Cantlay, Patrick

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      U.S. Ryder Cup Team Seizes Big Lead on a Wild Opening Day

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      The action included some harrowing moments for a couple of golfers, and the gallery included Michael Jordan.HAVEN, Wis. — A snapshot panorama from the first day of the Ryder Cup would start with a crowd of 40,000 — 90 percent of it American fans because of pandemic-related travel restrictions — noisily arriving before sunrise on Friday to roar unabated for 12 hours and through eight matches that concluded in the gloaming. Patriotic costumes were in vogue, though not among the most prominent spectators in the mix: Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry.Whistling Straits, the topsy-turvy golf fun house designed by Pete Dye along Lake Michigan, almost claimed two competitors as a stumbling Jordan Spieth ended up a hop step from a Great Lakes face plant and Ireland’s Shane Lowry flopped to his backside on an embankment like a toddler on a water slide. Tiger Woods, still recovering from a devastating car crash in February, was there in spirit on Friday, having sent an inspirational message to the U.S. team on the eve of the event. Bryson DeChambeau, ever the lightning rod for attention, boomed his opening drive of the day off line and off the ankle of a spectator. Later, DeChambeau ripped a towering 417-yard drive and then helped chase down the world’s top-ranked male golfer, Jon Rahm, to earn a pivotal half point.DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?! 🤯@JordanSpieth // @RyderCupUSA 📺 Watch now on GOLF and @peacockTV💻 https://t.co/FGvI8M8F19 pic.twitter.com/wHxO9XuSKr— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) September 24, 2021
      Ultimately, the big picture would reveal that the Americans had taken control of the event by winning each of the four-match morning and afternoon sessions for a 6-2 lead over the European team. It was the largest first-day lead for the United States at the Ryder Cup since 1975, when it had a five-point lead.But that was when the Americans routinely dominated the event. Since the mid-1990s, the script has been reversed, with the Europeans having won four of the past five events and nine of the past 12.“It was good to finally get things going, and it was obviously a good start,” Steve Stricker, the U.S. nonplaying captain, said. “We’d like to win every session.”Stricker, a mild-mannered Wisconsin native not known for risky moves, took some big chances with his afternoon pairings after the Americans had built a 3-1 lead in the morning matches. Every match featured two-man teams from each side. The morning format was foursomes, in which players alternate hitting the same golf ball on a hole, while the afternoon brought a four-ball format, in which each golfer plays his own ball, and the lower score for a team decides the result on a hole.The strongest American combination in the morning was Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, two of the American team’s six Ryder Cup rookies. The pair surged to a big lead early and routed the high-profile, veteran European team of Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, 5 and 3.“I don’t know that anyone could have beaten Xander and Patrick today,” McIlroy said later.Usually when a new team is formed and has immediate success, Ryder Cup captains keep the players together and playing often. But for the afternoon matches, Stricker surprisingly had Schauffele play with Dustin Johnson, who had teamed with Collin Morikawa for an easy win in the morning. It had been expected that Stricker would keep that pair together as well.Instead, Morikawa, the reigning British Open champion, sat out the afternoon matches, as did Spieth and the team of Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger, who had been victorious in a morning match.But on Thursday, Stricker said that he had arranged his lineup for the first eight matches and that nothing that occurred in the morning session would change his plans for the afternoon. Given the pressure the Americans are under to win on home soil, few believed Stricker would stick to such a plan. But he did, and the results were impressive.Justin Thomas celebrating on the ninth green as Viktor Hovland of Norway looked on. Thomas emerged as the emotional leader of the U.S. team on Day 1.Warren Little/Getty ImagesCantlay teamed with Justin Thomas, who had played in the morning with his close friend Spieth. Cantlay, the PGA Tour player of the year, was steady, and Thomas, who appears to be the emotional leader of the American team, was fiery. But the duo was losing for most of its match against England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Norway’s Viktor Hovland. Then, with two holes remaining, Thomas rallied for a crucial putt that created a tie, which is how the match ended.The usually stoic Cantlay even showed some emotion during the round with an occasional fist pump.