Weekly Recap: Just Call Him 'Playoff P'

Wilmington Country Club was a great unknown heading into the BMW Championship. At 7,500-plus yards, many prognosticators thought the course new to the PGA Tour would favor the longest hitters. With greens averaging more than 8,000 square feet, second biggest on Tour this season, it was logical to think that putting would be paramount. Neither premise was borne out.

It also stood to reason that with almost all the Tour's best golfers on hand and in a very small field, the top of the leaderboard would be dominated by those elite golfers. That turned out to be true.

Patrick Cantlay finally got into the winner's circle in the penultimate tournament of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season, winning the second of three playoff events -- his third victory in the Playoffs in two years -- by one stroke over Scott Stallings. Of course, Stallings is not one of those elite golfers, but right behind him were Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele in a tie for third, with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm also on the first page of the leaderboard. That's half of the top 10 in the world rankings.

Cantlay finally has something to show for an excellent year, and he will head into this week's season-ending TOUR Championship in second place behind Scheffler in the FedExCup Standings. Only 30 golfers remain.

Technically, Cantlay already had won this season, though that was in the Zurich Classic team event with best bud Schauffele. In good ol' singles play, Cantlay had amassed three runners-up and a third-place finish among nine top-10s in 17 starts before the BMW.

For the record, Cantlay ranked 11th in the BMW field in driving distance and 23rd in Strokes Gained: Putting. Where he and other top finishers shined brightest was in the accuracy department. Cantlay ranked 14th in both fairways hit and greens in regulation, sixth in SG: Approach and second in SG: Tee-to-Green. That formula should serve him well this week at East Lake.

Last year, Cantlay won the BMW at nearby Caves Valley to head into the TOUR Championship atop the so-called "Starting Strokes Format" at 10-under-par, and that was enough for him to win the tournament despite not having the best 72-hole score. This time around, Scheffler will start at 10-under, with Cantlay next in line at 8-under. In two of the three years with the staggered starting positions, the player opening at 10-under won the TOUR Championship despite not shooting the low-72. But there is hope for Cantlay, as back in 2019 in the debut of this format, McIlroy started way back at 5-under yet shot the low-72 to emerge as the FedExCup champion.

This is the one time of the year that the FedExCup Standings take precedence over the world rankings. But with the victory, Cantlay leap-frogged McIlroy to move into third in the OWGR, behind Scheffler and Cameron Smith. Smith was the lone top golfer not in the BMW field, citing hip discomfort, though he is expected to return at East Lake. The same goes for the winner of last week's first playoff event, Will Zalatoris, who had to withdraw from the BMW with a back injury.

Cantlay is an interesting specimen in that he's ranked top-10 in the world yet not elite in any one statistical category. He's not among the longest hitters, but far from short. He's not top-10 in any strokes gained category, yet top-25 in five of them.

That sounds like a perfect skill set for East Lake. Is that enough to be three strokes better than the world No. 1 in Scheffler?

It is.

After all, Cantlay was three strokes better than Scheffler at the BMW.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

FedExCup Playoffs
Scott Stallings was among four guys beginning the week outside the top-30 who played their way inside. The others were Adam Scott, K.H. Lee and Aaron Wise. The benefits are enormous. Besides getting a minimum check of $500,000 for reaching the no-cut finale, a berth in the TOUR Championship ensures a spot in next year's Masters, both Opens, THE PLAYERS and the five limited invitationals, including Riviera, Bay Hill and the Memorial. The four golfers who fell out of the top-30 were Kevin Kisner, Joohyung Kim, Davis Riley and J.J. Spaun. Kisner and Kim likely will get in all those tournaments anyway based on their top-50 world ranking, and Spaun will get into some as a tournament winner this past season.

Scottie Scheffler
It seems fitting that Scheffler heads into the TOUR Championship as No. 1 in the standings. He didn't really do enough by himself to ensure that standing after missing the cut at the FedEx St. Jude, even though he tied for third at the BMW. Smith missing the tournament and Zalatoris pulling out mid-tournament helped Scheffler hold off Cantlay by a very slim margin. In a perfect world, the Tour wants the winner of the Tour Championship, the FedExCup champion and the Player of the Year to all be the same guy. Now, Scheffler has a chance to give the Tour its wish.

Xander Schauffele
Shauffele tied for third with Scheffler. He had a short birdie putt on 18 to break that tie, which would've dropped Scheffler to solo fourth -- and lifted Cantlay to No. 1 in the standings heading into East Lake. Schauffele has been the best player in the TOUR Championship the past few years. He won in 2017 and he had the best 72-hole score two years ago when Dustin Johnson won the Cup with too much of a head start. Schauffele will begin this week at 6-under, behind Scheffler, Cantlay and Will Zalatoris.

Scott Stallings
Stallings is no youngster. He's 37. Despite being a three-time winner this has been his best season and will result in his first TOUR Championship. He's had seven top-10s and 12 top-25s. There really was no weakness in his game. But it all came so out of the blue that you wonder what lies ahead for Stallings next season, if this type of play is sustainable.
 
Adam Scott
Scott turned a terrible season into a great one by tying for fifth in each of the first two playoff events to qualify for East Lake for the first time in three years. Before two weeks ago, he hadn't had a stroke-play top-10 since February. Scott ranked top-25 in every strokes-gained category at the BMW, including 20th in Putting. He's now 42 years old, and you never know when your career will head south for the final time. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet for Scott, who also will be the leader of the International players in the upcoming Presidents Cup.

K.H. Lee
Lee bitterly finished 31st in the standings last year to just miss out on the TOUR Championship. Despite winning at the Bryson Nelson in May, it didn't appear he would get that close this time, as he came into the BMW without so much as a top-15 since. But Lee tied for fifth, following a tie for 20th at the FedEx St. Jude, and he's in the TOUR Championship for the first time. Kim also moved into the top-40 OWGR for the first time, at No. 39.

Corey Conners
Conners entered the week in a tenuous spot at No. 29, but he qualified for his second straight TOUR Championship by tying for fifth at the BMW. The Canadian is now up to a career-best 26th OWGR.
 
Aaron Wise
Greatness has been expected from Wise for years now, or at least more than he had shown. He tied for 15th at the BMW to reach East Lake for the second time (15th in 2018). His best tournament this season was a runner-up at the Memorial.

Shane Lowry
This has to be the biggest shocker, the biggest surprise to miss the top-30. Lowry had a very good week in tying for 12th, but that agonizingly left him at No. 31 in the standings. Lowry had a great winter and spring with a runner-up at the Honda and two third-place showings, including at the Masters. But he did little since then, and it cost him. Lowry is ranked in the top-25 in the world and the 2019 British Open champion, so he'll still get to play wherever he wants to next season.

Sahith Theegala
Making the TOUR Championship as a rookie is a huge accomplishment. Theegala will join Rookie of the Year favorite Cameron Young at East Lake. Young has been safe for a while now, but Theegala needed to deliver on Sunday – and he did. He played the back nine in 3-under to finish 28th in the standings.

Collin Morikawa
The big Morikawa news heading into the week was that, lo and behold, he had rediscovered his vaunted fade, which stunningly had gone missing for most of the season. For three days, things looked pretty good, as Morikawa was paired with Scheffler in the third-to-last group on Sunday. Morikawa bogeyed three holes on the front, then doubled 11 and stunningly quinitupled the par-5 12th from the fairway to plummet to a 79 and a tie for 44th. Morikawa was in positive territory on SG: Approach through the first three days, though not by enough to think that all his problems had been solved.