The final marquee event of the PGA Tour’s 2026 season kicked off Thursday at TPC River Highlands, and the man who’s still knocking on the door of his first win held on. Eric Cole jumped to the lead from the start at the Travelers Championship, shooting an incredible 7-under 63 and holding off Nico Echavarria, Ben Griffin, Matt Fitzpatrick and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by one stroke.
After the round, Cole said, “Obviously (winning) is everyone’s goal.” “I’m playing a fair amount on tour now and winning is what I want to do. I’m just trying to put myself in that spot where I have more chances, and hopefully the more I do that, the more chances I have of winning.”
Cole took advantage of the calm conditions in the morning, while Fitzpatrick regained his form with a new driver. The Briton, who put a crack on his old driver in the Trust Championship, has been working hard to find a new driver to bag. His driving has decreased over the past month, but he has settled into the new Ping model and is starting to see previous results.
“We have a different driver this week,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s obviously something new. I’m just getting used to it. I felt like I practiced well the first three days, but I was able to find things that felt a little bit better.”
Fitzpatrick missed just one fairway on Thursday and was able to put seven circles on his scorecard. He is now in good position for his fourth PGA Tour win of the season. That would put him well ahead of Scheffler, the man who has won more than anyone in recent years.
Scheffler was honest about the state of his game after the U.S. Open, stating the difficulty of turning it around and winning the tournament. Pointing to a slow start hampering his chances, the 20-time champion started firing on Thursday with good friend and US Open runner-up Sam Burns.
Scheffler played flawlessly within 10 feet in the first round with six birdies and zero drop shots. This is the fourth time he’s been on the leaderboard in the top 10 this season after the first round, and the rest of the team is keeping an eye on what’s to come.
“If you have a low score, it can become increasingly difficult to catch up,” Scheffler said. “When you play a golf course where even par is the winning score at the end of the week, I feel like there’s always going to be a day when someone figures it out.
“If you look at the low rounds at the U.S. Open last week, it feels like there’s still a few people, or at least one person every day, who seems to be figuring it out, so it’s a little bit easier to catch up. Sometimes you can be so far behind here that you can only shoot so low on some golf courses. So it’s important to keep up the pace.”
leader
1. Eric Cole (-7): For Cole, the blooming spring is giving way to a sweltering summer. The 38-year-old has five top-15 finishes in his past seven starts, including a playoff loss to Russell Henry at the Charles Schwab Challenge and a top-10 finish at the ensuing Memorial Tournament. This performance not only earned him a spot in the marquee event, but also placed him in the top 40 of the FedEx Cup standings. These changes will occur in 2028, so Cole’s status in 2027 could mean more than originally thought.
On Thursday, he had a great performance with five birdies and an eagle on the par-5 13th from off the green. He had a chance to improve further than his 63, but he will sleep well tonight knowing he is once again in perfect position for an important golf tournament.
“I wish I knew the answers and could have shared some secrets,” Cole said of his recent success. “But, no, I think it’s just that I put in a lot of effort at the beginning of the year, and it didn’t necessarily bring results, but like, I somehow believed that I was working on the right things and that eventually I would get some results from it. So, yeah, I’m going to go, just that it’s probably been a longer process than I wanted.”
contestant
T2. Scottie Scheffler, Nico Echavarria, Ben Griffin, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christopher Reitan, Bud Corey (-6)
T8. Patrick Cantlay, Brant Snedeker, Aaron Rye, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose, Corey Connors (-5)
Last year’s Travelers saw the playing captain controversy come to a head with Keegan Bradley’s win. That won’t happen this year, but it’s fun to dream as a pot stirrer. Already a season winner at Myrtle Beach, Snedeker started the week in great shape thanks to a first-round 65. This came after the Presidents Cup captains held a team dinner on Tuesday.
“It’s fun to play against them here,” Snedeker said. “I feel like I’m playing good golf right now, so I know I can compete with them. It’s just a matter of putting four rounds together. But it’s fun to be around them and see everyone. Tuesday night we had dinner for the Presidents Cup prospects team, and it’s fun to be around them and hang out a little bit.”
“The more time we spend with them, the more the A’s learn and the B’s are impressed with their game, but the C’s get more competitive. I still want to be that, like I told them, I still want to beat everyone in this room. So it’s fun when you have days like today and you can go and make them sad.”
home cooking
Ben James said earlier in the week that he didn’t meet Tiger Woods, who was in town for the launch of the new 2028 PGA Tour, because he was sleeping at home. The PGA Tour University graduate started his professional career in impressive fashion at the Canadian Open, holding a 36-hole lead. James, a four-time All-American at the University of Virginia, finished in the top 25 at the U.S. Open. The skill set is undeniable (his iron play is real) and his early return suggests James, who opened with a 68 in his home tournament, is here to stay for a long time to come.
“For me, I don’t know, it was my ninth round here,” James said. “I don’t know, I think I’m just riding the wave a little bit. But I think it’s a little different logistically. You do some of the work yourself and you have to coordinate that and you’re just being told what to do, so it’s different. But at the end of the day, it’s about playing good golf or not.”
2026 Travelers Updated Odds and Picks
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
- Scottie Scheffler: 2-1
- Matt Fitzpatrick: 9-1
- Ben Griffin: 15 wins and 1 loss
- Patrick Cantlay: 16-1
- Eric Cole: 18-1
- Sam Burns: 18-1
- Bud Corey: 19-1
- Justin Rose: 21 wins, 1 loss
- Viktor Hovland: 21-1
I’m not giving up on Fleetwood (26-1) just yet. The British player finished 2 over and returned home at 5 under, earning him a spot in the tournament. Fleetwood lost more than three strokes on the green in the first nine holes, and a reversal of his putter reversed the score. The putter is much better than it was last month and should continue that way as he moves up this leaderboard over the next few rounds.