“I was feeding off J.T. a little bit,” Cantlay said, referring to Thomas. “He carried me around all day today, and he played great, and it was a dogfight.”Cantlay was also doing most of the post-round talking because Thomas had all but lost his voice from screaming and yelling toward the American crowd, which he did after sinking any meaningful putt.Tony Finau, left, and Harris English of the United States on the 10th green Friday afternoon. They defeated Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, 4 and 3.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesThe Johnson-Schauffele team defeated England’s Paul Casey and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, 2 and 1. DeChambeau was paired with Scottie Scheffler in a match against Rahm and England’s Tyrrell Hatton that ended in a tie. The American team of Tony Finau and Harris English used their length off the tee and their accurate iron play to overpower McIlroy, who combined with Lowry in a 4-and-3 loss.The competition continues Saturday with another eight matches.Some of the Americans mentioned that Woods’s message had been part of the motivation for their winning play on Friday.“I’m obviously not going to reveal what he said,” Schauffele said. “But we referred to it a few times a day, and we knew what we needed to do. We knew he was fist-pumping from the couch. Whether he was on crutches or not — he’s fired up as any of us back at home.” More

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      Patrick Cantlay Wins the FedEx Cup

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      Cantlay fended off Jon Rahm, the world No. 1, at the Tour Championship in Atlanta to claim the $15 million prize.ATLANTA — Given a head start, Patrick Cantlay proved uncatchable at the season-ending Tour Championship.Cantlay started the week at 10 under par and reached 21 under, never trailing for 72 consecutive holes to beat Jon Rahm of Spain, the world No. 1, by one stroke at the Tour Championship to win the FedEx Cup at East Lake Golf Club. Cantlay and Rahm dueled over the last three days, as Rahm kept whittling away at his initial four-shot deficit but could never draw even with Cantlay.Cantlay’s lead was only one stroke after Rahm converted a par after missing an 11-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole and Cantlay saved bogey from 6 feet. With $15 million and the FedEx Cup on the line, both players took dead aim at the flag on the par-5 18th hole.Rahm’s approach from 238 yards skipped within an inch of the flagstick and rolled out just over the apron 18 feet past the hole.Cantlay stepped up and delivered a 6-iron from 218 yards that rolled 11 feet short of the hole — the closest eagle chance of the day. When Rahm’s eagle chip attempt slid past the cup, all Cantlay needed to do was lag it to 6 inches to make birdie and secure his victory.“It was the longest lead I’ve ever held, but I just tried to stay, day after day, in the present, and I did an amazing job of that this week because the last couple days I made some mistakes I don’t usually make and I was able to really center myself and hit a lot of good shots when I needed to,” Cantlay said.“It’s such a great honor because it’s all year and I played so consistent all year and just caught fire the last couple of weeks.”In the 18 events in which Cantlay and Rahm both played this season, Rahm finished ahead of Cantlay in strokes 14 times — including this week. But Rahm’s 14-under effort on the course was not enough to overcome the four-shot cushion Cantlay started with on Thursday. Rahm and Kevin Na, the third-place finisher, shared the lowest gross scores, but neither was enough to completely make up ground on Cantlay. Justin Thomas finished fourth.“We had distanced ourselves from the field and it was like a one-on-one match play feel,” Cantlay said of his duel with Jon Rahm, left, in the last round.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockCantlay started Sunday two up on Rahm and quickly extended his lead to three with a birdie on the second hole. But his advantage was down to a skinny stroke as the players made the turn after Cantlay bogeyed the par-3 ninth hole.Cantlay had a great chance to go back up by two on the 13th, but his 4-foot birdie putt took a 90-degree turn around the lip and stayed out. It was a surprising miss from Cantlay, who set a PGA Tour record for strokes gained putting (14.68) when he made 537 feet of putts, including every one that mattered down the stretch, last week at the BMW Championship in Maryland.That hiccup didn’t last, as he buried putts of 4, 6 and 6 feet for par, birdie and bogey on 15, 16 and 17 to take his one-shot lead to the par-5 18th tee.