NO, IT WASN’T A MAJOR, but yesterday’s duel between Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship had major-like implications.
Cantlay emerged victorious after a six-hole sudden-death playoff at Caves Valley. It was a master class in pressure putting.
I could sit here for a long time trying to remember someone who putted as well as Cantlay under those circumstances. I give up. He made so many he had to make. It was ridiculous.
From Doug Ferguson’s AP story:
With the putter in his hand and ice in his veins, Cantlay delivered one clutch putt after another to survive the final three holes of regulation and six tense holes of a sudden-death playoff, finally winning with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.
He closed out his 6-under 66 with an 8-foot par putt on the 16th, an 8-foot bogey putt on the 17th after a tee shot into the water, and a 20-foot birdie on the 18th to force a playoff. Twice on the 18th in the playoff, where DeChambeau had a 30-yard advantage off the tee, Cantlay made par putts from 6 feet and 7 feet.
The most important putt was the last one.
“But they all mattered, I guess, the same,” Cantlay said. “I needed all of them.”
Getting back to some of those major-like implications:
With the win, Cantlay is the first three-time winner on the PGA Tour this season.
He knocked out Bryson DeChambeau, the Max Baer of the PGA Tour.
He heads to this week’s finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake, as the FedEx Cup leader.
He played himself onto the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Finally, he also earned a new nickname from fans: “Patty Ice.”
“That’s the first time I heard it,” Cantlay said. “But I got it all week.”
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