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19th Hole

Despite ‘slow player’ tag, Patrick Cantlay offers his solution to pace of play on Tour

Published

5 months ago

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This week, Tiger Woods’ longtime caddie, Joe LaCava, made a permanent switch to the bag of PGA Tour star Patrick Cantlay. LaCava, who’s been fiercely loyal to the 15-time major champion, received Tiger’s blessing to move on.

The move speaks to how Woods may view his future in golf, but it also shines a light on Cantlay as well. The 31-year-old has become one of the best players in the world but has yet to truly be a factor in major championships. He believes the experienced LaCava will provide a “steady hand on the steering wheel.” He spoke about the change in his pre-tournament press conference at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.

“He’s just a steady hand on the steering wheel. I know he’s been in every moment a caddie could be in and he’s just a good guy. So, I’ve enjoyed the limited time that I’ve spent with him and feel confident that we’ll be a good team out there,” said Cantlay. “When I reached out to Joe, he said it was possible and ended up working out and I’m really happy about it.”

Cantlay had worked with his previous caddie, Matt Minister, since 2011. Minister was on Cantlay’s bag for his ascension toward the top of the world rankings and his FedEx Cup Championship in 2021.

“Yeah, we accomplished a lot together and I’m really proud of all we accomplished,” said Cantlay. “He’s a great friend of mine and we had a lot of good finishes together and a lot of wins. So, I’m incredibly grateful to him, just needed a change.”

Cantlay also spoke about the pace of play backlash he’s received since his weekend at the Masters made him the apparent poster child for slow play on the PGA Tour, while offering a solution:

“If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour.

“When you get really tricky days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it’s going to take a longer time to play.”

“But like I’ve said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don’t think they’re going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds, you know, go a lot faster.”

For what it’s worth, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that Cantlay and his teammate Xander Schauffele finished 24 minutes ahead of schedule at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

“He said no one was complaining that they finished too early.”

Cantlay also touched on the proposed “golf ball rollback.”

“I don’t think that it would help the game. I think bifurcation’s really bad for the game,” he explained. “I think one of the best things about our game is that all the people that play at my home club can play the exact same equipment that I do and that’s different than pretty much any other sport.”

“I imagine that the best players are still going to be the best players. If anything, it probably gives more advantage to the guys that hit it far,” said Cantlay. “If they dialed it back how they’re talking about, there’s a lot of guys that would no longer get to a number of par 5s out here, but the guys that can get to those par 5s are still — the guys that get there now with long irons are going to be able to get there with 5-woods or 3-woods. So, I think if anything, if they roll it back, the guys that hit it far will get an increased advantage.”

The fourth-ranked player in the world will tee it up Thursday for this week’s “designated” Wells Fargo Championship with LaCava on the bag.

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9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Dennis

    May 6, 2023 at 11:56 pm

    I highly doubt we could play the same equipment as him

    Reply Report comment

  2. Mike Hook

    May 6, 2023 at 9:09 am

    What is the easiest way to stop slow players?? Simple let them tee off last in every match they can take as long as they like until its dark, the job is done, the fastest teams are out first, slouchers last, plus set a reasonable time limit, say 6 hours, if they can’t compete in the allotted time disqualification

    Reply Report comment

  3. Brandon

    May 6, 2023 at 7:32 am

    No Patty, if they wanted to speed up play they would implement a one stroke penalty for every waggle beyond the second waggle. At least the weekend would be faster because you would never make a cut.

    Reply Report comment

  4. Pingback: Morning 9: McIlroy starts strong | Sorenstam USWO exemption | Day's vertigo flare-up - Fly Pin High

  5. Pingback: McIlroy starts strong | Sorenstam USWO exemption | Day’s vertigo flare-up – GolfWRX

  6. MrHogan

    May 4, 2023 at 8:44 pm

    First step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. This guy is unbelievable and simply doesn’t have a clue.

    Reply Report comment

    • Trevino

      May 5, 2023 at 8:55 am

      It’s a game, who cares. Does his slow play affect your ability to watch golf on TV from your couch? No. So stop complaining.