“We had distanced ourselves from the field and it was like a one-on-one match play feel,” Cantlay said.Cantlay has finally manifested as the force he seemed destined to become on tour. A decade ago as a freshman at U.C.L.A., Cantlay ascended to the top of the amateur and collegiate ranks, winning four tournaments and sweeping all of the prestige awards. He ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the world a record 54 consecutive weeks and 55 overall — a standard that held up until broken by Rahm in 2016 — before opting to forgo his final two years of college eligibility and turn professional in 2012 immediately after claiming the silver medal for low amateur at the Masters.It seemed a prudent step considering in his first four tour starts as an amateur Cantlay finished no worse than 24th, including a tie for 21st at the 2011 U.S. Open, and set an amateur record for the lowest score on the PGA Tour when he shot 60 at the Travelers Championship.Cantlay was considered can’t miss.But neither golf nor life is that simple. A combination of physical and emotional traumas shaped Cantlay’s early development. A stress fracture in his lower back derailed his transition almost from the start and affected his progress for four years, two of them (2015 and 2016) spent entirely out of commission. During that period, his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, died in his arms after a hit-and-run while crossing the street in Newport Beach, Calif., in 2016.“I think as tough as the tough times were, they made me who I am,” Cantlay said. “I’m a better person because of it and I thank all the people that really helped get me through that time and get me to the other side of it.”Since returning to competition in 2017 and reclaiming his card, Cantlay has been a steady presence. He won his first PGA Tour event at the end of 2017 in Las Vegas and has never fallen out of the top 50 in the world since. He has consistently been around the top 10 before last week’s playoff victory in the BMW Championship over Bryson DeChambeau vaulted him to a career-best No. 4.At the other end of the field, Joaquín Niemann played alone after Brooks Koepka withdrew midround Saturday with an injury. Niemann decided to try to break Na’s record of playing 18 holes in 1 hour 59 minutes during a Tour Championship at East Lake. Running with his caddie, Niemann shot 72 in 1:54 and finished 29th.“When I was a kid I used to run a lot in high school and like track and field and stuff, but now I hate it,” he said. “I don’t like running. I just did it for fun and it was pretty fun.” More

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      Steady, Stoic Cantlay Outlasts a Mighty DeChambeau in Maryland

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      The BMW Championship was settled after six gripping playoff holes between two rising stars of the post-Tiger Woods generation.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Patrick Cantlay, a creative if stoic player, was asked on Saturday night to look forward to Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship when he would be paired with Bryson DeChambeau, the tinkering and volatile former college physics major.The golfers would begin the day tied for the lead.“Artist versus scientist?” a reporter inquired.Cantlay smiled and answered: “You should be able to decide.”The pair dueled across more than six entertaining hours and 24 holes on Sunday, with Cantlay typically imaginative and quietly effective while DeChambeau’s swashbuckling style and mighty swipes at the ball overpowered the Caves Valley Golf Club outside Baltimore.But what transpired was more than a riveting contrast of styles. It became a test of will between promising 20-something golfers, young faces who are at the advent of the sport’s transition from the Tiger Woods era. It was a show and the cast of characters were all new.The tournament lead shifted several times, but neither golfer was able to escape his final pairing shadow. Raucous whoops and hollers greeted DeChambeau’s gargantuan drives, animated fist pumps and purposeful, marching strides. Respectful, if restrained, applause followed Cantlay’s steady, emotionless efforts and languid pace of play.It could have been golf’s version of the folk tale, “The Tortoise and the Hare.”Finally, on the sixth playoff hole, Cantlay, 29, sank an 18-foot uphill birdie putt and offered a subtle, most rare grin. DeChambeau, 27, could not match his opponent’s resolve as the sun began to set in Maryland, missing a nine-foot putt that would have extended the contest.It was Cantlay’s fifth victory on the PGA Tour and his second this year. The win puts him in a commanding position entering the season-ending Tour Championship, which is the last of the three stages of the FedEx Cup playoffs, with a $15 million prize for the champion.“It was an unbelievable atmosphere all day and I just tried to stay in my own little world,” Cantlay, who is ranked 10th in the men’s world golf rankings, said afterward. “The fans were so energized and into every shot. It’s really nice to have them back.”DeChambeau has been a crowd favorite since he gained 40 pounds last year and began launching awe-inspiring 370-yard drives. He has learned to stoke and play to his galleries and for most of Sunday’s round he was the people’s choice. But in time, the understated Cantlay nurtured a following of his own.Perhaps impassive is the new cool. Or as Cantlay noted, toward the end of Sunday’s round fans had begun chanting a new nickname at him: “Patty-Ice.”“I’ve never heard that,” Cantlay said.DeChambeau, as he has for the last several weeks, did not meet with reporters after Sunday’s round. But he did speak to Cantlay about his golf course etiquette when the two were on the 14th hole. In an unusual exchange, DeChambeau asked Cantlay to stop walking as DeChambeau was preparing for one of his shots.