2021 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake

After staring down Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff at last week’s BMW Championship, Patrick Cantlay finds himself in the top spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs with one event to go.

That gives him a two-shot cushion over second place, Tony Finau, and multiple shots over the rest of the field to start the Tour Championship.

Unfortunately for Cantlay, I don’t see him finishing the deal and winning the $15 million.

For starters, I envision him to be a little spent. Cantlay had to keep the pedal to the medal to fire 27-under-par at Caves Valley before going six extra playoff holes. Cantlay is a very stoic guy and does not emote much, but you know he still exhausted a lot of physical and mental energy to get through the finish line.

Also, Cantlay has not had a sterling record at East Lake. Prior to the Tour Championship format change, the former UCLA Bruin finished T-20th in 2017 and T-21st in 2018. Cantlay managed T-21st in 2019 and only had the 28th best gross score.

On the bright side, the 29-year-old is obviously in good form that can supersede shaky course history.

The Californian just logged his seventh top-25 in his last eight starts. That stretch includes his win at The Memorial and T-11th at the first FedEx Cup Playoffs event, The Northern Trust.

He just officially earned his way into an automatic spot on the American Ryder Cup, which will be a weight off his shoulders. Cantlay is up to a career high No. 4 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Cantlay’s incredibly inside the top 30 on the PGA Tour in all strokes gained categories and is third in total SG (1.836). Scrambling is always important at Donald Ross courses. Cantlay is first in that stat (67.66%) and is seventh in SG around the green (.384).