CROMWELL, Conn. — Court was back in session, about 12 hours after it was adjourned due to rain and darkness out in Cromwell.

The verdict was reached quickly at the Travelers Championship Monday morning, in about 15 minutes — a verdict somewhat surprising, arrived at in a most shocking manner.

Even in a sport as hard to predict as golf, the No.1 player in the world missing a 4-foot putt with a precious first-place finish and more than $3 million on the line doesn’t show up on many bingo cards. But Scheffler, consistently good as he has been, tops in the world for three years running, is human, and this one just plain got away.

“It was one of those putts you kind of had to make,” Scheffler said, in brief remarks as he left the green, “and I just hit it a little bit firm. So that’s a bit disappointing, especially with the putts I made (Sunday) night to stay in the tournament.”

Viktor Hovland, having already birdied the first playoff hole Monday morning, was the beneficiary of Scheffler’s miss, as he was the beneficiary of several near misses by Scheffler over the weekend and the beneficiary of a small regiment of red-clad countrymen from Norway, who had been following their World Cup team in New Jersey and Boston and will head next to Texas.

Their chanting and rowing routines drew blow-back at the 18th green, where fans chanted “U-S-A” on Sunday night, when Scheffler made an 8-foot putt for par to force the playoff, and “Scot-tie Schef-fler” on Monday, as the contenders approached.

About 3,000 fans reconvened, and even for the one moment it was worth reporting to work late or taking a personal day. How often could you get this close to one of the greatest golfers of the generation, in your backyard as he plays one hole for a championship? How often do you get close enough to see the anguished face-palm when he comes up shy?

It’s a forever snapshot that ended another Travelers, a dramatic finish turned anti-climactic by the rain delay Sunday afternoon, controversial by NBC’s rock-and-a-hard-place choice to keep the tournament on TV while their national MLB game of the week, Red Sox-Yankees, got started. Have to believe that outside the New York-Connecticut-Boston corridor, most preferred to see the Scheffler fight for a trophy, but even with the Sox in last place and the Yankees missing Aaron Judge, the rivalry is The Rivalry around here.

The Red Sox’s four-game sweep will buoy them and haunt the Yankees for a while, and this Travelers will probably stay with Scheffler, too. The emotion he showed when he made the last putt Sunday night was enough to indicate that he was not looking just to get out of town.

“It’s nice to be able to hole those putts, keep myself in the tournament. It’s more fun when you’re making the ones to win, but to keep yourself in it is also nice,” he said.

He’s earned well over $100 million on the PGA Tour, and in doing so he has positioned himself for immortality in his sport. The difference between the championship share (roughly $3.6 million) and second place ($2.16) is small potatoes to Scottie Scheffler, but while runner-up finishes, top 10 finishes may help the bank accounts, they do not punch tickets for this sport’s Mount Olympus. If the final ledger one day finds him one championship short of one of the greats, or a just milestone he comes to covet, he will remember the ones that got away, because as we have seen with the best of each generation, the years of peak performance last only so long. Once the first-place finishes stop coming one after another, the totals get stuck in place. One can never assume any great golfer will get another, or when it will come. Tiger Woods and Sam Snead (82 wins), Jack Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) are up on the summit now.

So Scheffler, who just turned 30, needing only the U.S. Open to complete the Grand Slam of golf, began this season with his 20th title, but has not won since January, though the Travelers was his fourth runner-up finish in 2026. He’s finished in the top 25 an astounding 35 events in a row, so this part of his legend is stronger than ever: you have to go through him to win.

Or, in this case, you have to take advantage of his rare bad days, as Hovland did. Like a pop-up thunder shower ruining a picnic, everything looked great for Scheffler at the TPC River Highlands, until all of a sudden it didn’t. When he shot that 60 on Friday, and shrugged off a couple of putts that might have made his great round historic, it looked like vintage Scheffler was going to pour it on all weekend, and easily surpass Keegan Bradley’s tournament record of 23-under par.

Then came the 18th Green on Saturday. Scheffler bogeyed to finish, by his standards, a lackluster round of 67, and when Hovland birdied, he gained the lead. Their duel on Sunday was a roller coaster. Hovland made four bogeys, but only six pars — enough birdies (5) to stay in it. Scheffler led by one with five holes to go when play was halted, and when it resumed, Hovland got new life on the spongy course, two straight birdies to tie, while Scheffler scrambled.

With an 11-foot birdie putt on 17, Scheffler hit it hard to compensate for the slow green, but a little too hard and it rimmed in-and-out. They remained tied at 21-under and both made par on 18 as darkness fell. That would be his downfall on Monday, too, hitting his putt a little too hard.

If all of this sounds interesting, dramatic, in true Travelers tradition, it was, but thanks to the rain and the disruption, it didn’t have that atmosphere to do the course of events justice. But what Connecticut got was the top golfer in the world, at his very best at times, yet bitten in the end by the humbling nature of the most humbling of games.

All in all, it was quite a show.

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