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It’s taken nearly the entire golf season, but Patrick Cantlay might finally be providing an encore worthy of his four-win FedEx Cup championship campaign from a year ago. Logging exactly zero individual PGA Tour wins prior to Sunday’s BMW Championship, Cantlay’s follow-up to his dizzying 2021 summer could have been considered a disappointment.
However, after four rounds in Delaware last week, he now has a chance to do something only Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have ever accomplished: become a multi-time winner of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Cantlay will start the Tour Championship in second place on the leaderboard, beginning his title defense at 8 under, two back of leader Scottie Scheffler and at least one clear of everybody else in the field. While the Tour Championship is not a major, to go back to back at East Lake with the caliber of field present each year — and this much money at stake — would be a monumental achievement.
The confounding part of Cantlay’s season is that he’s actually been statistically better than in 2021. Halfway through August last year, Cantlay had gained 1.85 strokes on field, according to Data Golf. This time around, he’s at 2.05, and that doesn’t include his virtuoso performance at the BMW last week. While Cantlay’s numbers rose at the end of last year — he settled at 2.15 strokes gained (a ridiculous number) — he’s in position to eclipse that despite not winning until once before August.
Two factors have played into the perception of Cantlay this year.
- He’s had a lot of near wins. A playoff loss at the Phoenix Open to Scheffler was followed by a playoff loss at the RBC Heritage to three-time major winner Jordan Spieth. He had top-five finishes at five events: The Tournament of Champions, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, Memorial, Scottish Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic. It’s not as if Cantlay wasn’t in contention, he just hadn’t slammed the door until…
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Source : cbssports
