Weekly Recap: Show Me The Cantlay

Patrick Cantlay isn't a fan of the TOUR Championship format. Neither is Jon Rahm. But they played it out under the rules -- what choice did they have? -- and provided a riveting close to the 2020-21 PGA Tour season.

Cantlay edged Rahm by, officially, one stroke to win the season-ending tournament at East Lake and with it the title of FedEx Cup champion. Taking into account the so-called "Starting Strokes Format," Rahm and Kevin Na registered the lowest 72-hole scores, which is how the Official World Golf Rankings website sees things.

But they aren't giving out $45 million in playoff cash – one-third of which goes to the winner – as the Tour and their good friends at FedEx are doing.

So Cantlay is the winner of the final two playoff events to become the FedEx Cup champ and, likely, the Player of the Year, however controversial. He won four times over the season – including the Memorial, when Rahm had to pull out with a six-stroke lead after testing positive, which only adds fuel to a Cantlay-Rahm debate. Officially, Rahm won only one tournament, the U.S. Open.

Cantlay actually had a terrible resume in the seven majors -- two PGAs, two U.S. Opens, Two Masters, one Open Championship -- that covered this unusual 2021-22 season. He went T43-T43-T17-MC-T23-T15-MC. Conversely, Rahm went T13-T23-T7-T5-T8-1-T3.

Rahm clearly excelled in the majors and Cantlay did not. Even though Cantlay's win at the Memorial comes with an asterisk, you can't simply give it to Rahm because it's possible to blow a six-shot lead. You can't give him the TOUR Championship because having the lowest score is not the same thing as winning a tournament with all the pressures that come with it.

All that said, Cantlay almost assuredly will win Player of the Year. It would be a stunner if he didn't. But Rahm is still the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world – Cantlay is fourth – and the best golfer in the world.

Looking forward to next season, with the way that Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth all finished this season, Cantlay very well could be the second-best golfer in the world.

But right now, even after the past two weeks, that's a bit of a leap for us right now.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Jon Rahm
Rahm shot 14-under in real life, as did Na, to best Cantlay by three strokes. Xander Schauffele also finished ahead of Cantlay. This is just number-speak. There aren't many people who don't think Rahm had the best season. He was the most consistent player with 14 top-10s and 17 top-25s in 21 starts with just one missed cut and the infamous WD at the Memorial WD. He was in the mix -- again.
  
Kevin Na
Na moved into the top 25 of the OWGR with his sterling week. He's had an incredible late-season run with two runners-up, a top-10 and two top-25s in his five events before the TOUR Championship. He couldn't have made a much better pitch to Steve Stricker to make the Ryder Cup team. That said, Na is 37 and hasn't had many spurts like this before. Don't count on such a period of sustained excellence next season.

Justin Thomas
Thomas conveniently finished fourth on both versions of the leaderboard. It was a great week, but he always has great weeks at East Lake. He's been fairly terrible ever since winning THE PLAYERS in March and, after being No. 1 in the world and/or challenging for No. 1, has fallen to sixth. Still world class, of course, but it's been a long period of subpar play for someone ranked so high. It's at least a little bit of a concern heading into next season.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele finished top-5 on both leaderboards. He's another one who always plays well at East Lake. He's another world-class guy who had a largely lost 2021, with his only shining moment being the gold medal at the Olympic Games. In other words, his winless stretch on the PGA Tour is now officially more than 2 and a half years. Like with Thomas, a bit concerning.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland also finished in the top-5 no matter how you slice it. He's ranked 14th in the world. He's been around for a couple of years now and, while he does have two wins, they are real lightweights – Puerto Rico and Mayakoba. It's time for him to start closing out big-time tournaments – not necessarily majors – instead of just coming close.

Bryson DeChambeau
DeChambeau did not have a great week, especially starting from the No. 3 position at 7-under. He's usually his own worst enemy. But he's also won 10 times worldwide over the past six years. Presuming his head doesn't explode from all the "Brooksie" chants and they eventually subside, he could win multiple times next season, while also having more than his share of horrid weeks for a top-10 golfer.

Dustin Johnson
It's a bit of a marvel how Johnson has hung on to the No. 2 spot in the world. He hasn't won on Tour in 2021 (he won in Saudi Arabia) and he won't have many more chances to keep his yearly streak alive. He's not young anymore, but it's too soon to write him off – he was sixth at the BMW and eighth at the TOUR Championship.

Abraham Ancer
The arrow is pointing straight up for Ancer, who finished in the top-10 at East Lake and is now ranked 12th in the world – ahead of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama, to name a few. A second win next season, or even a second and a third, is entirely possible.

Billy Horschel
Horschel had a good TOUR Championship (T9) and of course a great season just to get there. He got there by winning the Match Play, a quirky event that was his first win in four years. Don't count on a return to East Lake next season for a good but not great player, one who is about to enter his age-35 season.

Daniel Berger
Berger tied for 11th at East Lake to cap a great season, which included a win at Pebble Beach and top-10s at both Opens. He could and should be a TOUR Championship fixture for the foreseeable future.

Tony Finau
Finau started the TOUR Championship at 8-under and that's where he finished, so it was not a good week. But he's a different golfer now with his breakthrough win, and we'd expect him to maintain his position in the top-10 next season.

