Scheffler backs up No. 1 ranking with Masters win

Phil Mickelson became the fourth player and second this year to win his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, slamming the door on Mike Weir with a back-nine surge Sunday in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

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ATLANTA – In recognition of his supreme level of character and sportsmanship, his professionalism and the distinguished manner in which he embraces the values of golf, Bernhard Langer has been named the recipient of the PGA TOUR’s 2018 Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company. Langer will be honored on Tuesday, September 18, at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the TOUR Championship. The ceremony will be televised live on Golf Channel as part of a “Golf Centralâ€� special from 7-8 p.m. ET. The Payne Stewart Award is presented annually by the PGA TOUR to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship. Stewart, an 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR and World Golf Hall of Fame member, died tragically the week of the TOUR Championship in 1999. Southern Company, the “Official Energy Company of the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions,â€� was the TOUR Championship sponsor the year of Stewart’s passing. A year later, the PGA TOUR created the Payne Stewart Award in his honor, and Southern Company has supported the annual presentation since its inception. The past winners have all distinguished themselves through their respect for the game, the TOUR’s tradition of charity and their ability to make a positive impact in the lives of others. “We all are so proud of Payne Stewart and the husband and father he was, the player he was and the character he had,â€� said Langer.  “I was very close with Payne for a number of years. Toward the end of his career, he became a believer in Jesus Christ and a Christian, and that was very touching to me because the same thing happened to me a few years earlier, so we had even more in common at that point. To now be receiving the Payne Stewart Award, I feel extremely honored. I know there are many, many other guys that deserve it as much if not more than me, and I’m thrilled to receive it.â€� Langer turned professional in 1972 at the age of 15 and joined the European Tour shortly thereafter, in 1976. He became a PGA TOUR member for four seasons beginning in 1985 and rejoined the TOUR in 2001. Originally from Munich, Germany, Langer and his wife Vikki currently reside in Boca Raton, Florida, and have four children: Jackie, Stefan, Christina and Jason. “Bernhard Langer epitomizes the ideals around which the Payne Stewart Award is built – character, charity and sportsmanship,â€� said PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan. “Fueled by his strong faith and steadfast humility, Bernhard has become one of the great ambassadors for this game and continues to set an admirable example every time he tees it up on the PGA TOUR Champions. “On the course, there has been no one more consistent or resilient over a longer period of time than Bernhard. He’s won all over the world and continues to lift trophies on a regular basis on PGA TOUR Champions. I’m still not so sure Father Time will ever catch him.â€� Charitable Commitment In addition to a sculpture by Bob Pack presented to the recipient, the Payne Stewart Award is accompanied by an annual Payne Stewart Award Grant made possible by Southern Company. The $500,000 grant supports several initiatives in Stewart’s name and is distributed as follows: $100,000 to Payne and Tracey Stewart’s primary charity, The Stewart Family Foundation; $100,000 in Stewart’s honor to The First Tee of the Ozarks located in Missouri at Kids Across America, which is affiliated with Kanakuk Kamps; and $300,000 to a charity designated by the winner. Langer has chosen to designate the Bernhard Langer Foundation, which will distribute funds to several charitable organizations that focus on providing aid to children, orphans and widows in South Florida. His charitable impact also stretches beyond the borders of the United States to his native Germany, where donations help needy families and children. A devout Christian, Langer organizes an annual charity event called “Youth for Christâ€� that raises money to help introduce Christianity to children. Other charitable organizations that Langer supports include National House of Hope Inc., Search Ministries Inc., Sheridan House Family Ministries and 4 Kids of South Florida. In addition, Langer frequently speaks at Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) functions in PGA TOUR Champions host cities and was one of the original founders and the guiding force behind the European Tour’s weekly Bible study class. During his day-to-day life on PGA TOUR Champions, Langer is a model for what the Tour strives to accomplish in providing fans with accessibility and personal interactions with the legends of the game. Langer was honored for his contributions to the game in 2006 with his appointment as honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which was originally created by King George V during World War I to reward services to the war effort by civilians, but is now given to those who make significant contributions in their own areas of activity. “The Payne Stewart Award celebrates the attributes that make our communities great – charity, sportsmanship and character,â€� said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Tom Fanning. “Southern Company is proud to recognize Bernhard, a fierce competitor, teacher and advocate for children who personifies these worthy aspirations. We extend our sincere congratulations to Bernhard, one of the most successful and revered golfers in the world.