The PGA Tour announced on Thursday the Travelers Championship will be played from June 25-28, 2020.
The event will be played without fans in attendance and will be a TV-only event, according to a release from tournament officials.
The tournament at the TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell will be during the week it was originally scheduled to be held.
"We look forward to the return of golf and fully support the PGA TOUR’s decision to conduct the tournament without fans on-site this year. The health and safety of all who attend our event is the top priority, and conducting the tournament without crowds on-site is in the best interest of protecting everyone, including the broader community," said Andy Bessette, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers.
The announcement from the PGA Tour comes more than a month after it suspended its season. The last tournament to be play was the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida from March 5-8.
Without fans, and with some restrictions likely still in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament will have a different look and feel, organizers admit.
Travelers Championship staff and Travelers executives are working with the PGA Tour on just how the tournament will be carried out in Cromwell in late June, according to tournament director, Nathan Grube.
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"We are a PGA Tour event, so so much of what we do, what we're going to look like, what our format is going to be is really a PGA Tour decision," Grube said on a teleconference call on Thursday.
The players who decide to come to the Travelers Championship this year could also be affected by the new tour schedule.
Top PGA Tour professionals Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, and Bryson DeChambeau had already committed to play before the tour schedule was suspended. Grube said no players had dropped out since the announcement the tournament would be held.
The change in the tour schedule could mean other big names would end up in Cromwell.
"It could present some opportunities for different guys' schedules," Grube said.
Some have already reached out to the tournament.
"We're already getting phone calls from some of the top players. I'm not going to say who it is, but we're already getting calls - people exploring, taking a look at whether or not it would make sense to get here," Bessette said.
In 2019, the Travelers Championship raised more than $2.1 million for 150 local charities, but with a much different format this year, the tournament staff is already working on creative ways to keep those charities the tournament's main focus, according to Grube.
"Driving charity dollars is 100-percent a priority for us," he said.
News that this year's tournament would be held, even without fans, was welcomed by area leaders.
"The economics won’t be the same this year but it will be terrific that it’s going to be held," said Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce. "Hopefully, people will enjoy it on TV for the one year, then come back out to Cromwell and the Travelers next year to see the tournament."
The PGA Tour schedule will resume with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas on June 11, followed by the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina on June 18. That date was the original slot for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, which has now been moved to Sept. 17.
The Travelers Championship will be the third tournament to be played when the schedule resumes.
You can see the full revised PGA Tour schedule here.
Anyone who bought tickets to this year's Travelers Championship through Ticketmaster will receive automatic refunds within 30 days, according to the tournament.
