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CROMWELL — Once again, no golfer was better than Bubba in the Travelers Championship.

Watson, the man known simply as Bubba at TPC River Highlands, won his second Travelers Championship title on the second playoff hole against Paul Casey Sunday.

Watson’s 8-foot birdie earned him the $1.152 million first prize.

“No matter where the shot went, I kept focused on what I needed to do at that moment, and somehow it worked out and I’m sitting here,” said Watson, wearing the tournament’s championship blazer, with the trophy next to him.

Watson needed to outlast Casey, who had closed with a 5-under-par 65. Watson’s 67 tied Casey at 16-under 264 after the regulation 72 holes.

Before the winner could be determined, third-round leader Brian Harman (69—265) had finished third, and Graham DeLaet (69—266) was fourth on a chilly day of rain and mist.

Casey, making his first tournament appearance, and Watson, going for another title, went to the par-4 18th to start the extra session.

Casey drove into the left rough. His approach landed in the back bunker. He got up and down and made a 3-foot, 9-inch putt. Watson’s tee shot veered into the right rough. From a severe side-hill lie, he connected with a solid iron that landed on the green. He two-putted for par.

On the second playoff hole the pair returned to the 18th tee.

Watson found the right side of the fairway. His approach stopped 8 feet under the hole. “I hit a good shot, put some pressure on him,” Watson said.

Casey drove into a right fairway bunker. His second shot plunked into a front green-side bunker. His next shot sailed over the green and hit WFSB sports reporter Marc Robbins in the chest. He was not injured. Casey got a free drop because an asphalt path interfered with his stance.

Watson said at that moment he refused to dream about winning. He had a match-play mind-set, despite Casey’s miscues.

“When he hit that shot, I’m not thinking that he’s going to mess up. I’m thinking he’s going to hole it,” Watson said. “He’s going to hit this shot. He’s going to hit this incredible shot, and somehow I’m going to struggle it down there, and we’re going to go to another hole.”

Casey chipped his next shot past the hole and missed his putt for bogey.

Watson’s putt, at first, looked like it would not get to the hole, but it had enough to tumble in the cup.

Watson did not break down in tears of joy, as he had in 2010 when he made a par putt on the second playoff hole (the par-3 16th) to defeat Scott Verplank and Corey Pavin.

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Watson shook hands with Casey and raised his left hand to the cheering fans, packed around the green.

Watson tied Arnold Palmer, Paul Azinger, Phil Mickelson, Peter Jacobsen and Stewart Cink as two-time winners of the Travelers Championship.

“I thought it was a really tough golf course,” Casey said. “I’m proud of the way I played; could have played a little bit better. There are always ifs and buts and buts and could haves. But the goal this week was to give myself a chance to win, and I did that.”

Casey began his march to the playoff by holing out a 52-degree wedge second shot at the third for an eagle 2. He then made a 64-foot, 5-inch birdie putt at the par-3 eighth.

After birdying 14, he flew a bunker shot over the green at 15 and ended with a bogey 5.

Watson birdied his first two holes of the round, made 10 straight pars and eagled the par-5 13th with a curling 39-foot putt.

“It was good for momentum,” Watson said. “I hit a great shot out of the [fairway] bunker. I made the putt. I was hoping nobody else would birdie, but Paul Casey decided he wanted to birdie some holes to make it interesting.”

But Casey, whose lone tour victory was in the 2009 Shell Houston Open, bogeyed the par-4 15th when he didn’t take enough sand on a bunker shot and sent it over the green. He chipped up, but failed to make his par putt.

Watson parred 14 and 15 and was 17-under par, three strokes ahead of Casey.

Casey rallied to birdie 16 from 5 feet, 9 inches and 17 from 15-1.

Watson stumbled with an errant shot from a left fairway bunker at 17. It missed the green to the right.

“When I hit it, there was a rock under my ball when I marked my ball [on the green; had a big gouge out of my ball,” he said. “I told [caddie Teddy Scott], I said, ‘Teddy, I hit it good. I don’t know what that was. That hooked 30 yards off line.'”

Watson couldn’t get up and down and made a 5. It was only his third bogey of the tournament.

Casey and Watson were tied at 16 under.

On the last hole of regulation, Casey made par from a bunker, and Watson two-putted from the left fringe for par.

“Paul Casey made the shots he needed to make,” Watson said.

Watson just made a few more to raise his playoff record in tour events to 5-1.

“It’s good to get the victory,” he said. “I wish it was a lot easier, but a victory is a victory.”