u2019s 30th already (actually tied for 14th), or whatever it is, I don\u2019t know. I think, to me, the grind of staying close to par on those tough weeks is more rewarding, I feel like,\u201d he said. \u201cI think as golfers we\u2019re just expected to go make birdies and our expectations are to just make birdies.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you do win a tournament at 20-under par, then you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m kind of supposed to do that.\u2019 But in the tournaments where it\u2019s closer to par and it\u2019s a grind you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, I feel like I have achieved something there.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben James of Milford signs autographs after finishing his first round during the 2026 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)
\nMilford\u2019s James has a day<\/p>\n
Milford native Ben James, who played in the Travelers Championship on a sponsor\u2019s exemption but missed the cut after his senior year at Hamden Hall Country Day (2022) and again after his freshman year at the University of Virginia (2023), returned to TPC River Highlands this week to play the course for the first time since turning pro.<\/p>\n
Followed throughout the day by family and a group of high school buddies, his round didn\u2019t end the way he wanted, with bogeys on No. 17 and 18 after getting to 3-under on the front nine, but James went into the clubhouse with his best-ever River Highlands round at 2-under-par 68.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an amazing crowd. It was great. I had an amazing day. Played some nice golf. Funny, the only people I could hear are my high school buddies, I knew their voices. But it was an awesome, amazing experience,\u201d he said, recognizing that he was more comfortable this time around after finishing tied for 23rd at the U.S. Open last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHit it good, rolled it good. Had a ton of lip outs. I played nice. Had just made one mental mistake and just an unfortunate lie that I had on the last. But overall it was a good day,\u201d James said. \u201cI was pretty comfortable today. I surprised myself a little bit. I started off really nice. I played a nice front nine. Tony (Finau) was a great guy. Very much enjoyed playing with him. Looking forward to playing with him (Friday). It just was a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Kristoffer](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2283281898.jpg\")
Kristoffer Reitan of Norway walks off the first tee during the first round of the Travelers Championship 2026 at TPC River Highlands on Friday. (Andrew Redington\/Getty Images)
\nNorwegian soccer fans swing by<\/p>\n
After the U.S. Open wrapped up from Shinnecock Hills on Long Island last weekend, Kristoffer Reitan and Viktor Hovland \u2013 who both missed the cut \u2013 visited Metlife Stadium (or \u201cNew York\/New Jersey Stadium,\u201d as FIFA recognizes it) to watch their home country, Norway, take on Senegal in the World Cup group stage on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unbelievable. For me, I haven\u2019t seen Norway in the World Cup for my whole life, so it was awesome. The crowds are amazing, the team was performing excellent. Yeah, it was an experience I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my life,\u201d Reitan said.<\/p>\n
And on Thursday, with Norway set to play France at \u201cBoston Stadium\u201d (Gillette Stadium) on Friday, a contingent of soccer fans made it to Cromwell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe games and the golf events set up quite nicely, so they can make a pit stop here for the interested fans or the golf-interested fans. So it sets up quite nicely for that,\u201d Reitan said, after finishing 6-under-par 64 in his first-ever round at the Travelers. \u201cAnd it\u2019s cool for them to make a pit stop here and for me to experience a miniature version of what the football players get to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovland, playing at the Travelers for the sixth time, went into the clubhouse at 5-under 65.<\/p>\n
Brian Harman\u2019s wild round<\/p>\n
Brian Harman, 39, is playing in the Travelers Championship for the 16th time so he\u2019s accustomed to seeing some up-and-down results at the TPC River Highlands course. But Thursday\u2019s round was about as wild as it gets.<\/p>\n
Harman started out with a birdie on No. 1 and shot up the leaderboard with four in a row from No. 5 through No. 8, which got him to 5-under through eight holes. But then he overshot an eight-foot par putt and made bogey on No. 9. He struggled to find the fairway on No. 10 and missed a 5-foot putt on No. 11, finally erasing all of his positive movement with an out-of-bounds penalty off the tee, a bunker shot and a double bogey that got him back to even through 12 holes.<\/p>\n
But Harman\u2019s fortune turned quickly again as he birdied Nos. 13 and 14, bringing him back to 2-under when he set up for a 160-yard second shot over the pond on No. 17. The ball took a few small bounces and trickled into the hole for eagle. Harmon closed his round with par on No. 18 and went into the clubhouse at 4-under 66.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CROMWELL \u2013 Matt Fitzpatrick, the English golfer ranked fourth in the world and second in the FedExCup standings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[6054,3232,1576,1452,1454,899,1456,827,144,56,1426,1425],"class_list":["post-27412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travelers-championship","tag-ben-james","tag-connecticut-news","tag-cromwell","tag-ct-news","tag-hartford-courant","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-pga","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports","tag-tpc-river-highlands","tag-travelers-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}