‘Not a Fan’ – Reigning FedExCup Champion Patrick Cantlay Explains Why He’s Against the Scoring Format

Even after winning the Tour Championship and the $15 million bonus, Patrick Cantlay has criticized the format of the FedExCup playoffs. Meanwhile, Cantlay won the Tour Championship by a stroke. He finished with a score of -21, while Jon Rahm was right behind him with at -20. However, still, he was critical about the format of the Tour Championship. 

But it is not the first time Cantlay has raised his concerns about this format. He had stated earlier in the week that the format didn’t make any sense and echoed the same feelings even after winning the FedExCup trophy. 

“I’m still not a fan of this format,” says Patrick Cantlay

“I think that I am still not a fan of this format I don’t think it’s a good format,” said Cantlay. “I don’t like the fact that somebody else shot the lowest score this week, and they would have won the Tour Championship in years past.” 

In 2019, the Tour Championship format was changed to a new stroke-based format. They made this change to ensure that the Tour Championship winner would also be the FedExCup champion. Hence, Cantlay, the player with the most FedExCup points following the BMW Championship, started the event at the East Lake with a score of -10.

Moreover, with the second-highest number of points, Tony Finau started at -8, while Bryson at third place started -7. In this manner, all players were given predetermined strokes based on their rankings. And without the stroke-based format, Jon Rahm and Kevin Na would have shared the lead at -14 after 72 holes. Moreover, Xander Schuaffele would have been at third place with -12 and Cantlay at fourth with -11. 

So, Patrick Cantlay didn’t even register the best score at the Tour Championship and yet won the event. His win at the BMW Championship meant he moved to first place in the FedExCup rankings. Consequently, this gave him a starting score of -10 at the Tour Championship. However, without that, either Jon Rahm or Kevin Na would have won the event and also the $15 million bonus. 

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