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CROMWELL, Conn. -- Ken Duke needed 187 starts on the PGA Tour to get his first win, securing it at a tournament that is building a reputation for such breakthroughs. The 44-year-old journeyman made a 2 1/2 foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Sunday to beat Chris Stroud at the Travelers Championship. Stroud, who also was looking for his first title, had chipped in from 51 feet on the 18th hole, to get to 12-under par and force the playoff. But Duke made the better approach shot on the second extra hole, bouncing his ball in front of the flag and rolling it close. "Yeah, its been a long time," said Duke, who turned pro in 1994. "Ive been on the Canadian tour, the mini tours, Asian Tour, South American Tour, all of them; Web.com, and its just great to be a part of this big family on the PGA Tour." Duke, who came in ranked 144th in the world, is the sixth golfer in eight years to get his first PGA Tour win here, joining J.J. Henry (2006), Hunter Mahan (2007), Bubba Watson (2010), Fredrik Jacobsen (2011) and Marc Leishman last year. Canadas Graham DeLaet finished a stroke back in third place with a 269. Watson finished fourth, two shots behind, after making a six on the par-3 16th hole. "You gotta believe in yourself in everything you do," Duke said. "Thats why those guys at the top are winning week in, week out because they believe they can do it. Its kind of one of those things once you finally do it it might come easier the next time. Thats kind of the way I feel." Duke wouldnt have been in position to win at all had luck not intervened on the 10th hole, when his ball ricocheted off a tree and onto the green to about 5 feet from the pin, allowing him to make birdie. After a 17-foot birdie putt on the next hole, he made a 45-footer on the 13th hole, a shot that looked as though it might go past the hole to the right, before falling in. He battled Watson for the lead down the back nine, until the former Masters champion found trouble on the 16th. Watson put his drive into the water and put his next shot over the green. He finished two strokes back in fourth place. "The wind affected the first shot, and the wind didnt affect the next shot," Watson said. "I flew it three feet past the hole, which you cant do right now because the greens are so firm." Duke looked as though he had the tournament sewn up after saving par on 18, despite a tee shot that went well right and onto a hill, and a second shot that went just over the green. He used a putter to put the ball within 2 feet, then sank the putt as the crowd roared for what they thought was a winning shot. It looked even more secure when Strouds second shot hit near the stick, but then rolled well off the green. That just set up the dramatic chip shot. Stroud hit his tee shot over the cart path and 94 yards from the hole on the first playoff hole, while Dukes first shot jumped out of a fairway bunker and into the rough. Duke bounced his second shot onto the green. Strouds went into a greenside bunker. Stroud chipped to 8 feet but had to watch as Green almost sank a long putt that would have ended it. The two both struck the ball well on the second playoff hole, but Stroud missed a 25-foot birdie putt, and Duke made his short putt. "I had three shots from 94 yards on 18, the exact same yardage, and I could not figure out a way to stop that ball," Stroud said. "Regulation, luckily, I chipped it in." Watson, Charley Hoffman and DeLaet began the day tied for the lead, but 21 other players were within five strokes. Webb Simpson shot a 65 to finish at 271, then headed home immediately after his round despite being just a stroke behind the leaders at the time. He said he knew the score wouldnt be good enough to win. "Im itching to get to my family, so Im going to head to the airport," he said. Justin Rose followed his U.S. Open win by shooting 6-under par for this tournament. He was in contention, with two birdies on his first seven holes, but didnt get another until the final hole and made three bogeys. He said fatigue was a factor. "Im still able to put one foot in front of the other," he said. "I still feel OK, but my guess is theres just a little bit of sharpness that I might be lacking." No player has gone back-to-back after capturing the U.S. Open since 1997, when Ernie Els won the Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club in New York. Rose plans to play next week at Congressional before taking two weeks off to prepare for the British Open. DeLaet, a native of Weyburn, Sask., said his thoughts this week have been with the people of Alberta, where widespread flooding is blamed for at least three deaths and forced thousands to evacuate. He had the words "For Alberta" written on his cap Sunday. The 2009 Canadian tour player of the year pledged to donate $1,000 for every birdie he made to help the relief efforts. PGA Tour Canada, a bank and a Canadian businessman all agreed to match the donation. He finished with three birdies on Sunday and nine for the weekend. "Hopefully it puts a small dent in what they need," he said. "But our hearts are still with them." Ottawas Brad Fritsch shot 70 to finish at 1 under in a tie for 51st. Wholesale Shoes Adidas . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. Wholesale Shoes Website . