Patrick Cantlay

Cantlay, who began playing golf at age 3, just completed his sophomore year at UCLA. Both of his parents are graduates of the crosstown rival, USC. He finished T-2nd in stroke play at the 2010 U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay and advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Peter Uihlein, 4 and 3.
He won the 2011 Div. I Jack Nicklaus Award as Collegiate Player of the Year for his stellar freshman season at UCLA. Also won the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation's outstanding freshman, and was named a PING first-team All-American selection. Won four collegiate events in his freshman season and had seven top-5 finishes. Set a new UCLA single-season scoring average of 70.5. Was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2011, as well as Freshman of the Year, becoming just the second golfer in league history to earn both awards in the same season.
Advanced to the Round of 32 at the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur. Played at the 2009 U.S. Amateur but missed the cut for match play. Won the 2010 California State high-school championship, and finished runner-up at the 2010 Southern Amateur. Named high-school golfer of the year by the Orange County Register in 2009 and 2010. Named athlete of the year in his high-school league. Won the 2009 and 2010 Southern California CIF Regional. Won the 2008 ClubCorp Mission Hills, 2008 Junior America's Cup, and 2008 Hogan Cup.
In 2011, Cantlay was the low amateur at the U.S. Open with scores of 75-67-70-72 -- 284 (E), tying for 21st place. Played on the 2011 Walker Cup team and was 2-1-1 in competition. At the 2011 U.S. Amateur, he advanced to the finals before Kelly Kraft defeated him 2 up. At the 2011 Travelers Championship, he shot a second-round 60, the lowest round by an amateur in the history of the PGA Tour. In 2012, he finished T-47th at Masters and earned low-amateur honors. At the NCAA Championship, his team lost to Oregon in the quarterfinals, but he finished T-4th in the individual competition, four shots behind the winner. He is 35-under-par overall in 65 rounds at UCLA. Ended his amateur career by finishing T-47th at the U.S. Open, but Jordan Spieth earned low-amateur honors. Cantlay turned professional and missed the cut at the Travelers. For the year, he played 10 PGA Tour events, with his best finish a T-31st at the Wyndham Championship. Played in four Korn Ferry Tour events and contended in two of them. At the Chiquita Classic, shot weekend rounds of 65-65 to force a playoff with Russell Henley, which Henley won on the first playoff hole. At TPC Sawgrass' Dye's Valley Course, home of the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open, Cantlay was T-2nd through 54 holes, a shot behind leader B.J. Staten. He eventually shot a two-over-par 72 on the final day to drop to T-5th. At the end of the year, went to PGA Tour Q-School and finished T-95th.
2013 Notes: Fast-tracked for success, Cantlay instead was derailed. Things started great with a win in his second Korn Ferry Tour start at the Colombia Championship. He also got into the AT&T Pebble Beach and finished T-9th. Things went terribly wrong in the second round at Colonial, though, where he made a swing and experienced extreme back pain. Hoping the discomfort would subside, he played seven holes before withdrawing. Weeks later, he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae. Cantlay didn't play for three months and his position atop the Korn Ferry Tour money list plummeted. Compelled to return that fall in order to secure his card, he missed two consecutive cuts before gutting out a runner-up finish at the Hotel Fitness, the first season-ending playoff event. That would prove to be his last start on the Korn Ferry Tour due to back pain. He didn't play again for seven months.
2014 Notes: Played for the first time at the Byron Nelson Championship, finishing T-71st. His back still bothered him. He played four more times, finishing T-23rd at Greenbrier, but missed the cut in the other three events.
2015 Notes: Cantlay got a diagnosis from his doctor that he had a stress fracture in his lower back and he couldn't touch a club, not even a putter, for 10 months. In November 2014, he played in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and finished 76th. It would be 14 months before he would rejoin the PGA Tour, but not before another major tragedy hit him.
2016 Notes: He was set to play in the CareerBuilder Challenge, but his back was still hurting. In February, he was walking with his caddie and friend Chris Roth around Newport Beach. They were talking about his back problems of the last three years and while crossing a major intersection, a car crashed into Roth, sending him flying through the air. Cantlay called for help. That night, Roth died and this sent Cantlay into another performance tailspin. Cantlay didn't touch a club until the end of the year. He visited doctors in Denver, New York, and Los Angeles. He even flew to Germany to undergo the Regenokine procedure made famous by basketball star Kobe Bryant. Nothing worked. They were no closer to a solution, but Cantlay changed his training routine, and at the end of the year, the pain subsided. He started hitting balls again and his lifetime coach, Jamie Mulligan, helped modify his swing to reduce back stress.
