SHRINERS CHILDREN'S OPEN

October 5, 2022

Patrick Cantlay

TPC Summerlin

Press Conference

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Patrick Cantlay into the interview room here at the Shriners Children's Open. Patrick, a past champion here, two runner-up finishes and a tie for eighth. We missed you last year. I'm guessing you missed being here, too, with that success. If we can get some comments on being back.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it's always nice to come to a golf course that I've had success on, and looking obviously to repeat this year, play well again and have a chance to win. It looks like we're going to get perfect weather, so I imagine it's going to take lots of birdies.

Q. You're making your season debut. If we can just get some comments on your expectations for the upcoming season.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's been enough time off to already have started the new season. I don't really think about it in those terms. I just try and treat every tournament as its own and try and stick to my game plan and give myself a chance to win that week. I feel like that's what you can control, and wherever you end up at the end of the year, that's where you end up.

Q. Can you explain your success on this golf course, what it is about the layout here that just suits your eye and makes your best game come out?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Well, first of all, I think the fairways are pretty wide, but you need to play from the fairway if you want to score. So in the past I've hit a lot of drivers and drove the ball well, so I have a lot of opportunities to make birdies. Obviously around this place you need to make a ton of birdies and not very many mistakes, because most every year the winner is in the 20-, 25-under range. That's what it takes. You've got to shoot 5-, 6-under every day.

Q. Can you talk about the benefit of playing in the fall in with your full status you don't need to be out here for fall events. Why is it you like coming to these tournaments?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I didn't play any events in the fall last year. I just played Presidents Cup a couple weeks ago, and this is a golf course that I really like and have played well at, so it was a natural to fit into my schedule.

Q. With the change in the schedule next year where this is the tail end of the season, do you anticipate still coming out to some of these fall events?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I'm not sure. I try not to get that far ahead. That's still almost a year away, so we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Q. What's bigger momentum for you, the 15 rounds here that are all under par or that last one that you had here that wasn't your favorite and still finished T8?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, it's a golf course I've always played really well at, and I've had a chance to win here three times. I'm just going to carry all that positive momentum into this week.

Q. You've never been outside the top 10; are you sure this year it'll be the same again? Are you coming into the week with that sort of confidence?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I show up to every week thinking if I play well I should have a chance to win, and this week is no different.

Q. You're I think a 12 to 1 to win the FedExCup already, fourth or fifth favorite. Do you feel like you should be No. 1? Do you think that's fair? Obviously you think you're good enough to do it; you've done it before. Is that a fair spot to put you?

PATRICK CANTLAY: You know, I haven't given it one second of thought. It's such a long way away. So far out of your control considering you have to hit the dominos the right way. It's not necessarily just playing well all year. You have to play well at the right time.

That's so far out of mind that it's not even on my radar.

Q. Do you get external motivation from -- I guess what I'm trying to say is being underrated at some points?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Not really. I have enough internal motivation where I don't really have very many external factors that motivate me. If I won more, I wouldn't be underrated. That's kind of -- my goal is to win more, and I don't need to worry about the rest of that stuff.

Q. What's modern-day TOUR possibilities in terms of wins in a season? Back in the day we'd see seven and eight pretty regularly. Now it's so deep. Three is amazing. Four is exceptional. Is it still doable to get five, six, seven in a season?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I'm sure it is. But I doubt we'll see double digits like Vijay and Tiger. I'd be shocked if we saw anybody come close to having as many five-win seasons as Tiger. I think he had six, seven or eight or something like that, which is remarkable, obviously.

I think we're just seeing guys play also more go-for-broke golf, so if you have more guys in the field playing go-for-broke golf, inevitably one of them will execute all week.

So when a guy that's good gets hot, it's really hard to beat him. In the past I feel like when I think about when I've talked with Jack Nicklaus about how he played golf tournaments, he did not play go-for-broke golf, so he was able to wear people out.

That type of golf doesn't win golf tournaments these days as much as it used to.

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