Cantlay held off alliterative challengers Scott Stallings and Scottie Scheffler, and he did it in style, rocking a combination of BOSS and FootJoy apparel.
The So. Cal native is in a great spot to become the first player to defend a FedEx Cup Championship which would earn him the largest PGA Tour prize to date.
We’ve already taken a deep dive inside Cantlay’s Winner’s Bag but now we get to open up the champion’s closet and see how Patty Ice dressed for success at the 2022 BMW Championship.
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Cantlay is the first player to successfully defend a FedEx Cup Playoff event.
WILMINGTON, Del. – Patrick Cantlay drove off with the BMW Championship trophy again.
The 30-year-old Californian made birdie at the 17th hole at the south course at Wilmington Country Club on Sunday and held on for a one-stroke victory over Scott Stallings. Cantlay shot 2-under 69 for a 72-hole total of 14-under 268 and became the first player to successfully defend a FedEx Cup Playoffs event.
A year ago, Patrick Cantlay needed six extra holes at Caves Valley to claim the BMW title en route to winning the FedEx Cup. New course, but same result as Cantlay claimed his eighth PGA Tour title and second of the season.
Cantlay won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Xander Schauffele as his partner, but hadn’t won an individual title since going back-to-back at the BMW and Tour Championship last year. Scottie Scheffler, who tied for third, will start next week in the driver’s seat at 10 under with a two-stroke lead at the Tour Championship, where the FedEx Cup title will be on the line.
“This is the only week of the year where you actually get strokes on the field, but I think I’ll be best suited if I just ignore that and just go out there and play my game and do my best,” Scheffler said.
Patrick Cantlay plays a second shot on the eighth hole during the final round of the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club on August 21, 2022 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Cantlay will start in second place, two strokes back of Scheffler in the staggered-start leaderboard; no player has ever defended the FedEx Cup title.
“I’m in a really good spot,” Cantlay said. “It’ll be a little different type of a challenge this year, obviously, being two behind Scottie. He’s played a lot of great golf this year, so I expect the same. But it’s a golf course I really like, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Stallings, who closed in 69, was seeking his fourth PGA Tour title and first since the 2014 Farmers Insurance Open. He missed a 9-foot birdie putt at 18 that would have tied Cantlay.
“It did what exactly we thought it was going to do, it just did it behind the hole,” Stallings said.
But the 37-year-old Stallings, who started the week No. 47 in the points standings, did succeed in booking his first trip to the Tour Championship, which is reserved for the top 30 in the season-long FedEx Cup point standings, in his 12th year on Tour.
“That was my number one goal to start the year,” Stallings said. “To compete with the best players in the world and make it to East Lake was better late than never, I guess.”
Cantlay opened with a pair of 68s and then surged into the lead with a hole-out eagle at 14 and overcame missing some short putts on Saturday to shoot 65.
In the final round, he trailed Stallings by two strokes after making his second bogey of the day at No. 10, but he was rock-solid from there. He made three birdies on his way to the clubhouse, with birdies at Nos. 11, 14 and 17. The last of the bunch included a 351-yard drive that benefited from a good bounce as his blast landed short of the bunker, hopped over the sand, wangled its way through the first cut and into the fairway just 64 yards from the hole. From there, he wedged to 6 feet.
“Maybe one of the best breaks I’ve gotten coming down the stretch, and when you get a break like that you need to pay it off, and fortunately I did,” Cantlay said.
But after a wayward drive into a fairway bunker, Cantlay still needed one more trick up his sleeves to close out the win. He hit a big slice 8-iron from 158 yards, which found the green 47 feet away.
“It came off almost exactly how I would have pictured it, how I visualized it,” he said.
In the tournament within the tournament to finish in the top 30 in the points and qualify for the FedEx Cup finale next week at the Tour Championship, K.H. Lee, who finished as the odd man out last year at No. 31, made birdie at the first four holes and shot 65 to jump from No. 35 at the start of the day to No. 26. Rookie Sahith Theegala made birdies on four of his final seven holes to shoot 68 and finish No. 28. Australia’s Adam Scott scrambled for par out of a greenside bunker at the last that kept him in the top 30 (No. 29) and prevented Ireland’s Shane Lowry to qualify for next week in Atlanta for the first time in his career. Aaron Wise squeaked in at No. 30 despite a final-round 73, 19 points ahead of Lowry.