Jason Kokrak
Kokrak tied for 11th on the week, completing a season that saw him claim his first two titles but also one that offered very little after the second title in May. It would not be unexpected for him to regress next season after this season was such an outlier. In fact, the regression has already started.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy has been a star at East Lake, but not this year. He tied for 14th, a fitting coda to a season in which
didn't do very much at all outside of his win at Quail Hollow. We all expect Rory McIlroy to return to greatness because he's Rory McIlroy, but the evidence over the past couple of years doesn't really support that.

Sergio Garcia
Garcia (T14) turns 41 in January, which is his world ranking right now. Making the TOUR Championship for the first time in years made this a great year, and he's still among the best ball strikers in the world. He won the Sanderson Farms last fall. He probably won't defend his title because it falls the week after the Ryder Cup, where he still could be a real problem for the U.S. at Whistling Straits.

Cameron Smith
Smith (T14) did not do much at East Like but no matter. He had six top-10s in 2021 alone, including a recent runner-up at the Northern Trust. Now in the top-25 in the world, the Aussie may be ready to take the next step in his career.

Louis Oosthuizen
Oosthuizen (T14) had an incredible run at the majors – two seconds and a third – to move into the top-10 OWGR at age 38. He did it on the strength of his putter, leading the Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting – by a wide margin – despite not previously being a good putter at any point in his career. That yells "regression ahead!"
 
Harris English
English is ranked 11th in the world after tying for 18th. He won twice in 2021, a career renaissance of a year. That may be asking a bit much for 2022, but there's no reason that someone who really had no weakness in his game over the past 12 months can't continue to play at a high level.

Sam Burns
Perhaps no one had a bigger breakthrough of a season than Burns (T18 at East Lake). And he's only 25. He's had four podium finishes in 2021 – a win, two runners-up and a third. He's another guy who could become a TOUR Championship mainstay and perhaps a lot more.

Sungjae Im
You have to say that Im (T20) took a few steps back in 2021, having fallen outside the top-25 in the world rankings. He did finish second at the 2020 Masters and third just a couple of weeks ago. But he had only five top-10s, and those came in a whopping 34 events.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth went 73-T34-T20 in the playoffs, a pretty poor showing. Then again, he hadn't made it to East Lake in years. He clearly rediscovered his game in 2021, but he has not solved his wayward play off the tee. That makes him a better golfer on some course and a very average one on others.

Erik van Rooyen
A tie for 22nd at East Lake cannot dampen van Rooyen's late-season burst that will redirect his career, thanks to all the tournament perks that come with qualifying for the TOUR Championship. He'll be in all the big tournaments, but it's too soon to tell whether he can go to the next level in his career. This recent surge was just three tournaments and van Rooyen has never been ranked higher than 40th OWGR.

Corey Conners
Conners' season was definitely front-loaded, as he had only one top-10 after April. Fortuitously for him, it came in the first playoff event. Hie elite ball-striking should always keep him relevant and can pile up top-10s or top-15s, but TOUR Championships are no certainty with his putting woes. Conners tied for 22nd at East Lake.

Scottie Scheffler
This was a bad week for Scheffler (T22), but he played so well in so many big events all year long. Like Burns, he's only 25, and he's destined to join Burns as a PGA Tour winner sooner rather than later.

Patrick Reed
Just playing, not even finishing 25th, could be considered a miracle for Reed after his scary bout with pneumonia the past couple of weeks. Playing was a testament to how much he wants to be a Ryder Cup captain's pick. It's hard to imagine he won't get a spot, but if he doesn't it won't be because of his golf.
 
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama tied for 26th but he won the Masters and no one can ever take that away. Still, there are yellow flags for next season. He did have a win and two runners-up – but they were his only top-10s in 21 starts. Such is life with a poor putter.

Stewart Cink
At 48, Cink won twice to return to the TOUR Championship for the first time in more than a decade. The season likely will serve a PGA Tour victory lap of sorts before he heads off to the Champions Tour. It's hard to envision Cink coming close to repeating this past season.

Collin Morikawa
Way down here at the bottom is the guy who finished tied for 26th – after finishing near the bottom of the BMW and missing the cut at the Northern Trust. Morikawa said he had a bad back after the Olympics but also declared himself 100 percent this week. Guys who are elite ball strikers – maybe one of the best all-time – are supposed to be slump-proof. Hard to know what to make of this right now. Could Morikawa actually be a liability at the Ryder Cup?

Joaquin Niemann
The youngest guy in the field -- Niemann will turn 23 in November -- did nothing at East Lake for the second straight year, other than playing the fastest TOUR Championship round ever. Making it every year but playing poorly wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Niemann has had three runners-up so far in 2021, but two of them came in Hawaii at the beginning of January. He hasn't done a whole lot since.

Brooks Koepka
Injured. Again. Koepka had to withdraw after the third round with a wrist injury after hitting a tree root with an iron shot. He won in Phoenix and he finished top-6 in three majors. So when he's healthy he's arguably one of the two or three best golfers in the world. When he's healthy. We'll see where this latest injury leaves Koepka for the Ryder Cup.