DANBURY - Decked out in a zebra-striped shirt and tan shorts exposing the new special prosthesis on his partially amputated right leg, Ken Green offered up his usual array of one-liners that put smiles on dozens of faces.

Green was in the process of receiving the key to the city of his native Danbury from Mayor Mark D. Boughton during the inaugural Friends of Richter Park (FORe) awards breakfast Tuesday morning and rightfully earned another round of applause and recognition for what he has endured since what will soon be the third anniversary of a horrific accident in Mississippi between Champions Tour starts.

When the right front tire of his recreational vehicle blew out, it careened down an embankment and into the woods, killing Green's brother, Billy, longtime girlfriend, Jeanne Hodgin, and his dog, Nip. Green went flying through the windshield but survived with multiple injuries, notably a six-inch gash in the left side of his head that caused brain damage and a severely lacerated right leg that had to be amputated just below the knee so he could continue to play the game he loved as much as Billy, Jeanne and Nip: golf.

The three-year anniversary of the accident is June 8, when Green hopes to be back in Danbury as part of a three-month summer stay. But three months ago, while at home in West Palm Beach, Fla., Green seriously wondered if he wanted to continue to fight the good fight.

"The hardest thing is the pain and what I perceive as my inability to handle it," Green said after receiving the key to the city and sharing another round of thank you's and jokes that mask constant pain and occasional depression. "It doesn't matter who you are, eventually you're going to cave (in). I talk to some of the (military) guys about the torture stuff, and the ones who have had it say that's basically what it is. You're basically getting tortured every day, whether it's sleep deprivation or the physical pain or the waterboarding.

"That's what this (leg pain) is a form of, that's what it has done to me and how it has kept knocking me down. I had a stretch for four or five months where I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it. I thought for sure I would eventually say enough is enough. In December and January I was at the point where I didn't know how much more I could take, but I didn't (cave in) because I refused not to fight.

"But when you're spending four days a week basically sitting in the house on the bed not doing anything, it's hard. Just doing this (breakfast and talk), I'm going to pay later. Making sure I'm pretending (to feel good) is like depression. You'll put on a show for everybody, and then maybe your wife or somebody at home will know you're not really you. That's basically what I do. I make it look like everything's OK, and then I'll pay a day later."

Green said he has finally regained strength in the last two months, but his condition causes him to get a bit of the chills even when in Florida. He said 95 degrees doesn't feel hot at all, and the 70-degree temperature in the impressive Maxtrix Corporate Center had him "freezing" because a good portion of a person's heating system in the legs, so the body temperature of amputees is always affected.

Especially for someone like Green, whose nerve problem in his leg occurs in 0.4 percent of cases "in the amputee world." His nerves automatically regenerate, try to find their "partner" and curl into his scar tissue, causing a constant "electricity feeling" that resembles putting a finger into a socket.

"Obviously if I'm going to try to become a better golfer that's good enough to play professional golf again, that has to stop," Green said. "So the biggest hurdle is can we solve that problem. We've done EVERYTHING we can to this point, so we're basically just kind of waiting it out to see what happens. ... I feel cold all the time, and I used to like it cold. I'm like an old person already. When I get to be 75, I'm going to have to live in the Amazon."

Despite the multitude of agonies, Green has had some major ecstacies, especially when it comes to dealing with kids and the Wounded Warriors organization. Five members of the military attended the breakfast, and I'm pleased to reveal that three of them won prizes in a raffle. I only wish it had been 5-for-5, as organizer and master of ceremonies Ernie Badillo said before the first number was pulled.

During his talk and question-and-answer session, Green was applauded when he said everyone should help get youngsters involved in golf and make it afford for them and expressed his love for Danbury and especially Richter Park, one of the top-rated public golf courses in Connecticut. He also cracked a few jokes and mentioned how kids should be introduced to the arts, a good mix with a sport such as golf.

Later, Green happily disclosed what has made his ordeal bearable.

