CROMWELL, Conn. -- When Russell Knox knocked in a 12-foot putt to win the 2016 Travelers Championship for his second PGA Tour victory, his mind wandered with the belief that he just made his first Ryder Cup squad.
A U.S. citizen born in Scotland who said he would only consider playing for Team Europe, Knox emphatically threw his hat across the 18th green at TPC River Highlands last August and pictured himself at the international matches in Minnesota.
Nearly a year later, he reflected on what happened -- and then what didn't.
"Some of the emotion that came out when I made the putt here, it had a lot to do with the Ryder Cup," Knox said upon his return to TPC River Highlands on Tuesday, media day for the 2017 Travelers, which will be held June 22-25. "I thought I was close to making the team before this tournament happened, and [when] that putt went in, I thought I made the team. I was so happy.
"The stars unfortunately instead aligned against me."
In part because five Ryder Cup rookies qualified automatically for the team, Europe's Darren Clarke chose to use his three captain's picks on players ranked lower than Knox: Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, who are experienced veterans, plus Thomas Pieters, a long-hitting youngster.
Knox had missed out on automatically qualifying essentially because of a technicality. He hadn't been a European Tour member, playing most of his golf on the PGA Tour, until after he won the WGC-HSBC Champions in November 2015. However, Ryder Cup points were not awarded retroactively. Had they been, he would have made the 2016 team.
At first unsure if he could even stomach watching the biennial matches on TV, Knox said he tuned in for every minute of it while envisioning himself inside the television.
"I [tried] to put myself in this situation and been like, 'How would I have dealt with this?'" Knox said. "Would I be too nervous to tee up my ball? Would I have loved this?
"I look forward to hopefully finding that out in 2018. At the time, I was really disappointed. At the same time, I'm going to do everything I can to make the team in the future."
Qualifying for captain Thomas Bjorn's Team Europe squad starts at the Czech Masters at the end of August. The 2018 Ryder Cup will be played at Le Golf National outside Paris from Sept. 28-30.