BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2022

Patrick Cantlay

Wilmington Country Club

Press Conference

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Patrick Cantlay into the interview room here at the BMW Championship, our defending champion, although we're at a different golf course, and just one week away from defending his FedExCup title at East Lake. If we can get some thoughts on being here in Wilmington this week.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, obviously nice to be back at a tournament that changes every year, the venue, but I've heard we're going back to Caves Valley in a couple years --

Q. 2015.

PATRICK CANTLAY: 2015. So it's always good to be up here in the northeast. I like the grass up here. This golf course is in great condition, and it should be a good week.

Q. And the state of your game coming into the week?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I think it's been good. I've played really consistently all year and just need to get hot with the putter and see if I can knock off a few wins during to end year.

Q. How much have you rewatched or relived the thrilling ending to last year's BMW and how much motivation or inspiration do you get from that?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I saw a few highlights, but I didn't watch it all back. It was kind of a rush to the end of the year last year between BMW and the TOUR Championship and Ryder Cup. Watched more Ryder Cup than either the TOUR Championship or BMW replays.

Q. As far as the state of your game, a comparison between going into that event and going into this week, like what it was last year and this year the same or anything different?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I wouldn't say too much different. My process is pretty similar. I feel like I've had a pretty consistent year this year, had a lot of chances, and I just need to keep putting myself right there and get a few breaks come the back nine on Sunday.

Q. What, if anything, is the key to winning on a course that no one has seen like you kind of did last year?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I mean, this golf course is definitely just like last year, extremely distance biased. You've got to hit it as far as you can and hit a lot of fairways. This course is a little narrower than last year, and I think most times you see when guys win they just got hot with the putter, which I did last year. A good recipe is top of the way in driving and top of the way in putting. These greens are in really good shape, and if you get the ball on line and read it right, it should go in almost every time.

Q. Can sometimes lack of experience at a place allow you to not overthink it and just go out and play?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I'm not sure about that. I don't think there's too much strategy to this golf course. I think it's pretty right in front of you and similar to last year. The venues between last year and this year are actually really similar, I think, in style of golf.

Q. Have you played other courses in Delaware or in the immediate southeast Pennsylvania area, and any comment about what you've seen so far besides what you've said already today?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think this is my first time to Delaware, and I would say maybe the closest I've played to here, my geography is not great, but maybe Pine Valley I've played once, and I don't think it's too far, and I think Pine Valley is maybe one of the best golf courses I've ever played.

Q. The meeting later today has kind of captured every golf fan's imagination. What are you hoping gets accomplished tonight?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Well, I've heard Tiger is the new commissioner, right? That's what everyone has been saying.

I'm going to go to the meeting. I'm going to listen to what it's all about, and I'll probably have more for you after.

Q. Can I ask you a playoff question. What do you think makes a perfect post season for the PGA TOUR? You have the regular season. What do you envision of what this could look like?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Well, it's changed so many times I'm not sure anyone has got the perfect formula yet. I'm not sure. It's hard to do Playoffs in golf. I think we've seen that.

I'm not really sure. I think there's got to be smarter people than me that have more experience putting this on than -- it seems to get tweaked every year, and I'm not necessarily sure why. We went to the everyone starts at a different score to par a couple years ago. That still feels strange to me. It is a little clearer to watch on TV because you only have the one tournament going on, but you lose -- the fact that it's the TOUR Championship is kind of gone, which I think is a shame really.

I actually liked it when it was the points and you kind of knew if you were in the top 5 and you won that you had control of your own destiny, and if not it was up to whatever Steve Sands said (laughter). I kind of liked it. If you were following it, you definitely knew what was going on. We would have never had Tiger winning the TOUR Championship if it weren't for that two-event style championship down the stretch. Tiger would have just finished eighth in the FedExCup. That would have been weird, considering the scene we saw around that green.

Like I said, Playoffs is obviously a challenge in golf, and I'm not sure anyone has figured it out, the perfect formula yet.

Q. I spoke to some players yesterday who were surprised by how long the course was playing, and some of them said that it kind of reminded them of a U.S. setup kind of course. Do you agree with that?

PATRICK CANTLAY: A what?

Q. Kind of a U.S. Open setup.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Oh, I'm not sure. I don't think it's a U.S. Open setup.

I think it's really long. I think it's also strange to me that we play so many golf courses that all they do is add length to the golf courses. It's so surprising to me that the golf courses that none of the guys who hit it far, they don't go to Hilton Head, they don't go to Colonial, they don't go to the short, small, dogleggy tree-lined golf courses.

The way we combat the distance, the way these architects seem to think they want to combat distance is by taking all the trees out and playing it 7,600 yards and put the tees way back and all the par-5s are at 600 yards. I don't think that makes any sense.

I'm surprised every time I come to a golf course where they say it's recently been redone and then there's no real shaping of golf shots. It's just how far can you hit it and grab your driver on every hole and hit it as high and hit it as far as you possibly can. If you can hit it 315 yards, you've taken out all the bunkers, and you're maybe in the rough, but it's way better in the rough with a 9- or 8-iron than it is maybe in the fairway with a 5-iron if you were to lay up to the fat part of the fairway before the bunkers.

I'm so surprised that they haven't figured it out, and it just seems like we're getting more and more of the same bomb-it-as-far-as-you-can golf courses week after week.

Q. I just saw you and Xander on No. 5 yesterday. You couldn't see the green on the approach. What's your thoughts on that hole if it's going to play from the tee you used yesterday? Do you think it's defendable? It looks really challenging.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think it's potentially goofy if you have 210 yards to a blind green with water that fronts the front of the green. But I'm sure the TOUR staff will move the tees up if it's into the wind like we played our practice round, and if it's downwind that won't be an issue.

Q. If you were a betting man, how many players do you think would have started the year outside the Top 40 in the World Ranking and gone on to win the FedExCup?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Two.

Q. You'd be wrong.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Zero?

Q. One.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I was close.

Q. On this meeting of top players, just made me wonder, is there not a chance of who gets invited and who doesn't to make golf even more divisive than people claim the whole Saudi thing is in the first place?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Do I think that -- sorry, can you ask it again?

Q. Could that make things for divisive within the TOUR than anything that's been disrupted from the other side?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think depending on the results, if anything changes potentially. I'm not sure what, if anything, will change, what will be the result of it. I think it's good that a lot of the players are getting together to discuss the situation out here, especially given the current circumstances.

Q. On your comments about it's hard to have Playoffs in golf, but yet you'd sort of like to see the TOUR Championship exist as it did, would you be in favor of a system where whoever gets there, it's just everybody starts out and whoever wins it wins it? Is that too drastic of a change? In other words, whoever gets to Atlanta, even if you're 30th, if you win the tournament, you win the FedExCup? It's a pretty drastic change, but it would allow the tournament to still exist as a tournament.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think that would be too drastic. Somebody could win both the playoff events and finish second in this proposed event and finish second in the FedExCup. I don't think that makes sense. I think that would be worse.

Q. Next year it's going to only 70 getting into the Playoffs. Do you like that? And also, how do you think that will alter the way perhaps yourself or other players will look at the schedule?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think definitely with all the changes come January, you'll see guys play a lot more in a condensed period of time, especially because - another one of my gripes with the FedExCup is it's an accumulation game. So literally the more events you play the better opportunity you'll have for being in the top because there's no penalty for missing any cuts.

I think you'll see guys, especially if they start to come down the end of the stretch of the summer where they're anywhere from maybe 55 to 100 or 125, and they just start playing every single event to try and get into the Playoffs, and we're already going to see guys play more during that period of time because no FedExCup points in the fall. I think that's not this year but the next year.

Yeah, I think you're just going to see guys play a ton more between January and August.

Q. With the guy you beat in a playoff last year not here as well as DJ and Sergio finished tied for sixth last year, what's your perspective on the field this season with those guys, some notable guys gone to LIV?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I think it's no doubt that the fields out here have gotten weaker, missing those guys. I think that's just one of the unfortunate circumstances that happens when you have somewhat of a fractured sport as far as the best players, where they're playing, especially compared to all the consistency we've had in the past where pretty much every single one of the top players plays all these events.

JOHN BUSH: Patrick, we appreciate your time. Best of luck this week.