PGA Tour: After winning by a single shot and successfully defending his title at the BMW Championship, Patrick Cantlay increased his chances of winning the FedExCup two consecutive times.
The world No. 4 fired a two-under 69 in a thrilling final round at Wilmington Country Club, finishing one stroke ahead of PGA Tour veteran Scott Stallings thanks to a birdie on his penultimate hole and a closing par.
Cantlay’s victory makes him the sixth PGA Tour player this season to successfully defend a title. and it moves him up to second place in the FedExCup standings going into the Tour Championship, which concludes the regular season and is an event he previously won.
Stallings came within a few strokes of winning for the first time since 2014, but he improved significantly in the season-long standings, moving up from 46th to 12th, earning him a last-minute invitation to East Lake, where world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler moved to the top of the FedExCup rankings after finishing tied-third with Xander Schauffele.
Cantlay, who started round one ahead, opened with back-to-back pars and found himself in a share of the lead when Stallings, who was playing in the group in front of him, took advantage of the par-five third. However, the reigning FedExCup champion recovered by sinking a 20-foot putt at the fourth to take back the lead.
Prior to Stallings scoring a tap-in birdie at the next hole to make up for a missed par-save from eight feet at the previous hole and Cantlay failing to get up and down from the rough to make bogey at the eighth to tie them up at the turn, the lead had briefly increased to two.
When Stallings hit the pin with his approach shot into the 11th hole and set up a 10-foot birdie opportunity, Cantlay missed from 10 feet to save par and momentarily fell two back. However, the world No. 4 quickly responded to birdie the same hole and catch up to Stallings when he three-putted from the fringe at the 13th hole.
Stallings briefly regained the lead with a two-putt birdie at the following par-five, where Cantlay also moved to 13 under with a two-putt from 80 feet, and Scheffler pulled to within one of the lead with three birdies in a span of four holes starting at hole 13.
Stallings two-putted each of his next four holes, including from nine feet at the par-four last, to set the clubhouse goal at 13 under, ending Scheffler’s tenuous hopes when he missed from three feet and bogeyed the last to drop back to 11 under.
Cantlay had a fortunate break off the 17th tee to flick a wedge to inside six feet and make to give himself a one-shot lead to the par-4 last, where he almost made a hole-in-one from 50 feet and left a tap-in par to win an eighth PGA Tour championship.
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