Bubba Watson wins Travelers Championship for 2nd time
Bubba Watson got back to his winning ways on the PGA Tour on Sunday at the site of his first Tour victory. Watson won the Travelers Championship for the second time, doing so, like he did in 2010, in a playoff.
Watson birdied the second playoff hole to take down Paul Casey for his second win of the 2014-15 season, building on his November playoff win at the WGC-HSBC Champions. After matching pars on the par-4 18th to open the playoff, Casey went bunker to bunker with his approach shot on the rehash in the second playoff hole. Casey airmailed his greenside bunker shot, clearing the stage for a Watson win.
“I proved to myself in ’10 that I could win under pressure in the playoff; I proved to myself that I could mess up 17 and still have a chance to win, and so I knew that if I just kept my head down and kept doing what I needed to do, I could still have a chance to win, and that’s what I did,” Watson said, according to PGATour.com.
Both players finished at 16-under 264, a shot ahead of 54-hole leader Brian Harman.
The two-time Masters winner got out of the gate with a pair of birdies, then went sideways until an eagle 3 at the par-5 13th. A late bogey at the 17th opened the door for Casey, who birdied three of his last four holes to shoot a playoff-inducing 5-under 65.
However, had Casey been able to make a fairly simple par at the drivable par-4 15th, he could have picked up the win. Instead, Casey is a playoff loser for the second time this year. He also fell, along with Dustin Johnson, to James Hahn in the three-man playoff for the Northern Trust Open. Along with Kevin Kisner, who has also fallen in a pair of playoffs this year, Casey is having the best no-win season on the PGA Tour.
Watson now has eight PGA Tour wins, with five of them coming in playoffs. Since 2010, only Rory McIlroy, with 11, has more wins.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