“I guess that’s the beauty of the FedEx Cup Playoffs the way they are,” Scott said. “You can scratch it around a lot for the year and have a couple good weeks and get heavily rewarded by getting to East Lake and being in that top 30 and all the perks that come with it.”
Viktor Hovland had a strong Sunday at the BMW Championship.
He shot a 6-under 65 and finished at 2 under for the week to secure a spot in the field for next week’s Tour Championship. The highlight of Hovland’s day came on the par-3 second hole, when his 6-iron tee shot from 203 yards away went in the hole.
Not only did Hovland record a hole-in-one, he also helped one student go to college for free.
BMW will make a donation to an Evans Scholar in Hovland’s name. The full, four-year tuition and housing scholarship worth $125,000 will be awarded later this year.
“That’s incredible,” Hovland said when told about the donation. “The hole-in-one obviously was nice for me, and while it didn’t move me up the leaderboard that much, for it to actually mean something is really cool. I hope that goes a long way.”
All proceeds from the BMW Championship benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation, which provides full tuition and housing college scholarships to hardworking young caddies with financial need and strong academic records. Since 2007, BMW has contributed more than $40 million to the Evans Scholars Foundation. Hovland’s shot marks the sixth time BMW has awarded a hole-in-one scholarship and the first time since Jason Day recorded an ace in 2017.
“This generous contribution is one of many ways BMW shows its support for our mission of sending deserving young caddies to college,” said John Kaczkowski, President and CEO of the Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholars Foundation. “We’re grateful to have BMW as our title sponsor and partner, and we’re thrilled to use this donation to fund a full Evans Scholarship.”
That’s given the folks associated with the BMW Championship a chance to roll out some fun new merchandise, as well as some staples from years gone by.
We’re also fans of the club’s logo, a Merino ram, which is a reference to the land’s previous life as a sheep farm. In fact, a structure on the north course’s 13th hole is still referred to by locals as the “sheep barn.” Although the merchandise highlights 1901 — when the land was secured and the plans put in place — the clubhouse wasn’t finished until 1902 and the first tournament was held in July of that year.
Here’s a look at some of the best merchandise from the 2022 BMW Championship:
A rules official asked if the ball had moved due to Matsuyama’s swing.
Jon Rahm has struggled through the opening stages of the BMW Championship, posting a 73 during Thursday’s first round and then starting Friday’s second round with bogeys on two of his first seven holes.
But that didn’t stop the world’s fifth-ranked player from stepping in when a PGA Tour rules official appeared ready to penalize Hideki Matsuyama after the 2021 Masters champ took a practice swing from the rough alongside a bunker on No. 7 only to see the ball roll then back in the bunker.
Matsuyama’s swing wasn’t near the ball, and he instantly looked up at his caddie in horror when he realized it had dropped in the sand. Since the ball was resting in an awkward spot just outside the bunker, the Japanese standout would have needed to swing while standing inside the bunker to have any shot at getting the ball near the flag.
Hideki Matsuyama was allowed to play his shot from the bunker with no penalty after his ball rolled in from its initial position. pic.twitter.com/vBeNN9srdM
A rules official came over and asked if the ball had moved due to Matsuyama’s swing, and Rahm stepped in to insist that was not the case.
The official also asked about the timeline of the ball’s movement — if it came directly after Matsuyama’s practice swing.
“It could have fallen at any time,” Rahm said. “He did not make it move.”
After a discussion, the rules official allowed Matsuyama to play the ball from the bunker, a much easier shot than the one he previously faced.
Matsuyama, who opened with birdies on four of the previous six holes, hit his sand wedge to inside 11 feet and made the par putt to stay 5 under for the tournament.
According to the Rules of Golf:
Rule 9: Ball Played as It Lies; Ball at Rest Lifted or Moved
Purpose of Rule: Rule 9 covers a central principle of the game: “play the ball as it lies.”
If the player’s ball comes to rest and is then moved by natural forces such as wind or water, the player normally must play it from its new spot.
If a ball at rest is lifted or moved by anyone or any outside influence before the stroke is made, the ball must be replaced on its original spot.
Players should take care when near any ball at rest, and a player who causes his or her own ball or an opponent’s ball to move will normally get a penalty (except on the putting green).