      Reply Report comment

      • Waiting for Godot

        May 5, 2023 at 11:23 am

        My concern isn’t the length of the TV broadcast, but the effect PGAT pace of play has on the viewer who thinks it’s acceptable to act that way on the course. Then we all have to deal with it when we get stuck behind these guys.

        Reply Report comment

      • CG

        May 6, 2023 at 6:24 am

        Another mouthy beans and disease border jumper heard from.

        Reply Report comment

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19th Hole

‘It was devastating’ – Keegan Bradley reveals the call he got that made him believe he was on Ryder Cup team

Published

11 hours ago

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Sep 21, 2023

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This week, Keegan Bradley was a guest on the Foreplay Podcast. The 37-year-old was one of the players who seemingly narrowly missed a spot on the Ryder Cup team, and shared a heart wrenching story of how it all went down.

Apparently, Zach Johnson texted all of the players in consideration for a Captain’s pick that they’d be getting a call the following day about whether or not they’ve made the team.

When the next day arrived, Keegan got a call from Netflix, who said “Keegan, we got a camera crew five minutes from your house.”

At that moment, Bradley let himself believe that meant he was going to be heading to Rome for the Ryder Cup.

“Why would they be sending a camera crew if I’m not to get picked? For the first time, I let my brain think I did it.”

He then said he knew immediately by the tone of Zach’s voice that he wasn’t going to be picked.

“It was devastating.”

You can catch the full episode here.

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19th Hole

Brooks Koepka explains why he understood the case for and against picking Dustin Johnson for the Ryder Cup

Published

20 hours ago

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Sep 21, 2023

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Brooks Koepka is the lone LIV golfer in next week’s Ryder Cup. This will be the 33-year-old’s fourth Ryder Cup, and second in Europe. In his three prior Ryder Cups, Koepka is 6-5-1 overall, including 2-0-1 in singles matches.

Koepka was extremely close to being an automatic qualifier but slipped out of the final spot during the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The five-time major champion spoke about his Ryder Cup preparation prior to this week’s LIV Chicago event, in which he will be taking a flight to Rome directly after.

“My whole mindset has been to practice for (the Ryder Cup) the last few weeks. I mean, look, I think it’s one of the top six, seven biggest sporting events you can have. It’s a little bit more eyeballs, a little bit more pressure.”

When asked if he “plays for legacy” now after all he’s accomplished, Koepka said “I think everybody remembers their record”.

“I think everybody remembers their record, or that’s kind of what you’re known by, wins, losses. Poulter has pretty much made a career on that. Yeah, I think you can.”

While speaking with Sports Illustrated this week, Brooks was asked about the fact that Dustin Johnson, who went 5-0 at Whistling Straits in 2021, was not chosen as a captains pick this time around.

“I get the case for DJ. He played great the last time, played great last year. Hasn’t really played that great this year … or hasn’t played to DJ’s standard. That’s a better way to put that. And he didn’t play well in the majors. So I can see why he didn’t get a pick. But if they had picked him, it’s DJ and I could see that one as well.”

Although there will be no other LIV players in Rome, Koepka said he’s not worried about who he plays with and can “play with anybody”.

“I can play with anybody, and I will play with anybody.”

It will be interesting to see who Koepka is paired with next week at Marco Simone.

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19th Hole

Free agent Matt Fitzpatrick explains why he can’t play golf clubs made by these two manufacturers

Published

20 hours ago

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Sep 21, 2023

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The 2022 U.S. Open Champion, Matt Fitzpatrick, is currently an equipment free agent. He recently sat down with GolfMagic to discuss why he isn’t tied down with a manufacturer and what his outlook is going forward.

“I struggle with TaylorMade and Callaway clubs because of the way their woods and hybrids are designed. The soles aren’t very good for me so my interaction with the turf is terrible with those. Until that changes, I’d never be able to get on with them. PING and Titleist have always been a little bit better for me.”

With TaylorMade and Callaway off the table, Fitzpatrick is currently using Titleist TSi3 and is also experimenting with a Titleist TSR3.

According to the photos captured by GolfMagic, Fitz is still using his Bettinardi BB1 Fitz, but also has a different Bettinardi prototype he’s experimenting with in Rome.

With tight fairways at Marco Simone, the Englishman will be hoping that whichever driver he chooses keeps him in the fairway at next week’s Ryder Cup.

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