2017 Notes: Made his first start at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished T-48th. A month later, he played at the Valspar Championship and bogeyed the 72nd hole to finish second behind Adam Hadwin. With the solid finish and a check for $680,400, he was able to reclaim his PGA Tour card. A month later, Cantlay put together another great 72 holes at the RBC Heritage and finished two shots behind winner Wesley Bryan for a T-3rd result. He continued his consistent play and after his T-33rd at the PGA Championship, ranked 77th in the FedExCup race. In his first playoff event, finished T-10th at the Northern Trust. Was T-13th at the Dell Technologies and T-9th at the BMW Championship. With the good results, he climbed to 29th in the standings, giving him a spot at the Tour Championship. Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were the only rookies to advance to the Tour Championship. With a T-20th finish, Cantlay ended the FedExCup race in 29th place.
2018 Notes: Played 23 PGA Tour events, making 21 cuts with seven top-10 finishes. Started his year with a T-15th at the WGC-HSBC Champions, then flew to Las Vegas and won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in his 43rd PGA Tour start. He defeated Whee Kim and Alex Cejka with a par at the second playoff hole for his first Tour title. He finished T-4th, three shots behind winner Bubba Watson, at the Genesis Open, where he held a share of the 18- and 36-hole leads. Finished T-7th at the RBC Heritage, 4th at the Memorial (one shot out of the playoff), and T-6th at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. At the FedExCup playoffs, Cantlay started with a T-8th at the Northern Trust and reached the Tour Championship. Finished the year 20th in the FedExCup standings. Ended the year T-5th at the Hero Challenge.
2019 Notes: Played 21 PGA Tour events making 18 cuts with nine top-ten finishes. He was 27th in the final FedExCup standings. After a T-7th at the WGC-HSBC Champions, fell one shot short of defending his title at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, finishing as runner-up behind winner Bryson DeChambeau. Was T-9th at the Desert Classic, and at the WGC-Mexico Championship started with a 72 and rebounded with rounds of 67-65-70 to finish T-6th. Shot 64-68 to finish T-9th at the Masters after making the cut on the number, 2 over and was T-50th. Cantlay briefly had a share of the lead in the late stages of the final round after he made eagle on 15. But he dropped back with a 3-putt bogey at 16 and another bogey at 17. Then next week was T-3rd in the RBC Heritage, 2 shots back of winner C.T. Pan. At the PGA Championship had his second straight top-ten in a major as he finished T-3rd. Earned his second PGA Tour victory in his 78th start at the Memorial Tournament, coming from 4 shots back. Fired a bogey-free 8-under 64 at Muirfield Village Golf Club to win by 2 shots over Adam Scott after starting the day four shots off Martin Kaymer's 54-hole lead. His 64 marked the lowest final-round score by a winner in tournament history. Joined Tiger Woods as the only past Jack Nicklaus Award winner (as 2011 top collegiate player) to also win the Memorial Tournament. In the FedExCup Playoffs was T-12th with four subpar rounds at the Northern Trust. Next week at the BMW Championship played in the final group and trailed 54-hole leader Justin Thomas by six shots. Cantlay shot 65 to finish 2nd but wasn't able to catch Thomas who shot 68. Went into the Tour Championship 2nd in the FedExCup playoffs, but wasn't able to take advantage of his 8 under start and with rounds of 70-71-75-73 ended T-21st. At the Presidents Cup had a 3-2-0 record including a 3&2 singles win over Joaquin Niemann.
2020 Notes: Played well again for a third straight year at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open but ended play tied with Kevin Na and lost the playoff to Na when Cantlay made bogey on the 2nd playoff hole. Shot a final-round 68 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions to finish 4th, 3 shots back of the Schauffele/Reed/Thomas playoff. After finishing T-17th at the Genesis Invitational took three weeks off to undergo surgery to clean up from a November 2018 surgery to correct a deviated septum. The septum is the bone and cartilage that divides the two nostrils in the nose, and surgery is the only way to promote better airflow.