"Bringing a smile to someone's face or somebody coming up to me and saying, 'You made my problem easier to deal with' has been the positive and most rewarding thing," Green said. "I've had some of the wounded kids and some other people with a different illness come up and say that I've inspired them to not look at it as a negative or a handicap."

On a brighter side, Green is spending a week in Danbury before returning to Florida to pick up his new dog, Munch, and then hopefully rent a place in or around his native city for three months during the summer. During that time, Green said he plans to play in the Connecticut Open at Wee Burn Country Club in Darien on July 29-Aug. 1. The two-time champion finished second at Wee Burn in 1999, losing to club amateur Jay Rice in a playoff but uttering one of his famous one-liners.

"He (Rice) can have the trophy," Green said. "I just want the cash."

Green won $5,000 when he really needed it after an ugly divorce. After his second win in 1992 at Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury, where he played growing up, Green donated his $5,000 first-place check to the caddie program, one of a multitude of charitable gestures he has made throughout his career. He also hosted a benefit event at Richter Park for years the day after the Greater Hartford Open, and he and longtime friend Mark Calcavecchia hosted several tournaments for the CalGreen Foundation that they established in Florida, where he also raised 12 orphans.

"I've always tried to give back to the community," Green said. "Ralph McIntosh Sr. and I started a tournament way back when for Deltron. We helped kids, and from that day on, I've tried to do nothing but the right thing. I'm kind of proud of myself for doing that. I didn't turn into a complete jerk. I realized you have to do the right thing. If you're fortunate enough to do something you love and do it well, you have to give back to the community.

"So hopefully all the people here - the Friends of Richter Park, the banks, the authorities - can all get together. I'll do whatever I can before the authorities or Richter."

Green, who had to withdraw because of his leg after an opening 74 in the 2010 Connecticut Open at the Country Club of Fairfield, said he has kept in touch with cousin Joe LaCava, a Newtown native who was his first caddie and now works for Tiger Woods. LaCava sent a scorecard signed by Woods during the Masters for an auction item Tuesday.

"We had dinner during the Honda Classic," Green said. "He has done good and should be proud of himself. Holding up under the spotlight should be easy for Joe. The best thing about Joe is he does his job, stays to himself and doesn't talk, and that's exactly what Tiger needs."

But Green said he doesn't follow the PGA Tour much "because it hurts." Green's only Champions Tour start this year was playing in the Legends of Golf Tournament with Mike Reid. His inability to play anything close to tour golf caused him to withdraw from the Senior PGA Championship next week in Benton Harbor, Mich., and turn down another sponsors' exemption to play in the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y.

"There was a time when I would watch more, but I'm watching less and less," said Green, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour and a member of the 1989 U.S. Ryder Cup team. "My window is getting smaller, and I know it and not happy about it. I only have a couple of more years before age itself will catch up to me, where I can play any easy golf out there (on tour). I couldn't even tell you who has won most of the tournaments, and it used to be a time when I could tell you won every tournament and what shots they hit.

"Hardly playing at all is tough. (Phil) Mickelson and Tiger can't play a tournament once a year and play halfway decent. So how do I expect to play halfway decent? Golf is hard, and I haven't even started working on my new golf swing. All I do is wing it every day. (Instructor/CBS announcer Peter) Kostis and I have not been able to say, 'This is how we're going to change your golf swing, this is what we're going to do' because I can't work on it. I just do a pure 'wing it' and am just a good hacker.

"I don't mean to brag, but it's been pretty impressive how good I have hit it. My hands are still good, and it's weird how people think I play good now, but we haven't even done anything yet. We've got to get to that point before I can say I could or I couldn't, I failed or I didn't. I still think I can, and I'd be lying to you if I didn't think I could pull off a tournament (win). You get me on the right course without many hills, which kill me, and I still think I do it."

Doing it at Wee Burn in late July-early August would be a sight to see and one of the greatest achievements in Connecticut - perhaps world - sports history.

