2025 Travelers Championship first round
-8 A Eckroat, S Scheffler (Both US); -6 W Clark, K Bradley (Both US), R McIlroy (NI)
Selected others: -4 J Day (Aus), T Fleetwood (Eng), V Hovland (Nor)
Full leaderboard
World number one Scottie Scheffler hit an opening-round 62 to tie the lead at the Travelers Championship, with Rory McIlroy just two shots behind on six under.
Scheffler, 28, finished in the top 10 of last week’s US Open and was back to his very best on Thursday with an eagle on the par-five 13th the highlight.
The American won the event last year and joins Austin Eckroat at the top of the leaderboard in Connecticut, with five-time major winner McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark all hitting 64s.
McIlroy said: “I just want to see some good golf and see some better shots. I think if you concentrate on that and you are concentrating on your quality of golf and concentrating on just trying to play to the best of your ability, the result will take care of itself.
“There’s no point in thinking about the result right now. I’m just trying to play as good as I can and make good swings, and if I do that enough, more than likely I’ll find myself in a position to have a chance to win.”
Three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth was forced to withdraw after 13 holes with a shoulder injury.
Spieth was five over for his round, with no birdies, when he informed playing partner Luke Clanton he could not continue and was taken off in a cart.
“I’ve never withdrawn from an event ever, anywhere, at any level, so I didn’t really know what to do. It just became too much,” Spieth said.
“I didn’t see it turning around until probably Saturday. These things kind of last an extra day, and no matter what I was going to do, it was just going to be… I don’t know, it’s unfortunate.
“I’ve been doing everything right, and I think it was just very random.”
