Patrick Cantlay Falls Out of Contention at The Masters, Bounces Back in Final Round

The UCLA men's golf alumnus fell from the top 10 all the way to the bottom of the pack before recovering with an early string of birdies at Augusta National on Sunday.

If his spotty performance Friday didn't remove him from contention completely, Patrick Cantlay's rocky third round on Saturday surely did.

And with the green jacket firmly out of reach, Cantlay strung together an under-par recovery round Sunday to close out the weekend at Augusta National. Cantlay wrapped up the weekend with a 7-over 295, tying him for 39th place alongside Bubba Watson and Si Woo Kim.

The former UCLA men's golf star came into his fifth Masters Tournament as a professional sitting at No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking, only a few months removed from winning the FedEx Cup and PGA Tour Player of the Year. Cantlay's 2-under performance in the first round justified his ranking by slotting him into a tie for seventh place, but he slipped down into a tie for 19th following a 3-over on the second day of action.

Instead of posting three birdies across the final six holes like he did on day one, Cantlay closed out the second round with three bogeys in that stretch.

Things took a turn for the worse much earlier on Saturday.

Again picking up pars on the first three holes, Cantlay bogeyed four and seven. The Long Beach native got back on track with a pair of pars, only to bogey 10 and 11.

It was a whole combination of issues that led to Cantlay's struggles, from a missed green on the par three fourth and a three-putt on the par four seventh. Cantlay went from the rough to the bunker to overshooting the green on 10, and his approach on 11 ran right into the wind and came up short.

A birdie on 13 looked like it would keep Cantlay afloat, and it was a return to form on a hole he birdied Thursday but bogeyed Friday. The bottom fell out on the final three holes, though, as Cantlay bogeyed 16, 17 and 18 to end the day with a 7-over 79.

But Cantlay managed to almost entirely avoid danger Sunday, steering far away from the type of performance he put forth in the third round. Instead, Cantlay closed strong, starting with his cleanest front nine of the weekend.

Cantlay birdied the par four third and 10th holes, and immediately after bogeying the par three 12th, he recovered with a birdie on 13. A bogey on 16 dinged his late momentum, but Cantlay had still managed to close things out with a 1-under 71.

Finishing 17 strokes back from champion Scottie Scheffler – Cantlay's Ryder Cup teammate from last fall who beat him in the third playoff hole to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February – meant Cantlay was far more than one or two mistakes away from glory. However, being 3-under across rounds one and four is no small feat for Cantlay.

The second and third rounds added an extra 10 shots over par to Cantlay's score, though, and he was ultimately unable to power through the rough, windy conditions and avoid falling into the middle of the pack.

Cantlay's best finish at The Masters remained his tie for ninth in 2019. The former Pac-10 Player of the Year and No. 1 amateur in the world first appeared at Augusta in 2012, tying for 47th as a low amateur. Cantlay missed the cut in 2018 and 2021, but tied for 17th in 2020.

The closest Cantlay has gotten to winning a major was when he tied for third at the 2019 PGA Championship, but he did pick up three victories on the PGA Tour last year en route to a handful of postseason honors.

Cantlay's next shot at winning a major will be at the PGA Championship, which starts May 19 at the Southern Hills Championship Course in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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