Patrick Cantlay Uses Late Push to Finish Top 10 at The Open Championship

A decade removed from his collegiate career at UCLA, Cantlay now has three top-10 finishes at majors.

For the first time in three years, a Bruin has finished top 10 at a major.

Former UCLA men's golfer Patrick Cantlay wrapped up his weekend at the 150th Open Championship on Sunday, shooting a 4-under 68 in the fourth round. That left Cantlay at 12-under for the tournament, good enough to tie him for eighth with fellow Americans and Ryder Cup teammates Bryson DeChambeau and Jordan Spieth.

Cantlay, DeChambeau and Spieth finished eight strokes back of the winner, Australia's Cameron Smith, who was 20-under.

Although he has seven career wins on the PGA Tour, Cantlay has yet to win a major since leaving Westwood in 2012. His trip to St. Andrews was his most successful in years, though, considering he hadn't made a top 10 at a major since tying for third at the 2019 PGA Championship.

All four majors have been completed for the 2022 season, and Cantlay wound up finishing strong after a shaky start. Cantlay was in the top 10 at The Masters, but he fell off over the weekend and finished tied for 39th before missing the cut at The PGA Championship. A slow climb up the leaderboards helped Cantlay tie for 14th at The US Open, and now he has one-upped that performance in Scotland.

Cantlay was admittedly up and down overall Sunday, but the pros eventually outweighed the cons.

After a par on the first hole, Cantlay chunked his third shot on two into a trap, leading to a bogey. Cantlay started the day in a tie for 11th, and that early error sent him down several spots.

Cantlay birdied three thanks to an 87-yard approach that put him 7 feet away from the hole, and he came just a few feet away from sinking another birdie putt on four. A 343-yard drive and 249-yard approach had Cantlay on the green in two on the par five fifth hole, and he nailed the 15-footer for eagle to get under par for the first time Sunday.

That momentum was slowed, however, by bogeys on seven and nine – two holes Cantlay combined for four birdies and two pars on across the first three rounds. Cantlay was even through nine, and he drove straight into a fairway bunker on 10 before managing to save par.

Cantlay bounced back with birdies on 11 and 12, but he missed a 7-foot par putt on 13 to erase some of his progress. Cantlay faced down another 7-foot putt on 14, but he hit that one for a birdie.

Another birdie on 16 had Cantlay on the doorstep the top 10, which he very nearly broke into on 17. His 93-foot birdie putt was just a hair off, and he was forced to settle for par instead.

Cantlay had a much simpler birdie putt on 18 – although it was far from a gimme – and he sank it from 12 feet out. With a $14 million purse on the line Sunday, that late bump helped Cantlay lock up a $373,666 payday in the three-way tie for eighth at The Old Course.

After slipping late at The Masters in early April, Cantlay has finished inside the top-15 in seven of eight tournaments. He now has nine top-10 finishes on the season compared to just two missed cuts.

Cantlay, who will be inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in October, is currently the No. 4 golfer in the world and No. 5 in the FedEx Cup standings. Cantlay won the FedEx Cup in 2021, and no one has won it in back-to-back seasons since it began in 2007.

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