Since the swing and the ball movement happened concurrently, rules officials could still look at the video and change any ruling.
“Sometimes it’s good to see that and you can draft off each other, but also just to know that it’s really out there.”
Adam Scott quite literally played a game of follow the leader during the first round of the 2022 BMW Championship.
The 42-year-old was pleased with his 6-under 65 on Thursday at Wilmington Country Club and sits just one shot behind early-wave leader and playing partner, Keegan Bradley. Harold Varner III, Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas sit T-3 at 5 under.
“I watched Keegan, he played beautifully today, and I was really just trying to follow his lead,” said Scott. “He kind of had everything going the way he wanted, and most of the time he was teeing off first and I was just trying to follow.
“I think I was drafting off him. He shot 6-under the front and was running. Sometimes it’s good to see that and you can draft off each other, but also just to know that it’s really out there,” he explained. “When you get off to a slower start sometimes, you can make the course harder than it really is, and Keegan made it look easy today, so I tried to take advantage of that, as well.”
“It was really a fun day today playing with Adam,” Bradley added. “It’s always great playing with Adam, but we both were playing really well, hitting good shots, making putts. It was a blast.”
Scott made just one bogey Thursday and continues an impressive recent run of form. At last week’s FedEx Cup Playoffs opener, Scott moved up 37 spots in the standings to No. 42 after his T-5 finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He’ll need another solid finish of 23rd or better during this week’s second leg of the Playoffs if he’s to move inside the top 30 and advance to the season finale, next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
“I think more than anything out of Memphis, I got some confidence out of having a result with maybe not my best stuff all four days,” Scott said. “It is a nice feeling walking on to any golf course when the confidence is a bit higher, and I certainly felt a sense of ease with that today.
“Last week I obviously had the same situation. I wasn’t in. But I really focused more on trying to put myself into win a golf tournament last week and just play the golf tournament as usual, and that would kind of get it done. It made me only have one focus, and that was on the tournament at hand. I think that’s kind of how I started today.”
Similar to Scott, Bradley tried not to focus on what he needs to do at minimum in order to advance to the Tour Championship. It may sound cliché, but his lone goal is to play his best and let the rest fall into place.
“I never look to see what I have to do because whether I play in this tournament or Sony or any tournament, I always want to do the best I can, whether it’s 35th instead of 36th or first, whatever it is,” Bradley said. “I never feel like that helps me, I feel like it hurts me actually. But this is a good start, obviously.”
Check out the best photos of the week from Delaware.
Just two weeks remain in the PGA Tour season.
This week’s 2022 BMW Championship at the lengthy Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, doubles as the second leg of the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs. The loaded field consists of 69 of the top players from the last season – Cameron Smith withdrew earlier in the week – and the top 30 on the FedEx Cup points list after this week will advance to next week’s finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Tiger Woods was even in Delaware this week, but it wasn’t to play.
Take a scroll through some of the best images of the week from the PGA Tour’s 2022 BMW Championship.
Plenty of players are looking to punch their tickets to East Lake Golf Club.
The second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs begins Thursday at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, at the BMW Championship. That means only the top-70 players from the PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings qualified and are shooting for the season-long prize, the FedEx Cup.
Only 68 players will tee it up, and from there, only the top 30 in the standings advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The winner of the FedEx Cup Playoffs will take home $18 million and the FedEx Cup.
Cameron Smith, No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings and into next week’s field, won’t tee it up at the BMW Championship, withdrawing Monday.
Here’s a closer look at some names in the FedEx Cup points standings, including those who are on the bubble and others who need a big week to make the Tour Championship.
“I think it’s also strange to me that we play so many golf courses that all they do is add length to the golf courses.”
The majority of players in Delaware for this week’s 2022 BMW Championship aren’t too familiar with the layout at host Wilmington Country Club. According to Patrick Cantlay, those who competed in last year’s event in Maryland will notice some similarities.
Cantlay, the tournament’s defending champion who then went on to win the FedEx Cup, compared Wilmington Country Club to Caves Valley Golf Club in the sense that it’s “extremely distance biased,” noting players have to go long down the fairways, even though they’re more narrow than last year.
“I don’t think there’s too much strategy to this golf course. I think it’s pretty right in front of you and similar to last year,” Cantlay said ahead of his title defense. “The venues between last year and this year are actually really similar, I think, in style of golf.”
Measuring in at 7,534 yards, the par-71 course features three front nine par-4s that are 490-plus yards, while the two par-5s on the back are more than 600 yards.
“I think it’s really long. I think it’s also strange to me that we play so many golf courses that all they do is add length to the golf courses. It’s so surprising to me that the golf courses that none of the guys who hit it far, they don’t go to Hilton Head, they don’t go to Colonial, they don’t go to the short, small, dogleggy tree-lined golf courses,” Cantlay explained.
“The way we combat the distance, the way these architects seem to think they want to combat distance is by taking all the trees out and playing it 7,600 yards and put the tees way back and all the par-5s are at 600 yards. I don’t think that makes any sense.
“I’m surprised every time I come to a golf course where they say it’s recently been redone and then there’s no real shaping of golf shots. It’s just how far can you hit it and grab your driver on every hole and hit it as high and hit it as far as you possibly can. If you can hit it 315 yards, you’ve taken out all the bunkers, and you’re maybe in the rough, but it’s way better in the rough with a 9- or 8-iron than it is maybe in the fairway with a 5-iron if you were to lay up to the fat part of the fairway before the bunkers.”
“I’m so surprised that they haven’t figured it out, and it just seems like we’re getting more and more of the same bomb-it-as-far-as-you-can golf courses week after week.”
Rahm also praised the depth of the PGA Tour fields and singled out two rising stars.
Jon Rahm can’t quite put his finger on why he’s played so well in the BMW Championship. Despite four top-10 finishes in five starts, including a win in 2020, he doesn’t want to talk about his history at the third-oldest tournament on the PGA Tour’s schedule.
“I had no idea,” Rahm said of his stellar record. “I sometimes don’t want to know those things. I don’t want to think about it.”
The 27-year-old isn’t sure whether it’s the playoff pressure or the type of golf course that plays hosts to the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs that brings out his best game. What he does know is that, no matter what, he’s playing for the win, and his standing in the season-long race won’t come in to play.
“My goal is to finish as high as possible on the leaderboard. I play to win; and if not, I’m going to try to finish second; and if not, third; and so on. 30th is better than 31st. Simple as that, right?” explained Rahm. “My mindset doesn’t really change. I know the consequences could be greater if going into next week if you miss a shot or not, but you can’t be down the stretch thinking, ‘If I don’t make a birdie, I’m going to be in 17th place next week.’
“When you do with that, it’s a consequence of what you do on the golf course, and I just choose to focus on what I have to do at the moment.”
That attitude is what has propelled the former World No. 1 – as both an amateur and professional – to seven wins on both the PGA and DP World tours, as well as his first major championship at the 2021 U.S. Open.
This season on Tour, Rahm has missed just one cut – his first start at the Fortinet Championship last September – and has earned seven top-10 finishes in 17 starts, including a win at the Mexico Open, a runner-up Sentry Tournament of Champions and a T-3 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
His unrivaled confidence and rising status in the game makes Rahm a prime target for the upstart LIV Golf Invitational Series, but don’t expect the Spaniard to jump ship any time soon. After all, he wasn’t even aware of the court hearing last week that denied LIV players Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford access to the first playoff event.
“Well, I can tell you I had zero attention on it. I only found out that it was going on because I walked by player dining and I saw about ten really nervous people pacing all around the room and I thought, ‘Well, there’s something going on,'” Rahm said. “I asked and heard what was going on. But I never really — I was in the room when the judge made her decision known, but only because I was walking by and they told me it was time. So I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll stay.’
“They chose to leave the PGA Tour, they chose to go join another tour knowing the consequences; and then try to come back and get, you know, courts and justice in the way wouldn’t have, I would say, sit extremely well with me.”
“It’s not the last thing we are going to hear from them, but I don’t know. I just started watching the show Suits, so I’m kind of learning now about what happens in a courtroom,” he said with a laugh.
LIV Golf has poached some of the Tour’s top talent, including three of the top seven players on the last year’s BMW Championship leaderboard. Rahm views that loss as an addition by subtraction.
“One of the great things about the PGA Tour is the depth of field,” said Rahm, singling out rising stars like last week’s winner Will Zalatoris and Cameron Young. “So there’s always a hungrier future star coming that’s willing to put in the work and make themselves known. Lack of talent on the PGA Tour and the world of golf is not an issue.”