â€� A Legendary Career Langer has enjoyed nothing short of a legendary career on the golf course ever since he was first introduced to the game at 8 years old, following in his brother’s footsteps to become a caddie at the Augsburg Golf Club in Germany. Since turning professional in 1972, Langer has collected over 100 worldwide wins and is one of five players to win tournaments on six continents, joining Gary Player, David Graham, Hale Irwin and Justin Rose. Langer was the inaugural No. 1-ranked player in the world when the Official World Golf Ranking was first introduced in 1986 and spent three weeks atop the rankings. He was a 10-time European Ryder Cup team member and captained the victorious 2004 team. A two-time Masters champion (1985, 1993), Langer was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002 as the first German to be honored. When he officially joined PGA TOUR Champions after turning 50 in 2007, Langer quickly became a dominant force, winning four times over his first two seasons. Now in his 12th season, Langer owns 37 PGA TOUR Champions titles, which lists him second all time. He’s earned seven Player of the Year Awards and a record four Charles Schwab Cups as the season-long champion, including three in a row from 2014-16. Langer has also received several honors in his native Germany, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Silver Laurel Leaf, which is their highest sport award. He was also inducted into the Germany Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. Langer is the 21st recipient of the Payne Stewart Award, joining a distinguished group of respected golfers including Stewart Cink, who was recognized in 2017, and the inaugural recipients Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer (2000). Other recipients include Jim Furyk (2016), Ernie Els (2015), Sir Nick Faldo (2014), Peter Jacobsen (2013), Steve Stricker (2012), David Toms (2011), Tom Lehman (2010), Kenny Perry (2009), Davis Love III (2008), Hal Sutton (2007), Gary Player (2006), Brad Faxon (2005), Jay Haas (2004), Tom Watson (2003), Nick Price (2002) and Ben Crenshaw (2001).

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When he tees it up at this week’s Travelers Championship, Patrick Cantlay will be celebrating an anniversary, of sorts. He shot a second-round 60 at the 2011 Travelers Championship, the first 60 or better by an amateur in PGA TOUR history, and while he faded to a T24 finish, he had announced his arrival. He turned pro in 2012, and nearly saw his career end in 2013. For three-plus years, Cantlay coped with career-threatening back problems and the heartbreaking loss of his best friend, dropping off the radar completely. But to watch him today, you would never know it; he never lost a step. How is that possible? Cantlay talks a lot about process, and while you could interpret that to mean his strict regimen of back exercises, and taking one hole at a time, it’s more illuminating to go back further into his formative years, when he learned the game on an almost cellular level. He has all the shots, yes, but according to those who know him best, it’s what’s between those ears that makes Cantlay stand out most of all. “Poise is the combination of how to get yourself relaxed, seeing the big picture and what makes things happen, and being practical,� says Jamie Mulligan, Cantlay’s coach at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, California. “A lot of people get one of those. He got all three.� Says UCLA coach Derek Freeman, for whom Cantlay played for two years, “As I watched him from junior golf, maturing into the world’s best amateur, I watched a kid that understood the game at a higher level. He knew what architects were doing, what they were trying to draw your eye toward. I’m not sure I’ve ever had another young player understand the things that he did.� ‘Soaking it all in’ At first glance, little about Cantlay stands out. He is listed at 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and 160 pounds; is 26; is an introvert; and has good genes. Pat Cantlay, Patrick’s grandfather, brought his grandson Patrick to the course when he was still a toddler. Steve Cantlay, Patrick’s father, is a former club champion at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach. As it happened, Virginia C.C. was then a breeding ground for touring professionals. Paul Goydos. Peter Tomasulo. John Cook. John Mallinger. John Merrick. Cantlay watched them intently when he wasn’t working on his swing with the club’s pro, Jamie Mulligan, or playing the course each Saturday with the other pro, Mike Miles. “I was starting my PGA TOUR Champions career,� Cook says, “and Patrick was this kid who you could tell was not just a kid who played golf. He was something a little bit different. We liked being around him; he would come down and watch us practice and listen to how we talked to each other. You could tell he was soaking it all in.