Just after the 2024 US Open in June, the PGA Tour will host the Travelers Championship, which is one of the signature events in its calendar. Unlike last year where they had a limited field of 70 to 80 players, this year the TPC River Highlands event would see a full field of 156 players. In 2023, the Tour announced to grant some benefits to its players during each tournament. They offered courtesy cars, player dining, and many other facilities to the participating players. This time around, the officials of TPC River Highlands events announced that the caddies and families would also get some added perks.
Andy Bessette, the VP and Chief Administrative Officer of Travelers, announced that the players’ caddies and families will be added benefits at River Highlands this year. As quoted by Golf.com, he said,
“So we decided that the caddies deserve some recognition and some help, and we’re giving them cars, too” Later on, Bessette explained the benefits what the wives of players would get, “The wives can go in during the day when they’re out here with their husbands and watching them, if they get tired and they want to go sit down or whatever, so I said to Nathan today, we should give every wife a locker, too”
The last time, when the PGA Tour provided courtesy cars for the players and the caddies, was back in the 2023 BMW Championship. However, the tournament had a small field of 50 players. But the 2024 Travelers Championship will be the largest player field event providing perks such as courtesy cars to the caddies as well.
Why are golfers attracted to the Travelers Championship despite it being held just after the US Open?
The Travelers Championship is the last signature event in the PGA Tour season. Although it is held in the following week of the US Open, players remain excited to participate in the tournament. The reason is quite simple, it offers a huge purse and has a considerable amount of FedEx Cup points up for grabs. Also, the event gives multiple players hospitality benefits.
The 2024 season is even more special as the tournament officials announced granting locker rooms to the wives of the players. Now, even the wives of players would remain excited to travel alongside their better halves in the last signature event of the season.
Andy Bessette also acknowledged the importance of taking care of the golfers’ children. He recalled that last year, they had a tournament chef assigned to prepare mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and tater tots for the children.
In 2023, Keegan Bradley lifted the Travelers Championship title and also voiced to get caddies courtesy cars too. This year, his request has certainly been fulfilled and it will be interesting to see what reception the TPC River Highlands event gets after these new additions.
