Travelers Championship

Thursday, June 22, 2017

J.J. Henry

Quick Quotes

Q. First round, what are your takeaways?
J.J. HENRY: Yeah, it's obviously great to be home here in Connecticut. I grew up about an hour south of here. It's hard to believe it was 11 years ago when I walked up that 72nd hole on Sunday and won.

I want to say now it's my 19th Travelers Championship. I guess in a way I'm getting up there. Maybe the wily veteran, if you will. But for the most part, I hit the ball really well today. Putter kind of let me down coming in but all in all, it's a good, solid round, 68. You know, you can't win it on the first day but of course you obviously can shoot yourself out of it.

You know, not that it was real windy but it was kind of tricky out there. I know there's some good scores obviously. The greens are still soft and receptive and there's not a ton of wind. But to get a good round under my belt, hopefully I can free it up now in the last three days and see what happens.

Q. When you look at when you won as the Buick and where this tournament is now under Travelers, with all due respect to the Buick, it's night and day?
J.J. HENRY: There's no question. I was kind of actually an integral part of that back in 2006 or 2007, we didn't know if we were going to have a tournament here. And then to see how Travelers stepped up; the late Jay Fishman, the CEO of Travelers was just an incredible guy and did so much for this event. I think he said it best and I'll say it: It's the hometown tournament with a hometown sponsor that really helps hometown charities.

Really what Travelers has done over the last decade now is incredible. To see the field this week; every year, I don't hear a bad thing about it. I mean, from the way the players are taken care of to the golf course to the practice facilities, there's a lot of dramas as we all know on the last four holes here. Anything can happen whether you're three ahead or three behind. It's just a great week. It's a neat part of the schedule usually coming after The Open, so it's maybe more of a relaxing week.

At the same time it's an event that's obviously near and dear to me. Really the tournament director here, Nathan Grube, is one of the best, Andy Bessette on the Travelers side. To see how it's come full circle in a decade is really special.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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