Congratulations to Copper Hill Golf Club in East Granby on being named the 2012 recipient of the Walter Lowell Public Golf Course Distinguished Service Award as the model public golf course in the section.

The award was inaugurated in 2001 in honor of Canton Public Golf Course for the standards it set towards a public course's responsibility to its community to provide playing opportunities for all those who want to play and learn the game. The selection of Copper Hill was made by the PGA Special Awards Committee.

Copper Hill Golf Club is a nine-hole, 3,039-yard, par-36 course with a driving range, Golf Academy, restaurant and pro shop. Pro Paul Banks, who has more than two decades of teaching experience, founded the Golf Academy in 1994 and purchased the golf course in 2010. Since 2009, Copper Hill has hosted three highly successful nine-hole Night Golf events per season, attracting full fields of 60 players per event. Copper Hill invests in these tournaments with more than 250 glow lights decorating the golf course, with different colors for tees, fairways, greens, bunkers and hazards.

Copper Hill also hosted the first Connecticut Section PGA Junior Golf Tour 9-Hole 12-and-Under Championship in 2011. The event was so successful the tour expanded its schedule in that age range to three events throughout Connecticut, including Copper Hill, in 2012.

"With Copper Hill's help, we were able to invite new players that had not participated in the Junior Golf Tour the past and introduce them to competitive golf," Player Development Director of the Connecticut PGA Sally Sohn said. "The local community really got behind this event for both players and volunteers to make it a special day for East Granby."

Copper Hill has been participating in "get onto the golf course" lesson programs since 2000, and that helped spawn their Beginner Golf League, which started in 2004 and is an opportunity for new players to "own the course" on Monday nights after 6 and test their skills with other players of similar experience.

In an effort to make competitive golf more accessible for younger players with family demands and time constraints and to reach both genders and all ages, Copper Hill has renamed their "Sunday Men's Club" to "The Player's Club" and has reworked many of the tournaments so rounds can be played at times other than Sunday morning and encourage casual participation by daily fee players.

Copper Hill has also made modifications to their golf course to make it more comfortable for all skill levels. For the better players, they have lengthened five holes to increase the total yardage to more than 3,000 yards (previously 2,750) and added fairway bunkers in landing areas that impact only the longer hitters. On the shorter end, Copper Hill added senior tees in 2009, built a new tee used for women and seniors and installed "orange tees" this year that shorten holes between 45 yards (for par-3s) to 165 yards (for par-5s). There are separate scorecards for the orange tees and are designed to be used by juniors, beginners or short hitters. This initiative is a result of the Tee It Forward initiative by The PGA of America.

As the home course for three high school golf teams - Windsor Locks boys, East Granby boys and Suffield girls - Copper Hill's two golf pros make themselves available for instruction without charge at the discretion of the coaches of the teams. They also offer group lessons for six area community organizations and have a strong junior program at three levels: Entry (ages 5-8), Sport (ages 7-10) and Champion/Player (ages 9-16), which vary in complexity and length as junior golfers develop.

Copper Hill has also been a host facility for the First Tee of Connecticut since 2004.

"The staff and management at Copper Hill are thrilled to be recognized by the Connecticut Section PGA for such a prestigious award," Banks said. "It is an honor and serves to further motivate us to promote the game at the grass roots level. For us, golf is a game for all and we are happy to contribute in whatever way we can."

Banks and representatives from the Town of East Granby will be honored on May 29 at Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, Mass., during the annual Walter Lowell PGA Tournament. PGA Professionals from the Connecticut and Western Massachusetts will participate in the golf tournament and attend the awards ceremony that follows.

Previous recipients of this award are Canton Public Golf Course, East Mountain Country Club, Lyman Orchards Golf Course, Raceway Golf Course, Shennecossett Golf Course, Skungamaug River Golf Course, Stanley Golf Course, Tallwood Country Club, Timberlin Golf Course, Tunxis Plantation Country Club, and Alling Memorial Golf Course.

