Patrick Cantlay claims second PGA Tour win at Memorial

Patrick Cantlay came from behind with a thrilling final round 64 to win his second PGA Tour title at Memorial by two shots

When Patrick Cantlay turned up to Muirfield Village on Monday, he’d already had three top 10s in a row on Tour – including at both the Masters and PGA Championship – and had finished 4th in this same event last year. 

With a packed field of some of the world’s best, the 27-year-old American continued that run of form with a blistering final round eight-under 64, overtaking and outplaying both Martin Kaymer and Adam Scott to finish two shots clear at 19-under-par. 

“It feels really, really good to finish it off how I did today,” Cantlay said after his win. “I knew I had a little bit of a mountain to climb to start the day. A couple of guys ahead of me, two and four shots ahead of me, and guys that have played really well and closed out golf tournaments. I knew I needed to come out firing and make a bunch of birdies, and I did.”

It was a dramatic finale at Jack’s place on a day that looked to be in Kaymer’s control, but Cantlay’s aggressive play over the back nine and an equally wayward spell from the overnight leader made for a tense tussle before Cantlay pulled away over the closing stretch. 

Cantlay had begun the final round five-shots behind Martin Kaymer, and when the former World No.1 made three birdies in his first seven holes to gain a four-shot lead, a 15th PGA Tour win seemed almost inevitable. 

But Cantlay, who had also had three birdies in that same span, added two more on the eighth and ninth holes to get to 16-under-par, and a Kaymer bogey on nine reduced the lead to a single shot at the turn. 

After a brilliant par-save on the 10th, Cantlay drew level with Kaymer on the next after converting an impressive approach shot to 10 feet, but he was once more left a shot behind when Kaymer managed to get up and down from the fairway for birdie on the 11th after hitting it in to the trees off the tee. 

That wayward shot would turn out to be a sign of things to come as he seemingly struggled with a blistered hand, and after a bogey on the 12th dropped him back in to a share of the lead, a chunked iron shot on 13 left him unable to get up and down for par. At that same time, Cantlay had made another birdie on the 14th, and the resulting two shot swing gave him the outright lead, before a further gain on 15 put him three shots clear. 

Kaymer was left battling his game as played the back-nine in two-over-par to finish in third, but it was his playing partner Adam Scott that emerged as the late challenger to Cantlay’s claim. 

A trio of birdies from the 14th left Scott two shots behind with two to go, and when he hit his approach shot to inside 15 feet on the 17th, a chance opened up for him to pull within one shot of Cantlay, who had missed the green with his approach to the last. 

In the end, Scott made two pars over the final stretch to finish in solo second, while Cantlay showed off with the exemplary short-game he had produced over the final round to earn a two-shot victory – his first win on Tour since his maiden title at the Shriners Hospital for Children’s Open in 2017. 

But perhaps a win at Jack’s place shouldn’t have been all that surprising, as the pair revealed Cantlay called Nicklaus two years ago to pick his brains about how to play here – and provided him with further inspiration throughout the week. 

“Patrick came to me, and he just asked me, How would you play the golf course?” Nicklaus said of their interaction two years ago. “We sat down, and I don’t have any idea what I told him, but he’s played it well.

“And I’ve always been a fan of Patrick’s. I thought he had a great amateur career. He’s had his problems in the middle. I see him a lot at The Bear’s Club. Patrick is a member down there. And I like to see the young guys play well, I like to see them come along. If they need any help, I like to give them help.”

Cantlay added further: “At ’17 we talked golf course. So I went up to his house on property here, and we probably spent a good 90 minutes talking about what he thought strategy-wise and how to play the golf course, and I took insights from that.

“One of the things I like about this golf course is it’s pretty straightforward once you get to know it. You know when you hit a good shot, and good shots are rewarded; and bad shots, they’re bad shots. It’s going to be hard to scramble and make pars.

“So that helped me get familiar with the place a little quicker than I maybe would have. I played good the last two years. This year I showed up, and I’ve been playing well all year. Haven’t been able to close out any tournaments. And I see Mr. Nicklaus in the men’s grill in there and, you know, quick hello and then, you know, you’ve got to figure out how to play those last 30 minutes.

“And he was right. I said, You’re right. And then yesterday I was in there having lunch — yesterday after my round — or — no, Friday I was in there having lunch after the early morning round on Friday, and he grabbed me aside and said, You need to go out there, have a good time. Look around when you’re out there. Look at all the people having a great time. And then you need to have a great time and realize that that’s why you’re there and relax and go have fun and go win the golf tournament.

“And I definitely said that to myself down the stretch today on the back nine. It put me a little more at ease, and I hit a lot of really nice quality shots with the lead, coming down the stretch, and being able to get that ball up-and-down on 18, even though in the back of my mind thinking, probably just two putts, but I really did want to just close it out and have it be done right there.”

It was a great day for Cantlay, but it was also a good day for Kevin Streelman, who birdied four of his last five holes to finish in fourth place at 13-under, with Marc Leishman on -12 and Hideki Mastuyama on -11. 

Behind them on -10 were Jason Dufner and Jordan Spieth, who despite lacking his best iron game still managed to finish inside the top 10 for his third week in a row. 

Tiger Woods opened up with five birdies in his first seven holes to quickly climb the leaderboard, but two bogeys on his back nine left him settling for ninth place with Billy Horschel, Emiliano Grillo and Bud Cauley. 

Justin Rose, in his first outing since announcing his split with long time bagman Mark ‘Fooch’ Fulcher, finished in 13th.