Brendan Steele turned in a fine top-15 finish at the Travelers Championship on the TPC River Highlands course in Cromwell, Conn., last week. His 13-under-par 68-64-67-68 — 267 earned him a tie for 13th place and a check for $112,500.
Steele’s performance was aided by hitting more than 80 percent of the fairways with drives averaging 287 yards and by reaching more than 76 percent of the greens in regulation.
The Idyllwild native had 23 birdies for the week — two more than Fredrik Jacobson, who won the tournament. This is particularly encouraging since, being a rookie on the PGA Tour, Steele hadn’t played the course before last week. Jacobson, with years of experience on the course, had missed the cut in his two most recent appearances there.
This all fits in with Steele’s previous statement to the Town Crier that he anticipates that as he gains more experience with PGA Tour courses he’ll make fewer bogey-producing mistakes, allowing his birdies the chance to win tournaments.
Steele has made the cut in more than half of the 19 PGA Tour tournaments he’s played, including seven of his most recent 10. He currently stands in 31st place in the FedEx Cup race and in 32nd place on the PGA Tour money list.
Steele will now sidestep the PGA Tour for tournaments on the European Tour. This week, he’ll fly to Paris for the Alstom Open de France (French Open) on the Albatros course at the Le Golf National, which will be the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup.