PGA Tour: Will Patrick Cantlay Make 2017 His Turnaround Season? (Video)
Patrick Cantlay looks to be a man on a mission this season – collecting some PGA Tour hardware.
In his 2nd 2017 start, at the PGA Tour Valspar Championship, Patrick Cantlay recorded a runner-up finish. It was almost the comeback golf story of the year.
The guy who sat at the top of the World Amateur Golf Rankings for 55 consecutive weeks didn’t win in the end. The feel-good victory went to Adam Hadwin, who’s had to postpone his honeymoon plans because he got his ticket punched to the 2017 Masters.
But what about 24-year old Patrick Cantlay, former phenom looking for a comeback from injury and personal tragedy?
The Hot Amateur
Playing collegiate golf for the UCLA Bruins for two seasons, 2010-2012, Patrick Cantlay was very hot stuff. He’s the guy who scooped in a pile of honors: the Nicklaus Award from the Golf Coaches of America, the Phil Mickelson Award as the GCAA Freshman of the Year, the McCormack Medal.
Cantlay took low amateur honors at the 2011 US Open – he carded 30 on the back nine and finished T21 – and did the same at the 2012 Masters.
Here’s what his swing looked like that year:
The future was looking very bright for a 19-year old Patrick Cantlay when he turned pro in time to tee it up at the 2012 US Open, looking for a big payday and a PGA TOUR card.
Injury & Personal Loss
In 2012 Cantlay was having a solid rookie year. He started at 7 PGA TOUR events and while he didn’t finish anywhere near the top of the leaderboard as a rookie, he missed only 1 cut and collected more than $100K in winnings.
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Then in 2013 he began to struggle with a back problem that was eventually diagnosed as a stress fracture and it was a year or more before he was playing golf again.
Patrick Cantlay collected $680,400 for his 2017 Valspar runner-up finish. He’d tried to restart his career a couple of times – at the 2015 US Open and again at the 2016 Career Builder Challenge – but wasn’t physically ready for competition.
Then came a devastating personal loss, the death of Chris Roth, Cantlay’s friend and caddy, who died in his arms after being struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Reflecting on how Roth’s tragic death has effected him, Cantlay told Golf Digest’s Brian Wacker:
"I don’t look at golf differently; my outlook on life is different. I can do as good as I want in golf but at the end of the day it’s about sharing those experiences with those close to me. I always understood that, but the last couple of years made that more obvious."
Still Cantlay is back on the course and looks to be delivering on his earlier promise to grow into one of the game’s standout players. Valspar was a disappointing finish – he bogeyed the 72nd. A par would have forced a playoff with Adam Hadwin and a birdie would have given him the win.
2017 Reset
On the other side of the coin, Cantlay needed $624,746 in winnings to satisfy his medical extension and secure his PGA card for the balance of the season. That’s done now. He can focus on his game and on making 2017 the season when he reclaims his competitive edge.
His game is looking good although with only two 2017 starts – the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Valspar – it’s hard to assess Cantlay’s competitive standings. With a 290 yard driving average and and slightly better than 70% accuracy, Cantlay’s long game stats are respectable – SG:off-the-tee, .847.
Up close to the green Cantlay is scrambling nicely and with SG-putting at 1.033 he’s showing signs of being competitive where it counts, except for that pesky 72nd hole bogey at the Valspar.
Cantlay told Golfweek’s Brentley Romine that he intend to look to the future and its possibilities rather than backward to what might have been:
"I’m playing really well. My health is good. I feel good. And you know, that’s what I love doing out there. So as many times as I can put myself in that situation today."
Patrick Cantlay will be in the field at the Puerto Rico Open, March 23-25. Will he continue his reset at Coco Beach?