“He just wanted me to stop walking,” Cantlay explained. “The rules officials had told us to speed things up. But it was no big deal. Those things kind of happen out here from time to time.”When the contest moved into a playoff after 18 holes left Cantlay and DeChambeau tied, the drama only intensified. Cantlay nearly sank a crafty pitch attempt on the first playoff hole but settled for par, a result matched by DeChambeau when his lengthy birdie putt slid just past the cup. On the next hole, Cantlay left his approach shot to the par-4 18th green more than 50 feet short of the hole but artfully two-putted for par. DeChambeau had a six-foot birdie putt to end the tournament, but as he did several times earlier in the round, he yanked his golf ball left of the hole.Bryson DeChambeau after missing a putt on the third playoff hole. Nick Wass/Associated PressOn the fourth playoff hole, DeChambeau made a startling error when he splashed a tee shot into a creek to the right of the 18th hole. But he overcame the misplay and a par was good enough to send the competition to a fifth playoff hole, which also ended in matching pars.The closing moments of the initial 18-hole round also did not lack for intensity. Indeed, Cantlay appeared to have squandered his chances on the 16th hole when a substandard chip shot led to a par. DeChambeau moved ahead by a stroke when he birdied the hole. Then, Cantlay’s tee shot on the 186-yard 17th hole landed 10 yards short of the green and bounced sideways into a pond before he finished with a bogey.But DeChambeau, who struggled with his chipping throughout the tournament, flubbed a pitch from the rough just inches from the green and made bogey, a score Cantlay matched. At the par-4 18th hole, each player reached the green in two but Cantlay rolled in his curving, right-to-left, 22-foot birdie putt while DeChambeau badly pulled his 15-foot birdie putt to the left and made a par.When his victory was secured Sunday evening, a smiling and even giggling Cantlay remained on the green and saluted the spectators by doffing his cap and waving it at the grandstand. He repeatedly said, “Thank you,” although his words were drowned out by applause. More

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      Bryson DeChambeau Soars. Patrick Cantlay Drags Him Back to Earth.

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      After shooting a 60 the previous day, DeChambeau allowed Cantlay to catch up, and the two are tied for the lead at 21 under par heading into the final round at the BMW Championship.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Bryson DeChambeau stood next to his golf bag on the first tee, contemplating which club to hit on the opening hole of Saturday’s third round at the BMW Championship. When he retrieved an iron rather than his powerful driver, a groan erupted from fans crammed into a grandstand overlooking the tee.DeChambeau turned, shrugged and said, “Sorry, next hole.”“We want the driver every hole,” a voice yelped.“I know,” DeChambeau muttered. “I know.”It has been tough for DeChambeau to make anyone happy the past two months, which is another turn of fortune in the capricious world he has inhabited since early 2020. Fittingly, at the up-and-down, topographically diverse layout of the Caves Valley Golf Club outside Baltimore, that has changed for DeChambeau in the last two days.On Saturday, one day after a 12-under-par 60 had given him the tournament lead, DeChambeau was mostly enveloped by cacophonous cheers as he shot a five-under 67, in a round that included eagles on consecutive holes, five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. Patrick Cantlay, who began the day trailing by one stroke, shot a 66 to tie DeChambeau at 21 under for the overall tournament lead.But more on that later.First, to recap the topsy-turvy summer of 2021 for the divisive American golfer.In June, leading in the final stages of the United States Open, DeChambeau, the defending champion, collapsed with a 44 on his final nine holes. He credited bad luck.Within two weeks, DeChambeau split with his longtime caddie, Tim Tucker, who had carried DeChambeau’s golf bag for each of his eight PGA Tour victories. Days before his next major championship, the British Open, DeChambeau had to defiantly dispute accusations that he failed to yell “Fore” and imperiled spectators in the path of his long, and sometimes wayward, tee shots. Then, after a middling opening round at the event, he adamantly blamed his driver for his troubles, which brought a swift rebuke from a representative of his equipment sponsor, Cobra, who compared DeChambeau to an 8-year-old child. DeChambeau apologized.Later that month, although he was one of four American golfers who had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, DeChambeau had to withdraw after a positive Covid test. He said that he had not been vaccinated because he was young and healthy and had not wanted to take the dose away from someone who needed it more. His remarks were ridiculed.All of this has been set against the backdrop of an ongoing social media feud with his fellow tour pro Brooks Koepka, which has been exacerbated by noisy, giggling fans in tour galleries who taunt DeChambeau with shouts of, “Let’s go, Brooks-y.”Consider, for example, this interchange among spectators alongside the third green Saturday.Listening to cheers after DeChambeau had birdied the hole, a young boy asked his father, “Is Bryson everyone’s favorite?”