With big names playing in this year's Travelers Championship, tournament director Grube still sees room for growth

Photo | HBJ File Nathan Grube

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By Sean Teehan

With big names like Phil Mickelson playing in this year’s Travelers Championship, Tournament Director Nathan Grube is firing on all cylinders as the high-profile event’s start date approaches.

This is Grube’s 15th year heading up Travelers Championship, a weeklong tournament that kicks off June 20, with a $7.2 million purse. Since Grube took over, the event has risen in prominence in the golf world.

Grube gravitated toward organizing golf tournaments after his foray into playing the game professionally yielded a total of about $200 his first year out of college. He still plays golf occasionally, but is currently in the final stages of putting on an annual tournament that amounts to about 16 months of work.

Even still, Grube thinks the tournament still has plenty of room for growth.

“I don’t think we have hit our full potential,” Grube said. “With the Travelers Championship being the only PGA TOUR event in New England this summer, I think we are poised to bring in new fans and show the region why this event is so unique.”

What kind of attendance uptick do you expect this year from Phil Mickelson playing?

We have seen some solid attendance growth the last few years and we expect that to continue with Phil’s commitment. He has a unique history with Connecticut golf fans and I expect there to be some pretty large crowds welcoming him back to the Travelers Championship.

Now that you landed Mickelson, have you reached out to Tiger Woods to get him to play? What are the challenges in landing Tiger?

We talk to every player each and every year about playing Travelers. We are fortunate that we have built strong relationships with them and have received their vote as the recipient of the Players Choice Award for the last two years.

When players are saying positive things about our event, that resonates with other players who have not been here and that is the best thing we can ask for. We would love every player to experience the Travelers Championship at some point, including Tiger. A players schedule is usually the determining factor in where they play and we can’t control that. We try to focus on what we can control and make the event the best it can be for whoever is in our field each year.

The Travelers Championship has a lot of big names this year and has been attracting an increasing number of high-profile players over the past few years. How have you accomplished that?

Andy Bessette, chief administrative officer at Travelers Cos., and I have spent a lot of time building relationships with the players, their families, their caddies, agents, trainers … everyone. We talk to them about how we can make the event better and then we try to deliver on the things they want.

When they see us making changes, I think that resonates with them and that translates into them being comfortable coming here. The players also love the crowds and energy that our event has. They comment on it all the time that they love playing in front of our crowds.

Has there been any consideration of moving the date of the Travelers Championship so that it’s not so close to the U.S. Open?

We love our date. It has become a kick-off to summer and the fans and players have come to identify us in this spot. We have looked at other options over the years but given all the factors with the schedule, we like where we are.