HAMDEN - Determination is a major component of success in any sport, and that certainly includes golf.

While agents, swing gurus, sports psychologists and personal trainers have seemingly become as commonplace as drivers, utility clubs, wedges and putters, mental toughness can prove the ultimate reason for someone's success.

The 28 competitors participating in the 41^st Julius Boros Challenge Cup Matches between the defending Connecticut State Golf Association and Connecticut Section PGA on Thursday at New Haven Country Club have displayed bagfuls of talent and determination while winning more than 50 major titles.

And many of the state's finest amateurs and pros have fond memories of Boros, a Hall of Famer nationally and in Connecticut who grew up in Fairfield, won three major national championships and died at 74 on May 28, 1994 while sitting in a golf cart under a willow tree on the 16^th hole, his favorite, at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

PGA of America Life Member Dennis Coscina, winner of a record eight section championships and captain of the pro team for the second time, once caddied for Boros at Turnberry Isle Country Club in Miami. Fran Marrello, winner of a record 16 section titles, worked for Julius during two winters at Turnberry in the mid-1980s. Jack McConachie, longtime pro at Pine Valley Country Club in Southington, once carried for Boros at the Country Club of Fairfield after getting a call from the caddie master that someone needed a caddie.

Marrello and McConachie were part of the section team that built a 141/2-61/2 lead at the turn and held on for a 321/2-301/2 victory in occasional mist on the well-manicured New Haven Country Club layout, ending the CSGA's record-tying three-year winning streak in the Nassau-style competition. The pros have a 29-12 lead since the event started at Tumble Brook Country Club in Bloomfield.

Frank Leja led the pros with a perfect six points, McConachie had five and Marrello 41/2 in the individual and best-ball team competitions. Matt Dziubina (Race CC-Orange) led the amateurs with 51/2 points, and substitute Phil Perry (Black Hall Club-Old Lyme) had 41/2.

"I didn't give my team any kind of pep talk, just told them to go and play," said Coscina, who played in 14 Challenge Cup Matches, including after he competed on the Champions Tour for parts of three years, and is now 1-1 as captain. "The guys are champions in their own right, and it ended up being a lot of fun."

CSGA captain Bill Dober concurred.

"I got the team together under the tree before we started and told them that they all should be proud to be part of something with such prestige as the Challenge Cup," said Doher, also 1-1 as a captain. "We just tried to put the guys where we thought they were in the right position, especially having four senior players, though Dave Szewczul and Bill Hermanson, one of my two captain's picks, are terrific players. A lot of guys were down and came back somehow. I guess you could say they showed a lot of golf."

Determination was epitomized by one of the most interested spectators again, Lisa Fern-Boros, a competent player herself out of Highland Golf Club in Shelton whose late husband Lance was a nephew of the legendary Julius. It has been a bittersweet past few months for Lisa. A year ago, she attended the matches for the first time since Lance died at 53 in February in Shelton. On Dec. 28, Julius' brother, Ernie, died at 83 in Plantation, Fla. In February, Lisa was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

As Lisa stressed in her speech during dinner before helping present the Julius Boros Cup to Coscina, determination has been her driving force through a difficult 15 months.

"I found more (determination) than I thought I knew I had," Lisa said. "And anybody who has ever been a champion golfer has had determination. You don't get there without it, and if you have it, you never really lose it if you have it.

"And it's certainly appropriate for Julius. He was obviously determined since he decided at age 30 to turn pro, and anyone who has seven kids has got to have some (Lisa smiles). And to win that many majors ... "

Julius would be proud of the determination that Lisa has demonstrated through six chemotherapy treatments. Not to mention the sweet Borosesque swing and nice touch around the greens that she showed while parring her first four holes in shooting a 5-over-par 39 on the front nine in less than ideal conditions.

But Lisa admitted a year ago was more difficult for her and Lance's family in the wake of her beloved husband's death.

