Patrick Cantlay voted PGA Tour player of the year, over No. 1 Jon Rahm

[Frankensteins Monster]

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/32207364/patrick-cantlay-voted-pga-tour-player-year-beating-world-no-1-john-rahm

[m d g]

Interesting result given the major/no major dynamic...

[khalespace]

1 minute ago, m d g said:

Interesting result given the major/no major dynamic...

Rahm has 1 win. Collin also has a major and a WGC. Cantlay has 4 wins.

[m d g]

Just now, khalespace said:

Rahm has 1 win. Collin also has a major and a WGC. Cantlay has 4 wins.

I said it was 'interesting,' not passing judgment : )

[MattyO1984]

Just the kind of snub that Jon Rahm needed headed into the Ryder Cup!

[MattyO1984]

I am not saying that is is right nor wrong that Cantlay has won it - the headline figure will be that he has four wins on the season which of course he is correct but two of those have massive asterisk next to them.

 

Memorial - he only won because Rahm had to withdraw.

Tour Championship - he only won because of his head start. If he hadn’t, he comes in behind Kevin Na and…Jon Rahm for the week. 

 

Seems like to me the biggest factor in Cantlay winning POTY was Jon Rahm 🤔

[ShowMe]

I would have gone with Rahm.  He won a major and would have won the Memorial (the 6th major?) if he didn't have to drop out.

[MattyO1984]

5 minutes ago, ShowMe said:

I would have gone with Rahm.  He won a major and would have won the Memorial (the 6th major?) if he didn't have to drop out.

 

If Rahm gets the additional 550 FedEx Cup points for winning Memorial that takes him into second place and thus starting the Tour Championship at -8 as opposed to -6. He beat Cantlay by three shots over 72 holes at East Lake. Add in 15 top 10’s from 22 events. Jon Rahm is head and shoulders above everyone else this year.

[PhilsFanDrew]

22 minutes ago, MattyO1984 said:

 

If Rahm gets the additional 550 FedEx Cup points for winning Memorial that takes him into second place and thus starting the Tour Championship at -8 as opposed to -6. He beat Cantlay by three shots over 72 holes at East Lake. Add in 15 top 10’s from 22 events. Jon Rahm is head and shoulders above everyone else this year.

 

I will say this.  Rahm did have a hand in his own demise here.  Had he not choked the Northern Trust away that is 2 wins heading into the Tour Championship which he would have then won based on the points and would have ensured POY.

[MattyO1984]

Just now, PhilsFanDrew said:

I will say this.  Rahm did have a hand in his own demise here.  Had he not choked the Northern Trust away that is 2 wins heading into the Tour Championship which he would have then won based on the points and would have ensured POY.

 

Don’t disagree - even with everything else that befell him he was still right there and could have walked away with the FedEx.

[JaNelson38]

Cantlay had 4 wins.

 

Rahm won a major and had a bunch of what-ifs.  Yeah, he probably wins the Memorial if not forced to WD.  But we have no clue if we wins the Tour Championship or not if the circumstances are different.  

 

When was the last time someone had as many wins at Cantlay did in a season?  Spieth's 5-win season back in 2015?

[tbowles411]

I would have gone with Cantlay, then Morikawa.  Fight me.  LOL

[Frankensteins Monster]

The players vote and the players say Cantlay had the better season.

[TheEldrickWand]

Lose lose situation for the PGA. If they go with Rahm, there'd be just as many people complaining that Cantlay got robbed.

 

Some of these points have been mentioned, but just to show how much of a coin flip this was: 

-  If Rahm doesn't test positive for Covid, that was a Sunday crowning for him at Memorial, instead Cantlay gets a win.. but he also beat out the rest of the field to do so 

- If Rahm doesn't choke on the back 9 of the Northern Trust, he's in better position going into the final event.. probably good enough to win it with how he played at East Lake

- Don't forget Cantlay beat out BD at the BMW Championship in a tight playoff, probably the most impressive short game display of the year under pressure 

- Cantlay did play lights out when he had to in the final event to fend off Rahm, but Rahm also started 4 strokes back

 

IMO from an optics point it looked like Rahm was just on an absolute mission this season (apart from an iffy stretch) but the 4 wins Cantlay stacked up and, most importantly, recency bias took the award away from him.

[me05501]

Recency bias is big, and US bias too maybe? 
 

Rahm seems to be popular among his peers on Tour, and I assumed he’d get a lot of sympathy votes over the 
Memorial. Maybe guys though he should have been more careful and avoided that situation? Who knows. 

[Ferguson]

Bob,

You think the right choice was Cantlay over Rahm? 

 

 

 

 

 

[j_murphy]

I wonder if there will be any special releases for Patrick Cantlay? 

[ShowMe]

30 minutes ago, Frankensteins Monster said:

The players vote and the players say Cantlay had the better season.

