Patrick Cantlay delivers late to give U.S. 11-7 lead

MONTREAL – Patrick Cantlay is a menace late on Saturday afternoon in big international team competition.

One year after he gave the U.S. a glimmer of hope at the Ryder Cup in Rome with a clutch putt in the gloaming to beat Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, Cantlay sank a 15-foot birdie putt at 18 at Royal Montreal to win an exhilarating match that gave the U.S. an 11-7 leading and may have broken the International Team’s spirit at the 2024 Presidents Cup. Teammate Sam Burns called him an assassin and Cantlay’s partner, Xander Schauffele echoed that sentiment.

“I think it’s pretty fitting, it being all dark and all,” he said. “I could barely see him out there. Reading the putt with him was pretty entertaining, using some light from the board. I can tell you one thing, I’m never going to play him in the dark or at night. I’ll just wait for the morning.”

Cantlay’s birdie sent the Americans circling the green into a frenzy and secured a 1-up win over South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim in a match that had everything: incredible putts, hole outs, theatrics bordering on unsportsmanlike behavior, pettiness and it all coming down to a putt off at 18. It was the type of match that no one deserved to lose but Patty Ice proved he has a little more ice in his veins.

“Man, did it feel good when P.C. made that putt there in the dark,” Schauffele said.

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.@Patrick_Cantlay comes up clutch in all the big moments 😤

Patrick Cantlay assure toujours dans les moments décisifs.#PresidentsCuppic.twitter.com/W4wlDDNWIZ

— Presidents Cup (@PresidentsCup) September 28, 2024

This was a rematch of Saturday’s foursomes at the 2022 Presidents Cup in which the South Korean pair stole a full point and knocked off the seemingly invincible American team. Kim squared already had knocked off Americans Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark in morning four-ball when they were the top two putters of the session.

And they weren’t done making putts. In the afternoon, the Kims fell 2 down through six holes. It was at six where Cantlay refused to give a short putt to Kim, and when the hole was over he pantomimed measuring the length of his putt that he was forced to make. Ian Kim or should we say Tom Poulter – he certainly has a way of getting under the skin of his U.S. opponents much like Ian Poulter once did at the Ryder Cup – answered with a 37-foot birdie putt at the ninth and danced around the…