“Yeah, everybody likes Bryson,” the man replied.Said a fan standing nearby, “Brooks doesn’t.”In a few weeks, DeChambeau and Koepka will represent one-sixth of the 12-man American squad at the Ryder Cup, where tensions among teammates are heightened even when everyone is on good terms.Jon Rahm, left, and DeChambeau, right, watched as Patrick Cantlay missed his putt on the 18th green.Julio Cortez/Associated PressWhat does DeChambeau think of all that has transpired since June?It is hard to say, as DeChambeau, in the weeks since he acknowledged that he had not received a Covid vaccine, has declined to speak with reporters covering the PGA Tour, except for the tour’s broadcast partners and a golf news outlet that pays him as a contributor.On Saturday, DeChambeau began his round with a routine birdie on the par-3 third hole but then sank an eagle putt of 25 feet on the par-5 fourth and a 53-foot eagle putt on the par-4 fifth. DeChambeau made the turn at 30 and continued to cruise when he knocked his second shot to the par-4 11th hole to within a foot of the hole for another birdie and a four-stroke lead over Cantlay. But on his approach shot to the 12th, DeChambeau sliced a long iron into a bordering pond. (Broadcast microphones picked up DeChambeau blaming a smudge of mud on top of the ball for the mis-hit, although the television camerawork also seemed to show that DeChambeau’s club face was open, which would induce a slice.)The miscue led to DeChambeau’s first bogey in 30 holes, and he followed that setback with another ball plunked into the water protecting the front of the par-3 13th hole. The error led to a double bogey. The large, raucous crowd that had been following DeChambeau seemed thunderstruck.But DeChambeau rallied by draining a 10-foot birdie putts on the 14th and 16th holes. He also needed four shots to reach the 489-yard par-4 15th hole and made bogey. In the end, 67 was a splendid score considering that DeChambeau had hit only nine of 14 fairways. He was, however, second in the field in driving distance.Cantlay, a measured, methodical player, made his charge more consistently, with an eagle, a birdie and seven pars on the front nine. Playing with DeChambeau and the reigning U.S. Open champion, Jon Rahm, Cantlay surged as the others in his group floundered, making birdies on three consecutive holes beginning with the 11th. It appeared that Cantlay was going to be the solo third-round leader until his tee shot on the 18th hole found the rough and served as the catalyst to a closing bogey.Still, as he had been trailing by four strokes with seven holes remaining in the third round, Cantlay was asked afterward if he had been energized when DeChambeau deposited two balls in the water.“No, I felt pretty much the same, just working on my business,” said Cantlay, who rarely shows emotion on the golf course. “I’m just trying to stay in my own little bubble out there. I feel like that’s the best way I can go about doing my thing and gives me the best chance to succeed.” More

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      Patrick Cantlay Wins the Memorial Tournament in a One-Hole Playoff

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      Cantlay, who won the event in 2019, bested Collin Morikawa, but the weekend will be remembered for Jon Rahm’s withdrawal after he tested positive for coronavirus.DUBLIN, Ohio — The leaderboards positioned at critical junctures of a professional golf tournament are more than scoreboards. They are omnipresent yardsticks measuring the rhythm of the contest with hole-by-hole counts for the top golfers, collectively meant to tell the whole story of the event.But on Sunday, in the final round of the Memorial Tournament, there was a jarring omission from every leaderboard, a name conspicuously missing.Patrick Cantlay won the 2021 Memorial, outdueling Collin Morikawa in a seesaw battle that included one extra playoff hole, but the heart-rending story of the event will always be the Saturday evening withdrawal of Jon Rahm, who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Rahm, the defending Memorial champion, was informed of his test result at the end of the third round as he left the 18th green with a commanding six-stroke lead. The tournament continued, and Cantlay’s victory will not carry an asterisk in the PGA Tour record book, nor should it.But from the first holes played on Sunday by Cantlay and Morikawa, who became the third-round co-leaders after Rahm’s withdrawal, Rahm’s absence was recognized.When Cantlay and Morikawa, who played together, each bogeyed the first hole, there was a disquieting murmur in the crowd around the green that may have been a shared thought: If Rahm were still in the field, his lead might now have been seven strokes with 17 holes remaining.Play continued, and Cantlay and Morikawa eventually put on a good show. They made the turn still tied for the lead and extended their head-to-head match for more than two hours. The tournament did not lack drama. Its lasting image, however, will most likely be Rahm doubled over in tears.Cantlay acknowledged as much Sunday evening.