ROME, ITALY | Just as every pantomime has a villain, so have some recent Ryder Cups. At Hazeltine in the U.S. in 2016, Danny Willett, then the Masters champion, filled that role after a satirical article by his brother on the eve of the match caused great anger in the American camp and among their supporters.
Two men on recent U.S. teams also have been pantomime villains. The first is Patrick Reed, who while on the PGA Tour seemed as inseparable from controversy as eggs are from bacon. Here in Rome, Reed’s role as a Ryder Cup irritant has been taken by Patrick Cantlay, which poses one question: Do pantomime villains have to have first names beginning with the letter P?
“What’s Cantlay like,” an American journalist was once asked. “S ... L ... O ... W,” was the reply. A wonderful golfer, who was No. 1 in the world amateur ranking for one year before turning professional in 2012 and since then has been as high as third in the Official World Golf Ranking. Cantlay, 31, is a walking embodiment of the words imperturbable and measured. Little seems to raise his temperature, not his speech, not his walk, not his speed of play. Measured is not expressive enough to describe him.
... spectators at Marco Simone Golf Club went out of their way to wave their hats and visors at the American at every opportunity.
Cantlay arrived in Rome with a reputation for individualism. One way of putting it would be to say he is his own man. Another way is that he is not afraid to make his own protest. He is known to believe that the players in the Ryder Cup are not paid enough, and it is believed that going hatless in Rome last week, both while playing and appearing in U.S. team photographs, was his way of doing just that.
That, of course, was fodder to the spectators at Marco Simone Golf Club who went out of their way to wave their hats and visors at the American at every opportunity. This brought levity to the proceedings – and seemed to have little effect on Cantlay, who coolly acknowledged such chants with a slight wave of a hand, and a smile or ignored them altogether.
Cantlay is a close friend and teammate of fellow Californian Xander Schauffele, and it may not be coincidental that the three Americans who did not join their teammates on a recent reconnaissance trip to Rome were Jordan Spieth, whose wife was about to give birth, Cantlay and Schauffele.
Cantlay and Schauffele are said to have made representations to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan about money on the tour and reportedly believed to have threatened to leave and join LIV Golf.
Cantlay’s elevation to the central attraction on the U.S. team role was underlined on Saturday when a tweet by Sky Sports reporter Jamie Weir reported there was a split in the American camp between Cantlay and Schauffele and their teammates. This was denied by U.S. sources and Cantlay, but on Sunday, Weir said: “I stand by my story. My sources are unimpeachable.”
Darkness was gathering late on Saturday night when Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, got involved in a brouhaha with Europe’s Rory McIlroy. On the 18th green, with their match level, McIlroy objected to the caddie overtly waving his visor as he was about to attempt a putt for a birdie that would have tied his and Matthew Fitzpatrick’s match against Cantlay and Wyndham Clark. Europe’s Shane Lowry was heard to shout his objections to LaCava’s actions from greenside. Ill feelings continued and later, as McIlroy was getting into his courtesy car to return to his hotel, he and LaCava had to be separated by Lowry and Jim “Bones” Mackay outside the clubhouse.
Cantlay, who had lost two foursomes and won one four-balls match on Friday and Saturday, blitzed Justin Rose with five birdies in Sunday’s singles. This was good enough to give him a 2-and-1 victory and the Americans their first point of the afternoon.
Pantomime villain and the object of much attention in Rome may indeed be his record at the 44th Ryder Cup, but all that was needed to say to acknowledge his play at the end were two words: hats off.
SCORING
John Hopkins