2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions: Top 10 Power Rankings at Kapalua
Patrick Cantlay has finished on the top half of the leaderboard in each of his four Sentry Tournament of Champions appearances.
The high water marks came in 2020 and 2022 with solo fourth-place finishes. In 2020, he fired 69-71-73-68 to post the best score in the field outside of three players in a playoff.
"“I’ve learned to enjoy this place,” Cantlay was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2020. “The first year I played it I didn’t like it and I just, once you kind of adapt to not hitting any normal shots, it’s just not a normal golf course, so once you realize that you’re going to hit some goofy shots out there, but that’s how you play well, I started to like this place more. I think some of that is just experience, realizing what shot is the right shot out here. Because there’s a bunch of elevation change and a bunch of tricky shots out here.”"
The former UCLA Bruin posted 26-under (66-67-66-67) in 2022. That would have won the Tournament of Champions outright all but two years and been good enough for a playoff in another.
Unfortunately for him, Cam Smith (-34), Jon Rahm (-33), and Matt Jones (-32) all broke the previous tournament record on a bonanza of a low-scoring week on the island.
Cantlay made just two bogies and nothing worse all week. He was no worse than 23rd in any strokes gained category and was fourth in SG approach (3.576).
The 30-year-old Californian has kept a low profile of late. We last saw him take T-2nd at the Shriners Children’s Open in his only start of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season.
He’ll ramp up with a lot of starts coming up on familiar and successful haunts on the West Coast Swing, so I’d suggest saving Cantlay for later on in one-and-done leagues.
Positives to throw some cash on him or game in your fantasy leagues is he’s a high-basement guy at this event and throughout the season.
Cantlay was a rare guy to rank top 40 in all strokes gained categories last season on the PGA Tour.
Good things for this week are ranking fifth in birdie average (4.44), eighth in par-4 scoring (3.96), and first in par-5 scoring (4.41).