Patrick Cantlay caused a huge furore at the Tour Championship last week, before Tommy Fleetwood eventually lifted the trophy at the PGA Tour finale at East Lake.
Fleetwood and Cantlay were paired together for the final round of the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday.
The Englishman finally got the monkey off his back by winning his first ever PGA Tour event at East Lake.
Cantlay released a message after his Tour Championship defeat to Fleetwood, suggesting that he was disappointed with his final round at East Lake.
Interestingly, Fleetwood was the crowd favourite at the Tour Championship rather than Cantlay, despite the fact that the latter is American!
We all know that the 33-year-old isn’t the most popular player in the world but still, the American fans usually stick by their own.
Cantlay’s slow play is clearly something that really hasn’t helped endear him to the fans.
Butch Harmon says the PGA Tour must act after Patrick Cantlay’s slow-play
Cantlay’s pace of play was genuinely embarrassing at East Lake on Sunday.
The PGA Tour have to be really careful here as the younger generation of fans may well start to switch off.
We live in a world now where everyone wants everything instantly, and that is certainly not something that the PGA Tour is offering right now, mainly due to players like Cantlay.
When speaking on the Son of a Butch Podcast, Claude Harmon asked his father – Butch Harmon – what he made of Cantlay’s pace of play at the Tour Championship.
He said: “I’ve got to ask you. Patrick Cantlay is a great player but what the hell is going on? I watched him on the eighth hole, he had seven looks at the hole.
“I blame the Tour, I 100 per cent blame the Tour, because if they wanted to stop slow play, they could.
“Do you think if the Tour wanted to fix slow play, they could?“
Harmon’s father responded in emphatic fashion.
He said: “They’ve got to grow a pair, because fining people is ridiculous. These guys don’t care about money, they’re all multi-millionaires. You’re not going to speed them up by doing that. But if you put two shots on them it could cost them making a cut or winning a tournament.“
Dustin Johnson’s idea to eliminate slow play after Patrick Cantlay fiasco
LIV golfer Dustin Johnson is widely regarded as one of the fastest players in the game.
So it’s easy to see why he would have a problem with slow play.
He recently explained how he would like to see the problem addressed.
Johnson noted: “You have got to take into account that there are a lot of times that even a fast player, if he plays really quickly, and you get to a really bad lie or a tough situation, you need to take a little bit longer. He deserves to be able to take a little longer on that shot, if he has played fast all day.
“Maybe there has got to be an official with each group timing each shot so then you know this is the amount of time you have on each shot. So say you get 60 seconds and you take 25 seconds every shot, you should get to gain time.”
That’s actually a brilliant idea from Johnson, and it would highlight which golfers are actually the problem when it comes to slow play.
Cantlay may be hoping that rule never actually comes into effect.
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