WILMINGTON, Del. – Patty Ice sure warms up for the BMW Championship.
A year ago, Patrick Cantlay needed six extra holes at Caves Valley to claim the title en route to winning the FedEx Cup. New course – Wilmington Country Club’s South Course is this year’s host venue – but through 54 holes, it’s still the Patty Ice Show. He’s on the verge of becoming the first player to successfully defend a FedEx Cup Playoffs event.
Cantlay holed out a lob wedge from 108 yards for eagle at the par-5 14th hole to jump into the lead and birdied 18 to shoot 6-under 65 for a one-stroke lead over Xander Schauffele and Scott Stallings.
Cantlay reeled in three birdies on his front nine but took three putts from 32 feet at 11 for his first bogey. He bounced back with consecutive birdies before his eagle heroics. At 14, Cantlay walked to the green and visualized his third shot to the front-hole location, flighted the ball perfectly and it spun back into the hole. The crowd went wild.
“It was downwind and just got lucky and fed off the slope perfect, right in,” he said.
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On 17, Cantlay made another miscue with the putter, missing his first putt of the season from 3 feet or less. According to stat maven Justin Ray, Cantlay was the second player all season to shoot 65 or less despite missing three putts from inside 5 feet (Scott Brown at the 3M Open was the other).
“The greens are a little beat up and it probably wasn’t a good stroke, so I’ll go take care of that after the round, practice a little bit,” he said. “It’s very unlike me, and things like that happen.”
But Cantlay didn’t let the bogey spoil his round. He nearly spun another lob wedge into the hole at 18. This one sucked back and stopped 8 feet past the hole. Cantlay was dialed in, leading the field in proximity to the hole during the third round, averaging 25 feet, six inches. For good measure, he canned the putt to regain the solo lead and tied for the low round of the day (with three other players).
“I thought a little past and to the left it would come back off that slope,” he said. “The only thing I was concerned about was spinning it too much coming back down the slope.”
Cantlay, 30, won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Schauffele as his partner, but hasn’t won an individual title since going back-to-back at the BMW and Tour Championship last year. He’s in position to repeat at the BMW…
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