"Golf was a respite," she said. "To have gone and won a tournament (the Connecticut Women's Tournament of Champions) after all that was more special. It's more about determination and not giving up. So if I could do that, I can do this today."

Congratulations, Lisa. Like the Connecticut Section PGA, you, too, were a winner on this day.

I had the recent good fortune of renewing acquaintances with Marcia Dolan, one of the legends of Connecticut golf whose talents and infectious personality have been surpassed only by her courage.

I mean who can't love the winner of a record-tying 13 state titles and a mother of three daughters who used to occasionally drive around from her home base of Danbury in a 1930 Model A Ford with the license plate SHANK?

"I tried not to drive it too often," said a chuckling Dolan, inducted in the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame in 1976 while still in the prime of her career. "Downhill it went probably 35 (miles per hour), uphill probably 15. I drove it to Brooklawn (Country Club in Fairfield) one day, and it was like being on a safari. I wasn't too sure I was going to get there because the radiator gauge on the hood just kept going up red. I thought, 'This damn thing is going to blow up.' But I did get to Brooklawn and I did get back home."

Did she drive on the highway?

"Hell, no," Dolan said with another chuckle.

Did she resemble the Little Old Lady from Pasadena cruising on the Merritt Parkway?

"Pull her over for driving too slow," Dolan said with yet another belly laugh. "Those were the best times."

Though we shared the hearty laughs about such fun-filled days, there was also some serious conversation about Marcia overcoming two bouts with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a stem cell transplant. But the 71-year-old Dolan hasn't allowed a disease that basically ended her playing career and short-circuited her life for nearly a decade to prevent her from returning to teaching the sport she loves to many of the people who need her help the most.

"I'm kind of antiquated like the Jack Nicklauses of the world," said Dolan, who splits time living in Terryville and Danbury, where she is working in the golf shop at Richter Park Golf Course in Danbury for golf director Scott Ward. "I would really like to teach women and some people that are disciplined enough to learn what the game is truly about. I don't want to teach 19-year-old boys that look like they're cloned. I don't want to get into that if I don't have to.

"I think I can help people, but I think it's just going to be certain people. I'd like to help women because I think they get the short end of the stick. When guys teach women, they have to be extremely careful in how they teach them as far as sexual stuff, but I'm more liberal with that. I just don't think most women realize what the golf swing is. I think they think it's more arms and hands with people in their lives telling them to swing harder. But I'd like them to use their legs more in good balance so they use the things we all have.

"Women are stronger from the waist down and men are stronger from the waist up, but women don't really use (their legs properly) because no one really explains it to them. You throw a club in their hand and put a ball on the ground and go, 'OK, hit it.' Well, the last thing they're going to think about is their legs and their butt. They're going to use their hands and their arms."

Dolan, who received a Gold Key Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance in 1987, jokingly said the only thing she hasn't done yet at Richter Park is wash a cart.

"I'm just trying to find my female niche in life here," Dolan said, chuckling again. "They have a teaching staff there, so I don't know how that's going to work out."

Dolan, who played several events on the LPGA Tour in the 1960s while living in Florida, began teaching in 2001 after she was hired by former longtime Country Club of Farmington pro John Murphy while recovering from the onset of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which was diagnosed in 2000. She had the stem cell transplant in 2001, began teaching later that year and then had another bout with lymphoma in July, 2003, starting years of rehabilitation and trying to get back into the mainstream of life.

"I did maintenance chemotherapy after I did the original chemo," Dolan said. "It was off and on from 2000 until I finally finished everything in 2007. I had half a lung out in 2006 and then had a maintenance chemo until 2007. It has sort of taken me this long to feel really good enough - not that I'm any wizard right now - but at least I'm up and about. And it seems the more I do, the more I can do. The more walking I do and the more lifting I do in the shop, I gradually can see at the end of the week how it's a little bit better.

