ROME – Hats off to Patrick Cantlay.
He breathed some much-needed life into the 44th Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club by holing a hat trick of putts on the final three holes to flip his fourballs match and give the U.S. a glimmer of hope that they could mount a comeback in Sunday singles and retain the Cup.
It was as cold-blooded as Ian Poulter going into Poulter-geist mode late on Saturday in 2012 and inspiring the Europeans to one of the great comebacks at Medinah.
But that only scratches the surface of Cantlay’s day. While he was busy taking on Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton in the morning, Sky Sports’s Jamie Weir posted on social media that among other things, Cantlay was behind a rift in the U.S. locker room and he “believes players should be paid to participate in the Ryder Cup, and is demonstrating his frustration at not being paid by refusing to wear a team cap.” He credited unnamed sources.
Cantlay wears a hat on the PGA Tour and is paid handsomely to do so, previously by the investment bank Goldman Sachs and currently by DeWalt, the tool maker. When asked about why he wasn’t wearing a hat this week, Cantlay explained, “The hat doesn’t fit. It didn’t fit at Whistling Straits, and didn’t fit this week. Everyone knows that.”
That may be and plenty of golfers, including Rory McIlroy, have gone hatless in the Ryder Cup before. Still I tend to agree with ESPN’s Michael Collins, who tweeted that Cantlay saying he can’t find a hat that fits – despite the players being measured several months ahead of time for team uniforms – “is like a fat guy in Whole Foods saying, I can’t find the vegetables.”
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But to think Cantlay doesn’t want to win the Ryder Cup is ludicrous. This is the guy who told his teammates at Whistling Straits, let’s step on their neck and score 20 points.
In any event, word spread quickly in the grandstands, and fans began taunting Cantlay, who was paired with American Wyndham Clark in a fourballs match against McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick. At the sixth green, fans shouted at Cantlay, “Show me the money,” and by the 16th they were waving their hats at the hatless wonder.
“I’ve never had so many standing ovations going to tee boxes and greens. I thought it was fantastic,” Cantlay said. “You know, I told Wyndham when we were going to the first tee today that we were going to use all the energy out there as fuel, and we did.”
If there is a fracture in the U.S. locker room it didn’t look that way when Cantlay pantomimed tipping his cap and his teammates huddled around the green responded by doffing their caps too.
“Y’all just don’t quit, do ya,” American Brian Harman said as Cantlay was bombarded with Hat-Gate questions during a press conference afterward. “We love each other, man. It’s been the most fun getting to hang out with these boys. Whatever happens tomorrow, I mean, love you boys.”
“Love you too, Harm,” Cantlay said.
“Think you’re putting too much into the hat,” Clark said.
“They said it on Twitter, though, so it has to be,” Harman quipped.
“If it’s on Twitter, it’s true. Verified,” Cantlay added.
But the hat-waving had one more unforeseen consequence on Saturday. Cantlay’s caddie, veteran Joe LaCava, who has worked for Fred Couples and Tiger Woods during a distinguished 30+-year career, had heard enough during the day and waved his hat around in celebration on the 18th green. It bothered McIlroy, who was lining up a putt to try to tie the match. Tensions flared. Things escalated quickly from getting chippy to getting personal and those words spilled over from the golf course to the parking lot with McIlroy needing to be restrained by Shane Lowry and helped into his courtesy car back to the team hotel. The Ryder Cup finally got interesting – all because of Cantlay playing without a hat.
“He might come out with a hat tomorrow with a big ol’ middle finger on it for all we know,” NBC’s Paul Azinger.
If all the Americans don’t come out Sunday and play hatless in unity with Cantlay, then what are we even doing here?
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