Patrick Cantlay Wins the 2021 Tour Championship and FedEx Cup
After nearly a year's worth of tournaments, in a season dubbed early on as "the Super Season", the 2020-2021 PGA Tour season has come to an end. The winner of the 2021 FedEx Cup Playoffs and FedEx Cup Champion is Patrick Cantlay, who finished the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club with a score of 21-under and a single shot ahead of Jon Rahm.
This is Cantlay's sixth career PGA Tour win and without a doubt his most important. He takes home a check for $15 million and fully exempt status on the PGA Tour until 2026.
RAHMBO VS PATTY ICE: CANTLAY DELIVERS YET AGAIN
It was the fight that many of us predicted it would come down to and the one we all wanted to see.
In one corner, Jon "Rahmbo" Rahm, the number 1 ranked golfer in the world who was coming off a great playoffs thus far and major win this year. In the other corner, Patrick "Patty Ice" Cantlay, who was riding a huge wave of momentum after his epic playoff win against Bryson DeChambeau last week at the BMW Championship.
The two were paired together again on Sunday, with Rahm starting his final round two shots behind Cantlay, with a several shot buffer between them and the rest of the field. The stage was set, with $10 million on the line between them and the chance to have their name engraved in history on the FedEx Cup.
As the final round began, it was Cantlay who struck first, making birdie at the par 3 2nd hole after placing his 205-yard tee shot to just six feet, then sinking the putt. Rahm hoped to close the gap between Cantlay and himself quickly however. And he did just that on the 5th hole, making a clutch 11-foot birdie putt while Cantlay bogeyed after finding trouble off the tee.
But not to be deterred by the two shot swing, Cantlay, calm and collected as we saw him all week, responded with a birdie on the par 5 6th hole, while Rahm parred after finding the rough with his tee shot needing to chip out. The lead remained at two shots, until the par 3 9th hole, where Cantlay found trouble after landing his tee shot short right, then facing a tough chip over the bunker. He would two-putt for a bogey, dropping his lead down to a single stroke over Rahm.
Things would remain this way until the par 4 16th hole, where Cantlay again was able to rely on his clutch approaches and putting to secure another birdie, while Rahm two-putted for par.
Cantlay had remained focused and "in the zone" as he described it, virtually since last week. But perhaps his biggest test came on the par 4 17th hole. With victory just two holes away, Cantlay, in a brief lapse of judgement, landed his tee shot in the right rough after hitting a tree. Hitting out of the thick Bermuda rough, his second shot went wayward, landing in the spectator area to the right of the green. Things got worse though, as Cantlay's greenside chip landed short and remained in the rough. Another chip later and he was left with a 6-foot putt for bogey, while Rahm was on the green in two, with a 13-foot birdie putt.
This was the deciding moment of the tournament. If Rahm makes the putt and Cantlay misses, Rahm is up by one heading into the final hole. If both miss, they are all square heading into the 18th. But, as we saw countless times last week, when the pressure is on, Cantlay performs. Rahm missed his birdie putt and Cantlay was able to sink his bogey putt; a huge confidence boost for Cantlay.
With the FedEx Cup just a single hole away, the two teed off at the par 5 18th, both finding the fairway, with Cantlay just ahead of Rahm. In fact, this was the only time that Cantlay out-drove Rahm all week. This worked out to Cantlay's advantage, as he could watch Rahm's second shot an act accordingly. Rahm went for the green in two; a must given the situation and nearly holed out for an albatross as his ball skidded across the green before landing just at the edge of the greenside rough behind the hole.
Not to be outdone, Cantlay too decided to go for the green, landing his ball to 11-feet, the closest anyone was all day. This essentially sealed the deal for Cantlay, as he now forced Rahm to hole his greenside chip. Rahm, the fighter that he is, nearly did so. The two birdied the hole as Cantlay was left with a two-putt to win and did just that.
Again, fans were treated to a real spectacle of golf in Patrick Cantlay. His seemingly effortless ability to play in the moment and not let one shot effect another is truly amazing. As we've seen so many times in the past, final round leaders often make mistakes, big ones in some cases that can lose them the tournament. But this did not happen to Cantlay at all. Two of the three times he made a bogey on Sunday, he followed it up with a birdie. He has shown the world his incredible resilience and fight, even when facing trouble. That's something that you can't teach and can only learn through experience.
And if you know Cantlay's story, you know exactly what he's been through, both on and off the course.
Credit must be given to Jon Rahm as well. He fought all week to create an advantage over Cantlay, but was unable to, despite great effort. For the week, he and Kevin Na shared the low score at 14-under. Rahm caps off a great season for himself as well, that also had its ups and downs. He will no doubt win a FedEx Cup at some point in his career.
And wouldn't it be something if Rahm and Cantlay were paired up against each other in Ryder Cup singles in a few weeks? One can only hope.
GOOD FINISHES ALL AROUND FOR TOP 30
Rounding out the top 5 behind Cantlay and Rahm are Kevin Na (3), Justin Thomas (4), Xander Schauffele (T5) and Viktor Hovland (T5). Their efforts do not go unrewarded however, as they each take home prize money in excess of $1 million.
Kevin Na put together an incredible set of four rounds and managed to not card a single bogey all week. Quite an impressive feat and one that has never been done at the Tour Championship before.
Its easy to forget that the Tour Championship is not like any other tournament on tour. Many golfers consider the fact that they are playing the Tour Championship an accomplishment in itself, given the work required to get to that stage of the playoffs and the quality of players that do and do not get into it.
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
The "Super Season" definitely lived up to its name.
In total, the 2020-2021 PGA Tour season consisted of 50 events with 43 different winners, 6 majors, a total of different 641 players competing, over 1.3 million strokes, and a total of 58,000 miles traveled.
The length of the season also allowed for some incredible records to be broken. Just this week, Sungjae Im holed his 497th and final birdie of the season. With this number, he sets a new record for most birdies in a single season. Im played a large portion of the tour events this year, allowing him to rack up the birdies each week. It will be quite some time before that record is broken.
HOW DID OUR PICKS FINISH?
This week was probably our most successful set of picks ever.
1) Jon Rahm: 2nd at 20-under
2) Patrick Cantlay: WINNER at 21-under
3) Abraham Ancer: T9 at 10-underAlthough not favored outright to win, Cantlay did have the numerical advantage heading into the week. Congratulations again to him for an impressive finish and playoffs. Rahm should be congratulated as well, for an incredible performance this week and playing so well when it mattered most. Ancer will be happy with his result and consider it a great way to end off his season.
***
And that caps off an incredible PGA Tour season, what a season it's been. Our coverage now heads across the pond to the European Tour next week for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club.
Stay tuned for our preview of the tournament and our picks.
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment