THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY

June 1, 2022

Patrick Cantlay

Muirfield Village

Press Conference

DOUG MILNE: We will jump right in. We'd like to welcome the 2018 and 2021 Memorial Tournament Presented by Workday Champion, Patrick Cantlay. Thanks for stopping by a few minutes.

Obviously a course near and dear to you, you threw in a Top-5 in addition to the two wins. Taking you back to last year, obviously some unique circumstances early on but you certainly got the job done, and if we could just get some thoughts on being back here this week.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it's always nice to be back here. It's a golf course I really like and it's always one of the best golf tournaments I think that we play out here on TOUR. So it's always a week I circle on the calendar as one of the biggest ones of the year and I'm happy to be back.

DOUG MILNE: Mr. Nicklaus talked yesterday about some of the changes, tweaks to the course. Anything really stood out in your mind or anything that raised your eyebrows a little bit or are you happy with everything you've seen?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I don't think there's anything different from last year. Everything is similar. I think it's exactly the same as far as from last year to this year.

Golf course seems to have matured. It's in great shape. Greens are probably the firmest I've seen them for a Tuesday, Wednesday, since I've started coming here and if they get firmer every day, it's going to be a very tough challenge.

Q. Golf tournaments are very hard to predict and the last couple weeks, we've had some guys come from way, way back. Just wondering what in your experience has been the most topsy-turvy last hour of a golf tournament you've ever been involved in where it looked like it was all sort of going one way and then it sort of flipped and then went another and then maybe flipped back?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Tough question because when you're in the eye of storm, you're not sure of all the things going on around you and the groups around you, and it usually doesn't help very much to get concerned about it.

The first year I won here, I think I started a few back, two, three, four back or something like that, and I remember looking at the leaderboard early on the front nine and Martin Kaymer was tearing it up, and I think he was maybe 2- or 3-under through five or six holes. So he had already started with a lead, and I thought that I really had to, you know, make a ton of birdies to have even a chance.

Then that game plan went perfect. I did make a ton of birdies and then I looked up later at the leaderboard and he wasn't within, I think three shots of me; I think I was three shots clear of him but Adam Scott had made a bunch of birdies and so he was right there.

That's not uncommon for golf tournaments. I think you can tell by the trends of how guys have played maybe what the score is going to be but you're not necessarily sure who; it's really hard to pick who is going to make that score.

Q. What does it do coming back to a course after missing the cut at the PGA and before you played at the U.S. Open, coming to a place that you've won before?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, any time coming back to a place that you've won before, I think it's advantageous.

This game, people have said how much between the ears it is. So the more positive experiences you can rack up on a golf course, the better.

This is a golf course where I definitely feel like I know exactly I should be hitting it all the way around and a golf course where I have done that a few times. And so drawing on those experiences is really helpful, you know, every time I come back here.

Q. Wonder what your reaction was when you saw the list yesterday for LIV Golf, and what do you think the reception might be for some of those players going forward?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I think obviously there's a lot of names on there that I don't -- I'm not familiar with, and there's obviously some names at the top that I'm very familiar with and guys that I'm familiar with that have gone over there.

I'm curious as you are to see how the tournaments will go and what the presentation will be like, if it will be similar to golf tournaments that we're used to seeing on TV or if it will be something totally different, and only time will tell. It should be very interested to see -- at least I'm interested to see what that product will be compared to what the product is right now that we are all used to.

Q. They have made renovations at 16; one year it was just out of control. What is your approach to 16 now?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think it depends very much how firm the green is. It's a tough hole to begin with. If the green is soft, there's a few hole locations you can get at. In a weird way, there's certain hole locations you have to go directly at. The front hole location, there's no space. There's maybe ten paces left-to-right and there's no miss. So you just have to hit it in that section.

But when the pin gets back left and it gets firm like it did, I think two years ago, I mean, par is a really, really good score, especially if it's downwind because a shot that lands even five or seven yards short of pin-high is still going to go over the green.

So figuring out any way to have a look inside five, six feet for par is, you know, really a great way to play the hole. However you've played it to give yourself a reasonable look at par, if it is firm and crazy like sometimes it can get. So then it comes to whatever shot you feel comfortable with. I think Phil laid up and made par or missed a short putt for par or something like that. Par there when the hole is playing difficult is a great score.

Q. Do you remember when you had your first milkshake here, how good are they and how many are you going to go after this week?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I haven't had one in recent years, but I had one when I won the Nicklaus Award in 2011, and I remember it being pretty good.