� Miles, who is now the Director of Golf at Oak Bridge Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, says Cantlay was an exceptionally observant learner. “Patrick basically distilled all the information,� says Miles, who played the TOUR in the 80s. “He knew who had the best short game, so he would sit and watch John Mallinger. He asked me, ‘Who’s got the best iron shots?’ I said, ‘Watch John Cook, because he was taught by Ken Venturi.’� Cantlay does not disagree. “There was some of that,� he says. “It was good to see how they prepared and practiced, and what TOUR golf was like at a young age. They were all really great to me. They would always take me out to play, or if I asked any questions they’d be really helpful.� By the time he was 12, Cantlay started taking on Miles, himself a former prodigy. Miles would play the kid using only a 3-wood, and it was only a matter of time before the student surpassed the teacher. Soon, Cantlay had a decision to make between Mater Dei and Servite, two local Catholic high schools with exceptional sports programs. The interview “I was interviewed by him to be his high school golf coach,� Servite’s Dane Jako says with a laugh. “I’d been teaching a P.E. class, and told him to meet me on the football field, and he and his parents, Steve and Colleen, got there early and sat in the bleachers. “This is my 23rd year, so I’d been in it for a few years,� Jako continues. “I’d had some success. We had won league titles and all that. I knew of him, but I also knew how the system worked. He did 90 percent of the talking, and I kept interrupting him. He wanted to know about the golf, the courses, what tournaments we were planning on playing.� Most importantly, Cantlay wanted to know what it would take to make varsity. Jako replied that he would first want to focus on making the freshman team, and then the junior varsity, and if his scores were good enough, he’d get a varsity tryout. “You could tell he didn’t like that answer,� Jako says, “so I explained to him, that’s just the process, you’ll be fine. I didn’t find out until later, he got in the car with his parents afterward and said, ‘Well, I’m never playing for that guy.’� Cantlay did in fact choose Servite; Jako now says he simply got lucky. As he remembers it, Cantlay shot 1- or 2-under on the first day of freshman tryouts. Then he shot 1- or 2-under the second day. Jako brought the kid up to varsity. Their first varsity match, a nine-hole competition at Western Hills Country Club, a formidable course that has hosted U.S. Open qualifiers, arrived on a cold, drizzly day in February. “He broke the course record, shot 31 on the front nine,� says Jako, who still has the ball Cantlay used that day. “He beat a senior from Long Beach Wilson, a good school that Paul Goydos had gone to. The kid was committed to go to Loyola-Marymount. “After that day,� Jako continues, “everything changed. Patrick led the team in stats as a freshman. It was funny how the season evolved. All the seniors, in the beginning, were like, ‘Who’s this freshman? Coach, you’re changing the rules.’ I think I dropped one of the tryouts for him. Nobody wanted to pair up with him. By the end, he was their little brother.� Cantlay took a leadership role, to say the least. Rarely did a day go by when he wouldn’t knock on the coach’s door to delve into a conversation about, say, the value in playing harder courses. “It was relentless,� Jako says. “He’s just a very driven, very loyal guy. Pat, in a matter of speaking, taught me how to be a golf coach. I was lucky that he trusted me. I consider his swing coach, Jamie Mulligan, a friend. Years later, Patrick asked me to caddie for him at a lot of events. It’s weird, considering where we started, but I consider him one of my closest friends.� Boy becomes a man Cantlay was getting close to the end of high school when he hit a growth spurt. “He went from just popping it down the fairway to, whoa, this kid has added 30 or 40 yards in three or four months,� Cook says. Cantlay was still inquisitive, still a sponge for information about the game. He reminded Cook of himself at that age. Later, after moving to Orlando and taking a membership at Isleworth, Cook would come to know another young player like that: Tiger Woods. In 2010, Cantlay won the California State High School Championship, was runner-up at the Cal State Amateur, and lost to Peter Uihlein in the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur, narrowly missing out on a Masters berth. Although his parents had gone to USC, Cantlay decamped for UCLA, where he won the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus awards as the nation’s top collegiate. And he was just getting started. His 60 at the 2011 Travelers promised an incandescent future, for Cantlay at his best appeared to have a limitless upside. Ask Miles about the contemporaries with whom he grew up—Tom Lehman, Corey Pavin, Jay Delsing and Steve Pate—and he’ll tell you Cantlay is better than any of them. He’s not the only one with such a lofty opinion. “Patrick hit smart shots at the right time,� UCLA’s Freeman says. “More than anything, he knew what made him successful and that’s what he focused on. He wouldn’t worry about anybody else.� Freeman stops, then reconsiders. “He asked me one time who was the best player I ever coached,� he says. “I’m trying to push him, so I say, ‘Kevin Chappell is better. Anthony Kim is better.’ He wants to know who is the best ball-striker, the best putter. He never liked it when I said someone was better, but as I look back now, it’s tough to say who’s the best player. Is it based on what they’ve done after school? What they’ve done in school? If he would have stayed four years like Chappell, there’s no telling how many records he could have set, how many times he could have won.� Injury and heartache Cantlay turned pro after his sophomore year in June, 2012. He would play his way up through the Web.com Tour, and take the odd sponsor’s exemption into tournaments on the big TOUR. He was leading the 2013 Web.com money list when he arrived for the Fort Worth Invitational where, he said later, it felt like someone had plunged a knife into his back as he warmed up before the second round. He withdrew, but his problems were just beginning. A short layoff became a seven-month break, and still his back wasn’t right. Cantlay struggled in 2014, making six mostly unproductive starts on TOUR; sat out 2015 entirely; and still wasn’t feeling well at the dawn of 2016. After developing a golfing mind like few others, he was now betrayed by his body. “It was just a weird deal,� says Preston Valder, one of Cantlay’s high school and college teammates and still a friend. “He was constantly proactive in everything he did to try and get better, but in the end, it was just basically: take time off. That’s a weird thing to have to do when you’re trying to get better. When we were having lunch, or seeing someone during that time, his back was all anyone ever wanted to talk about. I just wouldn’t even touch it.� Then came the tragedy. Cantlay and his best friend, Chris Roth, had figured everything out since their days at Servite: Cantlay would play the PGA TOUR, and Roth would be his caddie. That all changed in an instant in the middle of the night in Newport Beach, when Roth was struck by a car while crossing the street on the way to a restaurant. He died in Cantlay’s arms at just 24, the victim of a hit-and-run driver who would wind up behind bars. “Just a freak, one-in-a-million type deal,� Cantlay later called it. He called 911 and was covered in blood when the ambulance arrived; Roth was pronounced dead at the hospital. Cantlay spent the rest of 2016 rebuilding emotionally as well as physically. There were times, he said, when nothing seemed to matter. But when he returned in 2017, it was as if he’d never left golf’s ruling class. There was something deep inside him that had emerged unscathed. In limited action, so as to protect his L5 vertebrae, he fulfilled his Major Medical Extension in just his second start, an eye-opening runner-up at the Valspar Championship. More incredibly still, Cantlay made 13 cuts in 13 starts, and despite his limited schedule got all the way to the TOUR Championship. Last fall he nabbed his first victory at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, where Woods had broken through 21 years earlier. Back among the elite Cantlay led going into the back nine of the recent Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, but faltered coming home to finish solo fourth. He is back to playing a full schedule this year, and while he keeps a small apartment in California, he has recently taken a condo rental in North Palm Beach, Florida. During off-weeks you can find him not at Long Beach but at The Bear’s Club, butting heads with fellow 20-somethings like Justin Thomas. Pat Cantlay, Patrick’s grandfather, doesn’t play much anymore, but he still mows that backyard putting green every day. Patrick’s dad, Steve, is no longer in his golfing prime. Patrick, having learned his lessons from them and others, spends his idle hours picking through non-fiction tomes like “A Brief History of Time� (Stephen Hawking), “The Selfish Gene� (Richard Dawkins) and a comprehensive biography of General George Patton. His book of the moment is “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies� (Jared Diamond). “I like reading about certain people,� Cantlay says, “and seeing if I can pick up anything that other successful people have done.� He’s not an e-book guy, incidentally; he likes the feel of the pages on his fingers. And he is careful not to treat any one account as gospel. “Like with history,� he says, “you’re not going to get an honest or a straight look from any one person. You’ve got to blend everybody’s take, and that’s the closest you’re going to get.� As ever, that philosophy extends to the golf course. “If he’s playing with Phil,� his pal Valder says, “and Phil’s good with wedges, Patrick is trying to learn how he does it.� Goydos now sees in Cantlay a player who fell on tough times but whose extraordinary golfing acumen saw him through to the other side. “You shoot 60 as an amateur, there are expectations that can be difficult,� Goydos says. “Then you get hurt and don’t compete for three and a half years, well, that doesn’t make it any easier. Then you come out and play 13 tournaments and make the TOUR Championship? That’s ridiculous. How many guys could do that? Tiger could do it, Jack could do it, Hogan could do it. It’s a pretty small club.� Adds Miles of his former pupil, “If he didn’t win two or more majors, I would be awfully surprised.� The golf world awaits.

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