"I couldn't walk one hole because I've got neuropathy in my feet from the chemo, so I look like Herman Munster when I walk so get the handicap flag. But I keep getting stronger, so that's fun."

Dolan said she also didn't try to do much the past few years because she felt "part of the game had past me by." But that was understandable considering her major achievements include a record-tying 10 Connecticut Women's Golf Association Championship titles, three Connecticut State Women's Amateur Championships and New England Women's Golf Association Championships, the 1962 Florida Women's Amateur, North and South Women's Amateur and runner-up to former LPGA players Debbie Massey and Hall of Famer Jo Ann Gunderson Carner in the Eastern Amateur, alternate on the U.S. Curtis Cup Team and ranked fourth in the country by Golf Digest. She also was a member of the LPGA Teaching Division after her local competition included fellow Connecticut Golf Hall of Famers Pat O'Sullivan Lucey, Lida Tingley, Leslie Shannon, Barbara Young and former LPGA Tour player Caroline Keggi.

Dolan was born and raised in Danbury until she was 10, when she moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., for 13 years. After getting married, she and husband Bernie returned to Connecticut, lived "within a wedge" of where she grew up and had three daughters. Debbie, now 48, is working at Stony Hill Driving Range in Bethel after a year off from the banking business; Pam, 46, is a paralegal with two daughters; and Karen, 44, lives in Dayville and occasionally does substitute teaching.

Dolan lived in Danbury until 1998 when she had some family issues and then "bummed around" for 10 years, staying with friends.

"I moved like 11 times," she said. "It was ridiculous."

But Dolan remained in Connecticut throughout her many ordeals but hasn't played seriously since 1985 because she didn't feel competitive or have the desire to work at it like she had previously. She ran a driving range in New Milford and leased another in Southington from 1988 until she was diagnosed with lymphoma 12 years later.

"I just sort of felt it was enough (golf)," Dolan said.

Dolan is a CWGA honorary member, and one of the flights in the organization's annual championship is named in honor of her. She has been working off and on for six years for 1975 State Amateur champion Gail Appell doing background checks on the computer.

"It was 10-hour days, including an hour driving each way, and my body just said, 'I don't want to do this anymore,' " Dolan said.

So Dolan is back teaching, which seems a perfect profession for someone who often did/does her best work off the course promoting golf with a thoughtful and helpful disposition. If you're looking for a lesson and want to take it from someone almost guaranteed to make you feel better and happier, give Marcia a call at Richter Park. I'd be willing to wager you won't be sorry or disappointed.

After all, when asked if there was anything else that she would like to pass along to her fans, Dolan chuckled one final time and said, "I'm alive and well and standing on the right side of the grass."

Thank God.

CROMWELL _ Winning the Travelers Championship last June enabled Fredrik Jacobson to fulfill a pledge to 6-year-old daughter Emmie to bring a trophy home to Sweden.

But during Travelers Championship Media Day activities Tuesday at TPC River Highlands, Jacobson made another pledge.

"I'm not going to have any more kids," Jacobson, father of three, said with a toothy smile. "I don't need any more pressure."

Jacobson also was delighted and excited to be back where he won his only PGA Tour event by one stroke over Ryan Moore and John Rollins, who each closed with a 6-under-par 63, three less than the Swede. Jacobson managed to achieve his goal after uncharacteristic putting woes on the final nine holes of the U.S. Open the previous week dropped him from second place to 13^th. In an intense attempt to cure his ills and overcome his disappointment, Jacobson called teaching guru and holistic coach Peter Crone that night and again Monday night.

"I felt things were so close and felt it was a great opportunity for me to do something big because my training had gone well and I'd been healthy all year," Jacobson said. "I just felt that my swing had started to click and I had hit pretty much all the fairways the last two rounds of the U.S. Open after being off to a really slow start and then shooting 10 under in 15 holes. So I felt I had to capitalize on my game coming together, and that's why I was so intense and had to find a concept for (Travelers) week because I knew I was going back to Sweden and wasn't going to play for a couple of weeks."