Q. Ben Crenshaw is the Honoree. Jack was in here talking about the greatest putters he saw. Curious who you think currently you think is the best putter and secondly what makes for great putter?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Denny McCarthy probably the best putter out here the last few years. I'll take Tiger Woods if the putt has any consequence. I'm probably too young to have seen many of the putts Jack hit. But I'm sure I would have said the same thing about Jack if I was back in that era.

Putting is, at this level, I think a lot reading the greens. Reading the greens I think is an undervalued skill. After that, I mean, its rolling it on the line with the pace that you want.

Q. You were out there with Eli today. Any fun moments on the course?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it was fun. We had a great Pro-Am group today. We had a couple laughs and golf course in perfect shape. Guys played good. Played with another friend of mine, Mike McCarthy, who I played some golf with before and he's a very good player. It was a very enjoyable walk this morning.

Q. Do you feel like you're coming on the policy board at the right time? (Laughter)

PATRICK CANTLAY: You could have said "wrong time" and it would have been a good question, too. I think I've only been on the PAC, we just had our third meeting -- or the third meeting I've ever been in yesterday. I would say I'm the opposite of experienced in that realm.

But it does seem to be an interesting time for golf, and you know, I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens regardless of what happens.

Q. I was going to see if you could try and put yourself back into your UCLA days and you're just getting ready to turn pro. No matter how good you are, you can see that as a viable option to go to this series for a couple years and pocket more money than you could probably make turning pro, and then you're still young enough to eventually come over to this tour? Can you see that as a temptation, I guess?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Sorry, you said -- when you were at UCLA, would you imagine?

Q. Yeah, if you could put yourself back in college right now. I was just trying to make personal for you. (Laughter). Could you see that?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think everyone's situation is so unique and different. So the motivators that different guys have, I think a lot of times guides their decisions. Obviously you've seen by a lot of the guys that have chosen to go over there, they are in the later parts of their career in general. And so they don't -- obviously the motivators for them are did I know. They don't feel like they are on the upswing. They probably feel like they are on the downswing. So they are trying to maximize what years they have left.

It's an interesting question to think about what it would be like coming in on the other end, but imagine there's some of -- if I don't have anything, then nothing -- and nothing guaranteed and I'm not comfortable where I'm at because I have no money if I'm in college, then imagine it's more -- definitely more enticing for somebody that is one of the better or best players out here.

I mean, life -- if you're comfortable, I mean, happiness, you're not going to get more happiness by getting more money, necessarily. But if you are coming out of college or you're in college and you have no money, I can empathize with the fact that more money is going to make your life better when you have no money.

So you know, you could even -- I think you could throw it around, if you put me in college and depending on what the deal was, someone put a deal in front of me when I had zero, you could say I'd be foolish for not taking it. It's a tough thing and I think trying to put yourself in the other person's shoes and trying to understand what their motivators are, I think that's why you see guys make the decisions that they make.

Q. On that line, do you get the sense now that because so many young people are achieving success quickly, that there's an urgency of college kids coming out now to be good, quick? And I guess my point is, if you're throwing away a chance at majors and big moments, would you rethink it? Or you can just pass.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I won't pass. It's a good question. I think once you've already made it, and you take yourself back, it seems fairly obvious that you should have just kept on the path you were going on and played the majors and tried to go the tried and true path.

For example, Collin Morikawa came out here and started winning tournaments right off the bat. If you had known that in college, if the opportunity was presented to him in college, if he would have known that he would have gone to the TOUR and won straightaway and won majors and been the next bright star in American golf, he would have gone that path.

The problem is, Collin Morikawa probably couldn't have imagine inned winning two majors as quick as he did and having the success that he had and it's not a sure thing. So presenting him with that opportunity when he has nothing I think is a lot different than asking somebody what should he -- would you have taken that deal, knowing that you are going to win all those tournaments. You can easily make the right decision looking back, hindsight.

Q. When you look back on the tournament, what happened with Jon was Sunday just another day or was that one of the more bizarre final days for you in your career?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I would say Saturday was more bizarre. It was the fastest I've ever gone from six shots back to tied for the lead. It happened while I was eating dinner, basically. So Saturday was odd.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I had acclimated to the new situation, and carried on as if yesterday didn't happen. But Saturday was a weird and obviously very unfortunate day.