“Everybody, me included, knows it would be a totally different day today if that had not happened,” Cantlay said of Rahm’s withdrawal. He continued: “Just so very unfortunate.”Asked how he would greet Rahm when he saw him next, perhaps at the United States Open that begins June 17, Cantlay said: “There’s not much to say. I don’t wish that kind of scenario on anybody. I would much rather have faced him down today and shot an extremely low round and beat him that way. But unfortunately there’s nothing I can do. I did everything I could with the cards I was dealt.”Morikawa said Rahm had the tournament “in his possession,” and added that tour players had feared and wondered about just such a situation playing out.“But that’s the thing with what-ifs,” Morikawa said, “we can only think about it and think what we’re going to do and try and do until it actually happens.”Morikawa shook his head.“But for him to have it like that, where he had a six-shot lead,” he said.Cantlay reacting to his birdie putt on No. 17. Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesA spirited crowd at Muirfield Village Golf Club in the Columbus suburbs warmed to the taut competition in the closing holes, even when soaked by rain late in the afternoon.Morikawa held the lead for most of the back nine, edging ahead on par-5 No. 11 by sinking a seven-foot birdie putt that put him back at 12 under par for the tournament, which is where he and Cantlay began the day. Cantlay threatened to catch Morikawa on the 12th hole when his 42-foot putt for birdie skirted the left edge of the hole. But on the next green, Cantlay coolly stroked a 17-foot uphill putt for a birdie that tied Morikawa.Scottie Scheffler joined Morikawa and Cantlay at the top of the leaderboard at 12 under par when he nearly holed his second shot from 131 yards at the par-4 14th hole and was left a tap-in birdie putt. Scheffler hung in for several holes before faltering with a bogey on the 18th.Morikawa regained the lead at the par-5 15th hole when he delicately pitched from a bad lie in deep rough near the green then sank an eight-foot birdie putt. That lead held up until the 17th hole when Cantlay rolled in a twisting 23-foot birdie putt to tie Morikawa, who had to make an 11-foot par putt to stay even with Cantlay.At the 18th hole, both players sliced their drives right of the fairway. From the rough, Cantlay nonetheless knocked his second shot pin high on the elevated, two-tiered final green. His try for birdie just skirted the right edge of the hole. Morikawa hit his second shot into a greenside bunker, and his recovery from the sand left him a nervy 3-foot attempt for par that he converted to send the competition to a playoff. Both golfers had shot a one-under-par 71 for 13 under par.Replaying the 18th hole, Morikawa’s approach shot from the fairway missed the green short and left, while Cantlay did the same from the right rough. Morikawa’s pitch from deep rough settled six feet from the hole. Blasting from a greenside bunker, Cantlay skittered a shot that ran 12 feet past the hole, but his right-to-left par putt tracked into the center of the hole.Morikawa’s par putt to extend the competition rolled past the left edge of the hole.Morikawa and Cantlay had nervous starts to the final round. In addition to bogeying the first hole, Morikawa bungled the par-3 fourth hole when he missed a 5-foot par putt. Morikawa birdied the fifth hole but carded his third bogey in six holes when he flubbed a chip near the sixth green and badly misjudged a 10-foot putt. He made a putt of similar length just to save bogey.From there, Morikawa found some consistency to his swing and his short game. Cantlay had a similarly uneven beginning nine, and both golfers made the turn one over par for their round.Cantlay, left, lined up his putt on No. 2 as Collin Morikawa repaired a ball divot.Tannen Maury/EPA, via ShutterstockFor Cantlay, 29, it was his fourth PGA Tour victory and the second time he has won the Memorial since 2019. Cantlay’s last victory was the Zozo Championship in October 2020. Ranked 15th in the world before the Memorial Tournament, Cantlay this year has had two top-five finishes and five in the top 20. More

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      Here Are The 5 Golfers to Watch at The 2021 Masters Tournament