Jacobson said he was "desperate for an answer on the spot" but realized he had to accept allowing things to run their course. He said it was good to have "a chatting down" with Crone before the tournament so when he got to the weekend at TPC River Highlands in contention again he had already talked about what he needed to succeed.

"I was very fortunate to get to work on all that and then have a chance right away," Jacobson said. "Sometimes you might think your game is there like at the U.S. Open, but it might take awhile before you're in contention again and then you've kind of lost that momentum. But I was lucky enough to get right back because that's what I had told Crone, that I wanted to get right back into that situation and get to try to do it a slightly different way."

Jacobson said he succeeded at River Highlands because he didn't worry about the outcome, just accepted that he had no idea how it was going to go and to just enjoy the process. And while he had a few things to focus on on his swing at the U.S. Open, he didn't have anything for his putting.

"I felt on the Sunday of the U.S. Open that something had happened in the setup in the putting," Jacobson recalled. "Through the first nine holes I still managed to putt OK, but I still didn't feel good. Once I started missing a couple, the confidence was a little beaten up and the flaws got exposed more. I got a little sloppy in my setup, and my key was to stand a little taller at the Travelers."

Jacobson played four rounds at River Highlands with only one bogey, on the 10^th hole on Sunday, and closed with 62-66 for a 20-under 260 total. He most remembered a 7-foot, downhill, left-to-right par putt on the 17^th hole that preserved a one-stroke lead.

"That's probably one of the best shots that I've ever hit coming from that previous week," Jacobson said. "Having not putted well, I went and looked at the stroke on TV and the way it felt, I just put a perfect stroke on it."

One more par enabled Jacobson to become the seventh native-born Swede to win on the PGA Tour and cart the Travelers trophy back home to Emmie. He also won $1,080,000 and earned a berth in the Masters, where he had his 4-year-old Max caddie for him, at least at the start, during the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday.

"I ended up carrying the clubs, but we brought a couple and kept him psyched up to hit a shot on the ninth hole that has water in front of it," Jacobson recalled. "We practiced the week before but prepared him that he was going to hit it in the water, so don't be upset. He hit a nice shot into the water, and then I did, too. And then he signed some autographs on the way to the green, so that was pretty cool."

On Tuesday, the champ's perks continued when Travelers executive vice president and chief administrative officer Andy Bessette presented Jacobson with an engraved red (as in Travelers) ping pong paddle so he has an improved weapon for one of his other favorite pastimes.

"I was just in a very good place here last year," Jacobson recalled. "I just treated every shot the same. But the way I executed that putt on 17 on Sunday was the key moment for me from that tournament."

And when Jacobson got home, his three children had one more request.

"They asked if they could fill up the trophy with candy, which wasn't a problem," Jacobson recalled with another wide smile. "I helped finishing that off and was on a sugar high for weeks. It also made me realize that you really have to mean what you tell your kids. It might make me watch my tongue going forward."

Now his oldest child, Allie, who will be 8 on Monday, is in line for dad's next trophy. After being out three months at the start of 2012 because of an ailing left thumb injured when hit by a branch while working at his home near Gothenburg, Sweden, Jacobson will try to join Phil Mickelson (2001-02) as the only repeat champions in the tournament's 60-year history on June 20-24.

Back-to-back wins at River Highlands would make Allie mighty happy this time.

FIRST FIVE EXEMPTIONS HANDED OUT

Tournament chairman Nathan Grube announced the first five of the event's eight sponsors' exemptions were going to leading youngsters Patrick Cantlay, Kelly Kraft, Bryden Macpherson, Patrick Rodgers and Ryo Ishikawa of Japan.

Cantlay, 20, the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world and a sophomore at UCLA, shot a second-round 10-under-par 60 last year, the lowest score ever for an amateur in a PGA Tour event. In his first year playing tour events, Cantlay had four top-25s, including a tie for 21^st in the British Open. He has played in two tour events this year and was low amateur after finishing in a tie for 47th in the Masters.

