Patrick Cantlay Endures Xander Schauffele’s Former Ghosts as Davis Riley Extends World No.8’s Misery

It was the final hole at the Colonial Country Club. Davis Riley rolled in a 6-foot par putt at the 18th hole, clinching a win on the Jay Monahan-led circuit by beating Scottie Scheffler by five strokes. However, unbeknownst to many, a certain PGA Tour pro was forced to suffer the consequences of the champ’s victory despite not being part of the very event, none other than Patrick Cantlay.

A tweet was shared on X (formerly Twitter) mentioning how the 27-year-old golfer has two times the number of victories on the men’s circuit than Cantlay has in the past couple of years. The post did so all the while taking a jab at both the 32-year-old and Riley while hinting at how the former is currently suffering like Xander Schauffele did a while back.

Is Patrick Cantlay unlucky, just like Xander Schauffele?

Riley, by beating Scheffler, was able to claim his second PGA Tour win at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the first of which came at the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Nick Hardy. Cantlay, meanwhile, has not boasted any wins in the past couple of years. His last victory came at the 2022 BMW Championship, following which he shot to the 3rd position on the OWGR.

Cantlay, however, has not won any tournaments since then and has fallen to the No. 8 spot on the world rankings. Moreover, in the previous season, the athlete has raked in a total of 10 top-10 finishes, with two runner-up placements, while boasting two top-10 finishes in 2024 till now. This truly does paint an unfortunate and worrisome picture for the golfer, just like Schauffele before the recent major win.

Out of the 11 starts he made in 2024 before the major, the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open champ had finished a total of eight times inside the top 10 without claiming a single victory. He had also failed to do so in 2023, when he raked in 11 top-10 finishes, including two runner-up placements. That’s not all. Schauffele had gone ahead to miss out on several victories this year despite topping the scoreboard on the first three days (remember the Wells Fargo Championship and the PLAYERS Championship?)

But there’s a catch. Patrick Cantlay, interestingly, did not take part in the recently concluded event at the Colonial Golf Course. Even so, the tweet, combined with his previous finishes and Riley’s win, was more than enough to dub him an unlucky golfer, all the while comparing his present to the past of the 2024 PGA Championship winner.

Riley claims his second PGA Tour win

The young American pro dished out a total of 21 birdies and seven bogeys while clinching the win and beating the likes of Scheffler and Keegan Bradley, both of whom were tied at T2. He also carded figures of 66-64-66-70 over the four days of play and raked in a winner’s cut of $1,638,000 from the $9.1 prize pool.

Aside from the monetary benefits, he was also awarded 500 FedEx Cup points, which propelled him to 50th place in the season-long standings. Riley was granted a total of 52.05234 points on the OWGR, thereby allowing him to shoot past many golfers to the 78th spot. An inspiring win by the athlete, no doubt!