Buddy up: Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele ‘finish each other’s sentences’ and finish off winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele marched into New Orleans with chips on their shoulders and waltzed out of the Big Easy as winners for the first time this season at the only two-man team-format event on the PGA Tour.
Cantlay and Schauffele combined to shoot even-par 72 in the alternate-shot format used in the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and shattered the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record with a total of 29-under 259, two strokes ahead of the team of Sam Burns and Billy Horschel.
“We definitely bring out the best in each other and we really enjoy being out here together and in a format like this,” Cantlay said, “it’s the best.”
Cantlay, the reigning FedEx Cup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year, lost two sudden-death playoffs this year, including last week at the RBC Heritage. The 30-year-old Cantlay picked up his seventh career Tour title and became the first player to follow a playoff loss with a win the following week since Dustin Johnson in 2020 at the Tour Championship.
Schauffele, 28, who notched his fifth Tour title, had claimed the Olympic gold medal in golf in August, but had gone more than 1,000 days since winning his last official Tour event, the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions, and had recorded eight runner-up finishes during that span.
Zurich Classic: Winner’s bags | Prize money
The winning duo went wire-to-wire, starting with a tournament record 13-under 59 in the best-ball format Thursday, shooting 68 in foursomes on Friday and building a five-stroke lead after combining to birdie eight of the final nine holes in the best-ball format on Saturday en route to shooting the low score of the third round, a 12-under 60.
Thanks for all the messages! Thanks to @patrick_cantlay for the great energy & teamwork. Thanks to @zurich_classic for an awesome event! pic.twitter.com/nfaZaN4CN0
— Xander Schauffele (@XSchauffele) April 25, 2022
In the final round, the wind blew making scoring particularly tough and Cantlay and Schauffele opened with six straight pars. Needing a spark, Cantlay delivered, drilling his second shot at the par-5 seventh from 254 yards to 8 feet and Schauffele’s putt circled the hole for eagle. The partners celebrated by knocking knuckles and Schauffele later pointed out how big a moment it turned out to be.
“It jump started the round,” Schauffele said. “Just one of those shots you kind of see on coverage and you’re like, I don’t know how that ball got there. It was a pretty thing to see live from my angle from the fairway. So I was happy to sort of clean it up for him since he hit such a great shot in there.”
Eagle on 7 for the leaders.@Patrick_Cantlay and @XSchauffele extend their lead at the @Zurich_Classic. pic.twitter.com/ftMwluokrV
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 24, 2022
But after Cantlay lipped out a birdie putt at eight that could have stretched the lead to six strokes, they committed a few uncharacteristic mistakes and let much of their lead slip away. Back-to-back bogeys at the ninth and 10th holes, which amounted to one more bogey than they had made in the first 62 holes of the tournament, meant their commanding lead was trimmed to one stroke because in the group ahead Burns and Horschel combined for five birdies in their first 11 holes. The birdies, however, dried up for the eventual runners-up, who settled for shooting 4-under 68.
“Sometimes you just can’t make it happen, and that’s what it was for us on the last six holes,” Burns said.
A short birdie putt at the par-5 11th extended the lead for Cantlay and Schauffele back to two as they improved to 30 under. When Burns and Horschel made bogey at the 17th, the lead grew to three and afforded Cantlay and Schauffele to make a bogey at the last in claiming the title and the silver belt buckles awarded to the champions.
As the friendship of Cantlay and Schauffele has grown, so has their place as two of the top American pros (Cantlay is No. 4 in the world and Schauffele No. 12). They have paired successfully in the last Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup and proved again that they could be a tandem in international competition for the next decade.
“They’ve played enough with each other as partners,” said Jamie Mulligan, Cantlay’s longtime instructor, “that they’re kind of finishing each other’s sentence.”
Xander Schauffele (right) embraces Patrick Cantlay (left) on the 18th green during the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. (Photo: Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports)
During their winner’s press conference, Cantlay and Schauffele re-told much of the back story of their budding friendship – from competing against one another in college to playing gin on the plane ride to Australia for the 2019 Presidents Cup to Tiger Woods and Fred Couples sensing their chemistry together in Melbourne to vacationing with their significant others in Napa ahead of last year’s Ryder Cup. Perhaps the best insight into their relationship happened when Cantlay didn’t finish Schauffele’s sentence but rather interjected to make a correction for the record as Schauffele recounted being paired together in the 2011 Gifford Collegiate during Schauffele’s freshman year at Long Beach State and when Cantlay already was the top-ranked amateur in the world and starring at UCLA.
“I don’t think Pat really remembers it. He has this ability or strength to go into sort of an auto pilot mode where not much fazes him, hence Patty Ice. He was kind of in Patty Ice mode at UCLA when we played. I think he shot 65 and I shot 78, something of that nature. I sat there and I was like, this guy is a lot better than me at golf. That’s kind of what I thought at the time. It’s kind of funny, full circle, here we are,” Schauffele said.
“I think it was 63,” Cantlay said.
“Sorry, 63,” Schauffele said. “That sounds right, actually…he had me down for a 72 after the round. He handed me my card, and I was like, I wish. He just had no clue what I shot. I didn’t want to know what I shot, either. Yeah, it was definitely something for me to work towards.”
The team’s that have had the most success in the Zurich since the switch to the team format in 2017 typically have had a true bond of friendship, and that was certainly the case for Cantlay and Schauffele, who noted that his partner made him feel comfortable.
“He brought the best out of me on the course,” Schauffele said.
Find yourself a golf partner, a friend, a significant other that makes you feel the level of comfort these two have established between themselves while competing in a dog-eat-dog business.
“I definitely can be exactly myself with Xander, and I don’t think twice about it,” Cantlay said. “He knows exactly who I am. I think that really benefits both of us. We both feel like we can be exactly ourselves and don’t have to put anything extra on.”
U.S. Captain Davis Love III would be crazy not to pair them together this fall at the Presidents Cup and they seem destined to be a tandem in international competition for the next decade. And while all that may be true, both Cantlay and Schauffele needed to return to the winner’s circle this week after many close calls so they can both get on with the more important business ahead of them of winning that elusive first major. Did it feel any different to win as a team rather than typically as an individual?
“I felt like I did half as much work as a usual win,” Cantlay said. “I probably won’t be as tired tomorrow. Xander played great all week. I think anytime you can share success, I think that makes it just a little sweeter.”
