Patrick Cantlay Doesn't Love the FedEx Cup Format, But He's Thriving in It

The defending FedEx Cup champ, after winning the BMW again, will start next week's finale two shots behind the points leader in a format he said 'still feels strange.'

WILMINGTON, Del. – Patrick Cantlay heads to a familiar place in a somewhat familiar position, with another FedEx Cup title and all its riches at stake—and not quite comfortable with the entire concept.

He’s plenty fine doing the only thing he can do, which is play golf at a high level, as he showed Sunday at Wilmington Country Club, where Cantlay’s final-round 69 was good for a one-shot victory over Scott Stallings and his second straight BMW title.

The victory moved Cantlay to second in the FedEx Cup standings behind Scottie Scheffler—who he will be grouped with in the opening round on Thursday at the Tour Championship—and in position to become the first player to ever defend his FedEx title.

One problem.

Cantlay is not sold on the format.

Now an eight-time PGA Tour winner, Cantlay counts last year’s Tour Championship as one of those titles—even though he didn’t shoot the lowest 72-hole score.

That is among the quirks in a system designed to marry the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup champion into one. The Tour didn’t simply want the winner of the Tour Championship to win the FedEx Cup, so it devised a plan that would basically seed the 30 players in the field based on their points position—by starting the out with adjusted strokes.

Scheffler will begin at 10 under par. Cantlay will be two strokes back at 8 under. Will Zalatoris will be three back at 7 under. The 30th man in the field, Aaron Wise, will start at even par.

It’s easy to follow but still not widely accepted.

“I’m not sure anyone has got the perfect formula yet,’’ Cantlay said. “I think it’s hard to do playoffs in golf. I think we’ve seen that.’’

No doubt, the playoff structure that began in 2007 has changed countless times. The points distribution has changed, as has the number of events, down from four to three.

The switch in 2019 from a separate Tour Championship that also decided the FedEx Cup champion has not come without its detractors. Staggering a player’s start at the beginning of a tournament is awkward; Cantlay last year at East Lake was given credit for a tournament victory in which Jon Rahm and Kevin Na shot the lowest score.

“I think there’s got to be smarter people than me that have more experience putting this on,’’ Cantlay said. “It seems to get tweaked every year, and I’m not necessarily sure why. This still feels strange to me.

“We would have never had Tiger (Woods) winning the Tour Championship (for his 80th PGA Tour victory in 2018) if it weren’t for that two-event style championship down the stretch. Tiger would have just finished (second) in the FedEx Cup. That would have been weird, considering the scene we saw around that green.

“Like I said, playoffs is obviously a challenge in golf, and I’m not sure anyone has figured it out, the perfect formula yet.’’

Once Cantlay gets started at East Lake in Atlanta, the mission is easy. Play the best you can. He’s not in the top spot as he was a year ago, but he’s close enough. Two shots is nothing over nine holes—Cantlay trailed by two with eight holes to go Sunday—so it’s certainly no big deal over 72 holes.

The winner of the FedEx Cup receives a bonus of $18 million, with payouts going down to $500,000 for 30th place.

“I think how I feel about something doesn't necessarily affect my performance one way or the other,’’ he said. “I try to be as objective as possible, and that tournament especially with the staggered start I think rewards somebody who doesn't lose sight of the fact that they're still playing a four-round golf tournament and they need to lay down the best 72-hole score possible, and then you can start to look at the leaderboard on Sunday on the back nine.

“But until then you're just trying to shoot under par every day, and for me, a mantra of mine last year was to stay in the moment.’’