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      Tiger Woods is out with injuries, and Dustin Johnson is back to defend his title. Here are five more golfers to keep an eye on.When the best golfers in the world tee off at Augusta National Golf Club this week, the Masters will seem, to a large degree, like the Masters again. The azaleas should be blooming, and there will be fans, if only a limited amount, on the grounds.That was not the case in 2020. Because of the pandemic, the tournament was held in November instead of its traditional spot in April, and it was played without the boisterous galleries.Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player in the world, won by five strokes with a record score of 20-under 268. Tiger Woods, the 2019 champion, tied for 38th. Woods won’t be playing at the Masters. He is recovering from injuries from a February car accident in California.Johnson, vying for his third major title, will be one of the favorites, along with Justin Thomas (No. 2) and Jon Rahm (No. 3).Here are five other players to keep an eye on.Bryson DeChambeauThere doesn’t seem to be a golf course that can neutralize DeChambeau’s distance off the tee. He’s averaging 320.8 yards, the best on the PGA Tour.It will serve him well at Augusta National. He should be able to easily reach the greens in two shots on the par-5s, which provide the best scoring opportunities. His power isn’t the only impressive part of his game. DeChambeau, ranked No. 5, has been able to make a lot of crucial putts.Before last year’s United States Open at Winged Foot, it wasn’t certain whether the way he planned to attack the course would pay off; the fairways were narrow and the rough was thick.No problem. DeChambeau, 27, won by six strokes and was the only player to finish under par.DeChambeau hasn’t had much success in his previous four appearances at Augusta. His best finish was a tie for 21st in 2016, just before he turned pro.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesTony FinauSooner or later, Finau, 31, is going to break through on the big stage. Augusta National could be the place.Finau, too, hits the ball a long way. He is 15th on the tour in birdies and 11th in eagles. The course seems to suit him well. In his three starts, he has two top 10 finishes, including in 2019 when he tied for fifth, two shots behind Woods.Since 2017, Finau, ranked No. 13 in the world, has recorded 37 top 10s without a victory. His lone triumph came at the Puerto Rico Open in 2016.He came close to his second victory in January and February. He finished second in the Farmers Insurance Open and the Genesis Invitational. He shot a final-round 64 at the Genesis, but lost in a playoff to Max Homa.Finau has played well in the majors. In his last 11 appearances, he has recorded seven top 10s.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesPatrick CantlayCantlay, 29, seems to always be in the hunt. In his last 10 starts, he has finished in the top 20 eight times. The only hiccup was a missed cut at last month’s Players Championship.Like Finau, he makes a lot of birdies. Heading into the Masters, he ranks fourth on the PGA Tour this season, with 4.68 birdies per round. He’s 13th in scoring average at just over 70.Cantlay played extremely well at the recent World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament. In his first two matches against Brian Harman and Carlos Ortiz, Cantlay recorded 14 birdies and an eagle. He failed to make it to the round of 16, losing in a playoff to Harman.Ranked No. 10, Cantlay trailed by only a shot heading into the final two rounds of the 2020 Masters. He faded over the weekend to end up in a tie for 17th. In 2019, he tied for ninth.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesJordan SpiethUntil recently, it would have been a stretch to suggest that Spieth, 27, would be a factor at Augusta National. He hadn’t won a tournament in more than three years. Before 2018, he won 11 times, including three majors.The drought is over. Spieth captured the Valero Texas Open on Sunday by two strokes over Charley Hoffman. It was his first victory since the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.Spieth has played very well since February. He posted top 10 finishes in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Arnold Palmer Invitational. The only negative was that he did not perform well enough on Sundays. That wasn’t the case in Texas. He shot a 66 in the final round.What’s important, as always at the Masters, will be the ability to negotiate the treacherous greens. Spieth has handled the challenge well.His record in the tournament has been outstanding. He won the 2015 Masters with a score of 18-under 270. He has finished in the top three on three other occasions, including in 2014 when he was only 20.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesSergio GarciaIn his last two starts — at the Players Championship and the Dell match play tournament — Garcia, 41, flashed some of the magic that has made him such a dynamic player for more than two decades.In the Players, he shot a 65 in the first round and was still in the hunt in the final round until he faded and tied for ninth. At the match play tournament, he made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Victor Perez.His walking off with a second green jacket — he won the 2017 Masters, his only major title — still seems like a long shot, but his recent play makes him a more viable contender. He is still a very good ball striker. The challenge for him, as usual, will be to make enough critical putts. More