He was standing in the rough right next to a tree with branches dangling right in front of his face. This shot at Skylinks Golf Course was going to be a rather tricky one for Servite’s Patrick Cantlay.
Hit a flyer here and he’d be lucky to leave the par-4 14th with a bogey, so he paced off the distance to the green all the while eyeing his target. He took a few practice swings and let the ball fly.
By a matter of inches, it cleared the leaves hanging in its way, carried a bunker and softly spun to a stop before it caught the slope on the green and rolled to within 2 feet of the pin. He had an easy tap-in to save par.
Dane Jako, his coach at Servite, just shook his head and laughed. It was the kind of shot you’d see on PlayStation or the PGA Tour. But this was the CIF-SS Southern Regional.
Cantlay, though, has a way of making the spectacular look routine, and dating back to last season, he is 38-under par in CIF-SS tournament play. Along the way, he helped the Friars win back-to-back team championships, cruised to two consecutive individual titles and became the Register’s boys golf player of the year for the second year in a row. In those eight rounds of golf he has been at least 5-under par, five times; once he shot an 8-under 64.
“It (38-under par) is kind of startling. I guess if you said go play eight rounds on those courses and be 38-under, I’d laugh at you,” Cantlay said. “A lot of it has to do with taking it one step at a time and playing your best every single hole. When you think about it that way, it is not as hard as it seems.”
Cantlay does have a way of making the often extremely frustrating game of golf look easy at times. Last week at the CIF-SS Individual championships, he was the only player to come in under par, carding a 4-under 68 in the howling winds at La Purisima Golf Course. That gave him a four-stroke victory in the 98-player field.
During his four-year varsity career with the Friars, Cantlay has evolved into one of the top junior players in the nation, holding down second place in the latest Golfweek poll. His rating is 68.55, leaving him just .54 behind first place Jordan Spieth, who made headlines at the Byron Nelson PGA Tournament when he made the cut.
“I know him well, and he obviously played really well. I’d love to play in a PGA tournament but at the same time it doesn’t benefit me in any way right now I guess other than it being an awesome experience,” Cantlay said.
And he just might get a chance to play with the pros later this month. He shot a 3-under 69 at Newport Beach Country Club and finished tied for fifth in the regional qualifier for the U.S. Open, earning him a tee time in the sectional qualifying tournament in Sacramento on June 7. Finish high enough there, and he will be playing alongside Tiger Wood and Phil Mickelson at Pebble Beach later in June.
“It’s not that big of a deal (to make it to the sectional tournament). If I make it past the next one, then that would be huge,” Cantlay said. “I expected to make it past the first round. The next one should be fun … a great experience. Hopefully, I can make it. I think I can do it, if I play well.”
And that hasn’t been much of a problem for him this year. He won the Trinity League championship, finished tied for first in the Champions Invitational after 7-under after 54 holes at Terra Lago Golf Club, the Indio course that once played host to the Skins Game, and had a week this season in which he was 10-under par.
Whenever Cantlay tees it up, Jako said, he’s all business. No matter the tournament. And that might make him seem standoffish and aloof at times as he walks up the fairway alone while the other kids in the foursome are chatting and getting to know each other better.
“Sometimes I just need to focus and stay to myself to play my best golf. Others can joke around and that helps them. But for me I have to keep to myself,” Cantlay said. “And that is the goal isn’t it? To play your best. Every time.”
There’s no doubt about that when it comes to Cantlay.
