Despite some great difficulties in the championship of St. Jude last week, Patrick Cantlay entered the BMW Championship in the top-10 of the FedEx standings and with a chance to win the title next week.
Things didn’t look good for Cantlay after he hit two bogeys in a span of three holes about midway through Round 4 on Sunday. He had to do something special to defend his BMW championship and continue his climb up the standings.
That’s exactly what Cantlay did as he birdied three of his final eight holes to defeat Scott Stallings by one stroke. The highlight of the round was this approach to 17, which took a bit of luck at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware.
Patrick Cantlay would end up chipping in for birdie to take a one-shot lead over Stallings going into 18 before chipping in for the stunning victory.
With the win, Cantlay now moves up to No. 2 overall in the FedEx Cup Playoffs heading into the season finale at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta next week.
Cantlay’s six-under par 65 in the 3rd round set the stage for that. He seemed confident enough after that performance on Saturday, even after bogeying 17 to end the round.
“The greens are a little beat and maybe it wasn’t a good shot, so I’m going to take care of that after the round, practice a little bit,” Patrick Cantlay said. “It’s very unlike me, and things like that happen.”
Patrick Cantlay, the rest of the field now heads to East Lake
As mentioned above, the final PGA Tour of the season will begin on Thursday with many players competing to take home the championship.
By virtue of his win, Cantlay goes into the event seeded second behind Scottie Scheffler (third place finish in the BMW Championship). Will Zalatoris is third after having to withdraw from this week’s event due to a back injury. Xander Schauffele and Sam Burns round out the top five.
It’s been a great season so far for Cantlay with 11 top-10 finishes, including wins at the BMW Championship and Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Will he continue this next week at East Lake?
