The Memorial Recap Long Overdue Win for Cantlay

You could definitely see this one coming, Patrick Cantlay winning the Memorial Tournament on Sunday for the biggest victory of his career.

Not only was Cantlay fourth at Muirfield Village last year, but in the run-up to this year's tournament he was ninth at the Masters, third at the RBC Heritage and third at the PGA Championship. That is some serious playing, and it's befitting of a golfer ranked in the top-10 in the world. Which works out nicely, since Cantlay has just broken through for the first time, climbing to No. 8 in the OWGR.

If he weren't considered a serious contender for the U.S. Open beforehand, he sure is now. Prior to capturing the Memorial, Cantlay was 25-1 to win at Pebble Beach, and eight guys had shorter odds. Not bad. Now, he's 16-1 on golfodds.com, and only Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth have shorter odds. Cantlay is even with Rory McIlroy and ahead of Justin Rose.

While we all could see Cantlay's win coming, it really is long overdue. Like, maybe years overdue.

By now most golf observers know the story of the 27-year-old Cantlay, who came out of UCLA in 2012 and was considered a better prospect than Spieth. But a debilitating back injury limited him to a half-dozen tournaments in a three and a half year span from 2013 to 2016. Early in 2016, he was a few feet away when his best friend was struck by a car and killed.

One of Cantlay's first tournaments back was the 2017 Memorial – really, he's been playing on Tour for only two years and is now ranked higher than Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Tony Finau and more. A win at the 2017 Shriners was his first and vaulted him into the top-50 in the world; he's been slowly elevating ever since.

But he's really taken off this season: eight top-10s in 14 starts, including a win, a runner-up and two thirds, one of them at the PGA, plus a sixth and a seventh at WGCs and, of course, that T9 at Augusta.

On Sunday, Cantlay shot a 64 to overtake Martin Kaymer, Adam Scott, Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama. The worst score on his card all day was a 4. It was a dominating performance. For the week, Cantlay was second in the field in strokes gained: tee to green, fifth in both approach and around the green, seventh in putting and eighth off the tee.

If he does that again in two weeks at Pebble Beach, we all once again can say we saw it coming.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Tiger Woods
Woods wound up tied for ninth, which looks pretty good. In reality, he played only one good round. It came on Sunday and, if you're going to have only one good round, that would seem the time to do it. Woods zoomed up the leaderboard with a 5-under 67, although it could've been so much more if not for two late bogeys. Woods certainly advanced his game from where it was at the PGA two weeks ago, but he still has work to do to get in position to contend at the U.S. Open.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth began the final round tied with Cantlay, so a victory was obviously there for the taking. He shot nine strokes worse than Cantlay on Sunday, a 1-over 73 leaving him tie for seventh. Still, it was another good week for Spieth, one to leaves him squarely in the conversation for Pebble Beach.

Martin Kaymer
What a story it would've been if the 54-hole leader could've hung on. He started out great, birdieing three of the first seven holes. But he couldn't sustain it and wound up solo third. Still, it was a great week for the 34-year-old German, his best worldwide finish in almost a year and his best on the PGA Tour in five years, since he won the 2014 U.S. Open. Kaymer was ranked 186th in the world but now is inside the top-100. He also leaped from 198th in the FedEx Cup point standings to inside the top-125, at No. 120. As good as Kaymer looked, he has compiled decent finishes every so often before. We're not ready to declare him "back."

Adam Scott
Scott has actually been playing quite well for some time. He was ranked 76th last August and his solo second at the Memorial moved him back inside the top-20, at No. 17. Scott was top-20 at both THE PLAYERS and the Masters, and top-10 at the PGA. We all know what a great ball striker Scott is, but he's also putting really well, inside the top-25 on Tour this season. That adds up to someone who could contend at the U.S. Open.

Hideki Matsuyama
Like Spieth, Matsuyama began the day tied with Cantlay. He shot even-par 72 to finish solo sixth. After five pars, Matsuyama doubled No. 6, and that was that. On one hand, he hasn't missed a cut since last July and has three top-10s and nine top-25s this season; on the other, he's not really contending for any titles. Which explains why he's hovering in the Nos. 25-30 range in the world rankings.

Justin Thomas
Thomas was 1-under through 27 holes on Friday, and then the bottom fell out. He played the back-nine in 8-over 44, with a triple, two doubles and three bogeys. He shot 80 to miss the cut, then quickly added his name to the field at the Canadian Open this week. So what the heck happened? Well, we know Thomas isn't hurt, because if that was related to his wrist injury, he wouldn't be playing this week (he even stayed at the Memorial to practice more). And it's hard to chalk it up to rust, since he played 27 holes pretty well. It appears to be just a crazy turn of events that spun out of control for Thomas.
 

Rory McIlroy
When you look at McIlroy's results since winning THE PLAYERS – T21 at the Masters, T8 at both the Wells Fargo and PGA – they look pretty good. But he was never in contention at Augusta, and it was a classic backdoor top-10 at Bethpage. And now McIlroy missed the cut at Muirfield Village. So he's not exactly looking like one of the U.S. Open favorites, though he does have one more chance to get in his game in gear at the Canadian Open this week.

Jason Dufner
Before Dufner tied for fourth at the Wells Fargo last month, he hadn't had a top-10 in a year. Now, just a month later, he has another. The 2017 Memorial champ tied for seventh on Sunday, and that was with a double on 18. In between Quail Hollow and now, Dufner missed the cut at the PGA and finished far back at Colonial. But two top-10s in a month after not having one in a year is worth taking note. Dufner will be in Canada this week and still has to qualify for the U.S. Open, but if he gets there, his price should be very cheap, probably sub-$7,000.

Emiliano Grillo
Grillo continued his strong play at the Memorial with a tie for ninth. More importantly, it moved him up to 54th in the world rankings, all but ensuring he will be in the U.S. Open field. The top-60 in the OWGR next Monday will qualify, and it's hard to imagine a scenario in which Grillo would drop seven spots in just one week. The Argentine has missed only one cut in 23 starts since last July (at the Honda), but he doesn't have many high finishes, hence his ranking staying relatively stable. He picked a good time for his first top-10 of the 2019.

Bud Cauley
A year after a car accident at the Memorial sidelined him for more than four months, Cauley turned in his best finish since then, tying for ninth. In fact, it's his best showing since the 2017 RSM Classic. It makes for a nice story, and it ties a bow around Cauley's difficult year. But there's been little in his game of late to suggest this is a pattern of good play. He's missed seven cuts in 17 starts, and this was his first top-10.