Kraft, 23, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, turned pro on April 14 after finished 62^nd in the Masters. The SMU standout was first-team All-Conference USA and an honorable mention PING All-American as a senior last year, when he played on the U.S. Walker Cup Team.

Macpherson, the reigning British Amateur champion, also turned pro at the Masters. The former George Bulldog was the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year and second-team All-SEC during his first second in 2009-10.

Rodgers, the No. 2 ranked amateur in the world, is a Stanford freshman and one of four semifinalists for the 2012 Ben Hogan Award, presented annually to the top player in collegiate golf. He has nine top-10s in 10 events, including two wins, and was chosen for the 2012 Palmer Cup team.

The 20-year-old Ishikawa has played eight tour events this year with three top-25 finishes, including a tie for second in the Puerto Rico Open, and is 57^th in the World Golf Rankings. A fixture on the Japan Golf Tour, Ishikawa won his first event at the Munsingwear Open KSb Cup in 2007 at only 15 years old, making him the youngest winner ever of a men's pro tournament. Since that victory, he has won eight more times in Japan, including shooting a 58 at The Crowns in 2010, which set a record for the lowest score on a major tour. In 2011, Ishikawa donated all of his season earnings to help the survivors of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan's Pacific coast.

"It's really exciting to have so many top young players coming this year," Grube said. "We always make sure we do our research on who we're going to give the spots to. We take it very seriously because we like investing in the future of the game, and these are five great investments. It's in line with the exemptions we've given in the past to young players such as David Duval, Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard, Hunter Mahan, Kyle Stanley, Jeff Overton and Rickie Fowler. We realize how important it is to build strong relationships so these players support the tournament for years to come."

This quintet joins a list of earlier commitments that includes Jacobson, former winners Mahan and Masters champion Bubba Watson, 2011 PGA Championship titlist Keegan Bradley, 2011 FedEx Cup winner Bill Haas, former major winners Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh, Webb Simpson, Ian Poulter and Anthony Kim.

WOUNDED WARRIORS FITTED WITH CLUBS, TO PARTICIPATE

During Media Day festivities, Saint Francis Care provided four Birdies for the Brave Warriors with a special club fitting from Callaway Golf Company. Brian Ohler, Sandra Lee, Christian Mines and Michael Patrick Ryan all served in the United States Army. The foursome also received a staff bag and will participate in the Celebrity Pro-Am on June 20 alongside a tour player. Forty service men and women also will carry a pro's bag on the 17th hole. Make sure that you thank them for what they've done for the country when you see them. ... David Polk, executive director of The First Tee of Connecticut, said the learning center adjacent the River Highlands driving range "is coming along great." The outside of the 7,600-square foot facility will be completed by the tournament and the target date for the building being ready for occupancy is the end of August. Polk and predecessor Bruce Wilson raised more than $2 million for the four-hole Karl Krapek Family Learning Links and the David & Geri Epstein Learning Center, which includes two classrooms, a practice green and hitting bays, course simulator and artificial grass tee on the patio to hit to balls toward the short course. Hard-hat tours of the facility during the tournament will be available by calling Polk at 860-882-1660. Polk is also still looking for donations to run programs for the more than 40,000 youngsters in the state involved in the program that teaches golf and life skills. He added the $1,000 that he won on Tuesday when he hit a 75-yard wedge shot on the 151/2 hole from the back of the 16th tee to a floating "T" (for Travelers) green in a pond to 4 inches. Quite the feat for a good golfer who has never made a hole-in-one. ... The tournament is again offering a free charter for players and two guests from the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, which is the week before the Travelers Championship. The flight will leave the Monday morning after the national championship and arrive in Windsor Locks late in the afternoon to a tournament greeting party that will include Bessette. "We do all we can to accommodate the players to try to get them to come," Bessette said. About 40-50 players and their guests have taken advantage of the charters in the past.