Rory McIlroy isn’t a fan of tournaments like the Travelers Championship.
Even after a T-7 finish where McIlroy shot 18 under at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, he doesn’t like courses that allow the best players in the world to have birdie fests to win titles. Keegan Bradley took home the title at 23 under.
“Unfortunately technology has passed this course by, right,” McIlroy said after the final round. “It sort of has made it obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had.
“Like the conversations going back to, you know, limiting the golf ball and stuff like that, when we come to courses like this they just don’t present the challenge that they used to.”
Playing at 6,852 yards, TPC River Highlands is the second shortest course on the PGA Tour this season, behind Port Royal, which hosts the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. And players took advantage of scorable conditions in the Northeast.
Rickie Fowler and Denny McCarthy each shot 60. Patrick Cantlay added a 61. There were more 62s, 63s and 64s, as well.
McIlroy was then asked what courses like TPC River Highlands, which has hosted the Travelers Championship since 1984, can do to stay relevant in today’s game.
“You can grow the rough up and hope you get some firm conditions so it gets tricky. I think the blueprint for a really good golf course isn’t growing the rough up and making the fairways tight. That bunches everyone together,” he explained. “The blueprint is something like LACC 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.”
“So, you know, 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 winning score last week at the U.S. Open was 10 under. McIlroy finished second at 9 under.
The lowest winning score this season on Tour was Jon Rahm shooting 27 under to win the American Express, which is played on three courses. Last month, Jason Day won the AT&T Byron Nelson at 23 under.