 

Not all of them.  Just a plurality.

[Lobby]

Speaking to the Rahm supporters, just as in high school, you vote for the cool kids for Most Likely to Succeed.

While the nerds get table scraps from you.

Nothing ever changes

[aenemated]

I'm personally a huge fan of Rahm and if he hadn't had to withdraw from the Memorial ... yeah, it'd far more likely be his as things happened otherwise. But who's to say he'd have won the US Open without that fire from being forced to withdraw? Things don't happen in a vacuum. 

 

But by what actually happened - Cantlay easily deserves it. 

[Wasted_Talent]

I bet P. Reed is pissed he didn't get the nod.

 

I think Cantlay easily deserved it.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Gawbage_man

[Frankensteins Monster]

48 minutes ago, ShowMe said:

 

Not all of them.  Just a plurality.

No, but it's the players that vote on it instead of a point accumulation system, PGA, which Rahm won, and not writers or influential people like other sports.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Frankensteins Monster

[MattyO1984]

34 minutes ago, Lobby said:

Speaking to the Rahm supporters, just as in high school, you vote for the cool kids for Most Likely to Succeed.

While the nerds get table scraps from you.

Nothing ever changes

Jon Rahm & Patrick Cantlay pictured at the prize giving

 

 

 

 

 

[tacklingdummy]

5 hours ago, khalespace said:

Rahm has 1 win. Collin also has a major and a WGC. Cantlay has 4 wins.

 

Rahm would likely have two wins and Cantlay would likely have 3 wins. Rahm getting cancelled after third round with a 6 stroke lead at the Memorial, then Cantlay winning it. I think some deep state conspiracy stuff was going on, but that is another thread or another website. 😂

Edited September 14, 2021 by tacklingdummy

[TheEldrickWand]

39 minutes ago, Lobby said:

Speaking to the Rahm supporters, just as in high school, you vote for the cool kids for Most Likely to Succeed.

While the nerds get table scraps from you.

Nothing ever changes

 

This seemed personal ^

 

Definitely get your point on the popularity vote. But when you stripe the ball like him and statistically dominate the season, there's validity behind that popularity.

 

If Cantlay kept his tongue in is mouth post-strike he'd probably be more likable 😁   

[cwilk]

1 hour ago, me05501 said:

Recency bias is big, and US bias too maybe? 
 

Rahm seems to be popular among his peers on Tour, and I assumed he’d get a lot of sympathy votes over the 
Memorial. Maybe guys though he should have been more careful and avoided that situation? Who knows. 

I'd think the opposite, or that he's just tolerated.  I know he's improved some, but his temper comes across as whining and I think that puts him in the same category as Sergio, Bubba, Poulter, Bryson, etc.

[Hawkeye77]

Patrick Reed. 
 

He’s in every other thread!

[PhilsFanDrew]

2 hours ago, JaNelson38 said:

Cantlay had 4 wins.

 

Rahm won a major and had a bunch of what-ifs.  Yeah, he probably wins the Memorial if not forced to WD.  But we have no clue if we wins the Tour Championship or not if the circumstances are different.  

 

When was the last time someone had as many wins at Cantlay did in a season?  Spieth's 5-win season back in 2015?

Two of Cantlay's wins are a bit hollow.  The Memorial he backdoored because Rahm was forced to WD.  The Tour Championship because Rahm actually beat him in strokes but because of the goofy TC rules he started ahead enough to hold on. 

[Wasted_Talent]

15 minutes ago, PhilsFanDrew said:

Two of Cantlay's wins are a bit hollow.  The Memorial he backdoored because Rahm was forced to WD.  The Tour Championship because Rahm actually beat him in strokes but because of the goofy TC rules he started ahead enough to hold on. 

 

I don't know about that.  What if Rahm hits a tree root and has to W/D on Sunday?  What if he shoots 74 and someone else shoots 67? We don't know what "would" have happened.  We do know what did happen and every player knows going in to a tournament this could happen to them.  As for the tour Championship, again everyone knows how it will be structured before they tee off.  Cantlay only has to beat the second place score on Sunday.  If things were different he may have played differently (more aggressively) and shot the lowest score not counting the strokes.  However, he didn't have to and won which is all that mattered.

[JaNelson38]

16 minutes ago, PhilsFanDrew said:

Two of Cantlay's wins are a bit hollow.  The Memorial he backdoored because Rahm was forced to WD.  The Tour Championship because Rahm actually beat him in strokes but because of the goofy TC rules he started ahead enough to hold on. 

 

The fact that Rahm had to WD is irrelevant.  Cantlay can't control any of that.  And there's nothing 'hollow' about it...he still had to beat Morikawa in a playoff to win the tournament.

 

Everyone knows the TC rules, and Cantlay won.  There's nothing 'hollow' about winning wire to wire with tens of millions on the line.  Plenty of guys have choked for much less.