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. https://www.wholesaleshoesforcheap.com/ .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. Yeezy Sale . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Sneakers Sale . Their 38th instalment is arguably their biggest fight card to date, including three-title fights and a main event which was selected by the fans. The promotion boasts 14-straight years of business and is operated by MFC president Mark Pavelich, who is often overlooked in this country for the foundation hes established for MMA in Canada. Englands ODI batting line-up has been on a tear in the last year. The 2015 World Cup was clearly a debacle at the time, as England lost to Bangladesh and failed to qualify for the quarter-finals, but in the longer term it seems to have done English cricket plenty of good, as it shook the team management to make changes that were long overdue. Out went batsmen like Ian Bell and Gary Ballance, who couldnt keep up with the tempo of the modern 50-over game. In their stead came fearless hitters like Jason Roy and Alex Hales - batsmen who could consistently hit boundaries and werent afraid to attack from ball one. In the last year, the transformation of Englands batting, from tentative, caged and defensive to fearless, free-spirited and aggressive, has been quite sensational. Here are some of their ODI batting achievements from the last 13 months:Five of their seven highest ODI totals have come in this period (since June 2015), as have five of their seven fastest 100-plus scores (in terms of strike rates).In November last year against Pakistan, Jos Buttler scored a 52-ball unbeaten 116, which is the second-best strike rate in ODI history for an innings of 50-plus balls.Since April 2015, England have passed 300 ten times in 24 ODIs, the most by any team; in 36 ODIs between January 2014 and March 2015, they achieved it only six times.In The Oval ODI against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, England scored 309 in 40.1 overs, the third time they had scored at more than 7.5 in a run-chase in an ODI of 40 or more overs; all three have been in the last 13 months. They had never touched 6.8 in such a chase before June 2015.A comparison of their numbers in the 15 months till the 2015 World Cup and the period since then shows incredible improvement in all batting parameters. The average is up 34%, the run rate 21%, matches per century has improved by 51%, and the balls per six by 39%. With such huge improvements in batting numbers, its hardly surprising that their win-loss ratio has gone up from 0.565 to 1.33, an improvement of 136%.Since April 2015, England are the only team whose batsmen have collectively scored at a strike rate of more than 100. They also have an excellent conversion rate of 15 hundreds, out of 45 fifty-plus scores. Their balls per boundary is the lowest among all teams too. In the period between January 2014 and March 2015, they fared quite poorly on all those parameters: their strikke rate was seventh among the top nine teams, the average was below 30, while the batsmen struck a four or a six every 12.dddddddddddd44 balls.* Average and strike rate calculated on runs scored off the bat, excluding extras Englands batsmen have shown greater urgency throughout their innings over the last year, but the biggest difference has been in the middle overs. While the run rate has gone up by 18% in the first 15 and by 13% in the last ten, in the middle overs the increase has been almost 27%. Since thats also the largest chunk of an ODI innings, that difference in scoring rate has translated into a much larger total. During the years when the England team were clearly behind the leaders in the 50-over format, their batting in general, and especially the conservatism in the middle overs, was a huge factor for their poor results. Out of the top nine teams, their run rate of 4.98 in the middle overs was eighth, worse than all teams except Bangladesh.In the last year, though, they have surged ahead of all other teams and are the only ones scoring at more than a run a ball. Their balls per boundary has dropped from 15.86 to 9.35, a huge improvement of 41%. Four of their batsmen have scored 350-plus runs at better than a run a ball in the middle overs: Eoin Morgan (683 runs at a strike rate of 103), Joe Root (538 runs at 103), Jos Buttler (366 runs at 108), and Alex Hales (358 runs at 102). Together, these four batsmen have scored 59% of Englands total runs in the middle overs in the last year.* Balls per boundary (4 or 6) Those four batsmen have also been among Englands top run-getters overall during this period, along with Roy and Ben Stokes. Five of those six England batsmen have scored 600-plus runs at 40-plus averages and strike rates of more than 90, while Stokes has averaged 29 at a strike rate of 108. Those are the sort of numbers that England fans couldnt have dreamt of, from their top-order batsmen a few years ago. Hales has scored over 900 runs, while Morgan has almost as many despite a lean series in South Africa, thanks to an outstanding summer in 2015, when he scored 600 ODI runs in ten innings.England have clearly found their ODI mojo in the last year; it remains to be seen, though, if they can keep it going till the 2019 World Cup. ' ' '