The buzz was back.

Not since Phil Mickelson captured back-to-back titles at the 2001 and 2002 Canon Greater Hartford Open has the TPC at River Highlands as much excitement as it did last weekend for the inaugural Traveler’s Championship.

In the four years hence, the tournament went through big changes – first losing its title sponsor, then partnering with Buick for three years, and seeing its spot on the PGA calendar shifted to a less favorable spot – and saw its crowds steadily decline to around 80,000 a year ago.

But with a new sponsor, a better spot on the calendar, and with a slew of the top golfers on the PGA tour descending on Cromwell for a week, the excitement shot through the roof and more than 200,000 spectators witnessed as Hunter Mahan slipped past Jay Williamson in a sudden death playoff.

Mahan birdied the 18th to send the tournament into the playoff and as the two approached the 18th again, Mahan dropped his second shot within two feet of the flag for a tap-in birdie and his first Traveler’s championship.

“It was crazy out there,” Mahan said afterwards. “I played really well all day. And Jay was a fighter. He fought the whole day. A couple of times I thought I was going to build up a little bit of a lead and he just made some great shots, made some big putts. It was tough. I mean, it was so tough.”

Mahan opened the tournament with a first round 62 and then fell off a bit with a one-over par 71 and 3-under par 67 in the next two rounds and then finished things off with a final 5-under par 65 on Sunday.

“Playing here since I was a kid, a PGA tour event, it means a lot,” Mahan said. “It’s an incredible place, really fun, great golf course. It’s just pretty neat to look back and go, boy, you know, I’ve played here 10 years ago and a lot’s happened since then, so it’s quite amazing.”

Nick O’Hern, Vijay Singh, Fred Funk, Bo Van Pelt. Tom Lehman, David Toms, BJ Staten, Kevin Na, Justin Rose and Billy Mayfair rounded out the top 10. JJ Henry, the defending champion, finished tied for 13th at 6-under par, nine strokes off the pace.

Mickelson had committed to play in the Traveler’s Championship, but withdrew after suffering a wrist injury and a poor showing at the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

The sudden death playoff capped a fun week for golf fans. Last Wednesday, the annual Pro-Am not only featured celebrities like Joe Pesci, Chris Berman, Doug Flutie, Jim Calhoun, Geno Auriemma, Bill Belichick, George Lopez, Randy Edsall and Michael Bolton, but a scheduled appearance by actor Paul Newman in conjunction with his Hole In The Wall camp.