ATLANTA – Patrick “Patty Ice” Cantlay never melted.
For seven nights, Cantlay slept on the lead for the Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament at East Lake Golf Club that doubled as the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale. Tomorrow, he’ll wake up $15 million richer.
By way of his six-hole playoff win against Bryson DeChambeau at last week’s BMW Championship, where he earned his new nickname for his cool and collected ways, Cantlay was armed with a two-stroke lead to start the first round due to the staggered scoring system used for the final event of the playoffs.
And no one got past him.
Tour Championship: Winner’s Bag | Best photos from East Lake
In the final round, where Cantlay and world No. 1 Jon Rahm were in a two-man race late in the day, basically playing for $10 million (the difference between the first-place prize money of $15 million and the second-place prize money of $5 million) the stoic Cantlay never buckled.
He and his magical putter canned a 6-footer for birdie on the 16th to get two clear of Rahm, the only player to ever get into a tie with Cantlay over the four days. Then Cantlay dug deep to make another 6-footer, this one for bogey on the 17th, to stay one shot ahead of Rahm. And on the 579-yard, par-5 18th, Cantlay had to step up after Rahm rifled a mid-iron from 232 yards to just 18-feet past the hole in the fringe. Knowing he needed to make a birdie, Cantlay ripped a 6-iron from 218 yards to 11 feet. After Rahm scared the hole with his chip, Cantlay putted to six inches and tapped in for the winning birdie and the $15 million grand prize.
“I played great today,” Cantlay said. “It hasn’t even sunk in yet. I just kept telling myself to focus and lock in and I did a great job of that today. It was tough (sleeping on the lead). It was the longest lead I’ve ever held. But I just tried to stay, day after day, in the present, and I did an amazing job of that this week because the last couple days I made some mistakes I don’t usually make and I was able to really center myself and hit a lot of good shots when I needed to.”
Cantlay closed with a 69 to finish at 21 under.
Rahm shot 68 to finish at 20 under. His 266 total tied for the lowest this week with Kevin Na. Xander Schauffele shot 268, Cantlay and Justin Thomas 269. But Cantlay earned his starting position and didn’t relinquish it.
Na shot 67 to finish in solo third at 16 under.
Thomas birdied the last to shoot 70 and finish solo fourth at 15 under.
Gold medalist Schauffele finished with five birdies in his last six holes to shoot 64, tied for the lowest round of the week. It was his 20th consecutive round of even-par or better at East Lake. He finished at 14 under, joined there by Viktor Hovland, who shot 65.
Bryson DeChambeau ended with a 66 to finish at 13 under. Defending FedEx Cup champion Dustin Johnson closed with a 67 to finish at 11 under.