Column: Even without Woods, majors not any easier to win

DETROIT – It was a midsummer day in America, and the golfing Cantlay siblings were hard at work. Patrick, 30, the oldest, was in the Midwest, gearing up for this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club, aiming for another solid week with just five tournaments remaining in his bid to become the first to successfully defend his FedExCup title. (He’s presently sixth in the standings.) Jack, 18, the youngest, was making headlines in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes. After shooting a tournament-record 28 on his back nine in the first round of stroke-play qualifying, he beat Connor Williams, 4 and 3, in Wednesday’s first round of match play. Caroline, 23, a new graduate of Cal Poly, where she was a decorated member of the golf team, was settling into a new job as a tournament coordinator for the Pebble Beach Company. And Nick, who is 27 and has partial status on PGA TOUR Canada, was back home in Los Alamitos, California, honing his game for Korn Ferry Tour Q-School this fall. “We’ve all been inspired by Patrick and especially by his work ethic,” said family patriarch Steve Cantlay, who works in real estate and self-storage, and is four-time club champion at two different clubs. “But at the same time the kids have all forged their own paths. Jack is with his mom and her mom this week, but by and large we’ve let them do it on their own, dictating how hard they want to practice and everything else. We just feel like it’s better that way.” Reaching the upper echelon of any field is hard, but for siblings to do so is even harder. The Kuehne siblings made it to the TOUR (Hank), the LPGA (Kelli), and the highest rung of amateur golf (Trip). Sisters Nelly and Jessica Korda – coached by Jamie Mulligan, the same guy who coaches Patrick – have thrived on the LPGA. Peyton and Eli Manning won Super Bowls. But it’s not easy. The siblings must share the same passion, for starters. A history-making 28 The big headline-maker in the Cantlay family this week has been not Patrick but Jack. The rising Long Beach State freshman started this week’s U.S. Junior by going out in 39, but responded with a 28 (four birdies, two eagles) for the lowest nine-hole score in the 74-year history of the championship. He went from outside the cut line to grabbing the No. 4 seed in the 64-man, match-play bracket after shooting a second-round 70. Observers noted that he is Patrick’s kid brother, and in true Patrick Cantlay style, Jack shrugged off that record-setting performance as just another good round. Big brother Patrick was more effusive. “One of the things I really liked about it is I think he was 3 over par, 4 over par through eight holes in the biggest tournament he’s ever played,” Patrick said, “and then instead of panicking or losing it, he went out and, I mean … I think played his last 10 holes in 9 under.” (He did.) “That’s great for someone who hasn’t played a USGA championship before,” he added. “Being on the biggest stage, being able to do that after that kind of start, I thought that showed a lot of character.” Perhaps it runs in the family. Patrick and Nick are quieter and more reserved. Caroline and Jack are extroverts. “We are all very different and have unique personalities,” Caroline said, “but we are all very competitive in anything and everything.” Jack was not considered a blue-chip recruit, and chose to stay home for college, but who knows what his ceiling is? Patrick was out of the game for years with back problems; now he’s a seven-time TOUR winner. Nick was a basketball player and didn’t seriously pursue golf until he was well into high school. Caroline played for Cal Poly and was the 2019 Southern California Golf Association Match Play champion, but opted out of the life of a touring pro. “They’ve all grown up with a golf club like it’s a knife or a fork,” said Mulligan, a teaching professional and the CEO at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, California, where he began teaching Patrick when the latter was 7. “They’ve been watching Patrick every shot, and I always say the best way to learn how to play great golf is to watch great golf.” Patrick, of course, is a generational talent, a golfing unicorn. Jack, who after making the turn birdied holes 10, 14 and 15 to close out his first-round U.S. Junior match against Williams, regards him as possibly the most influential person in his life. “I’ve always watched him play golf competitively,” Jack said, “…and I’ve wanted to do it, too, so it’s kind of led me down this path of playing competitively at a high level.” Strength in numbers The siblings have regular skull sessions on the game. Jack and Nick go back and forth about how to play certain shots. Jack and Caroline followed Patrick as he tied for eighth at the recent Open Championship at St. Andrews. Jack and Patrick have been in touch about the U.S. Junior. “We traded some texts (Tuesday) night after he finished up,” Patrick said. “I think he’s the four seed maybe, right around there going into match play, so we traded some texts on match play. “But he’s been working really hard on his game for a while now,” he continued, “and it’s really nice to see all the improvement that he’s had in his game. I know we played a number of years ago and we talked about really getting sharp around the greens and he’s improved that a lot.” Pat Neylan, the siblings’ maternal grandfather, was the family’s first golf nut. He and Mulligan used to sneak out for as many holes as they could get in after Mulligan closed the Virginia C.C. pro shop. Neylan, who built a short-game practice area in his backyard, brought young Patrick to the course. The Cantlay siblings are also connected to other legends – Mulligan and John Cook were taught by Ken Venturi, who learned from Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. And they were influenced by the many TOUR pros (Cook, Paul Goydos, John Merrick, John Mallinger, etc.) who hung around Virginia C.C. Patrick has always had good players to watch, and so has Jack – starting with his oldest brother. “I used to watch him hole by hole,” Jack said. “Now if he has a good round, somebody might say something, and I’ll look into it. It’s more casual now. I do want to be my own person. “Eventually one day I want to play on the PGA TOUR, play at the highest level,” he added. He certainly has the blueprint for success, as do his next two oldest siblings. “Patrick is very talented,” Caroline said, “but what I’ve always noticed more than anything is that he works incredibly hard. His dedication and hard work is something that I’ve always admired and tried to emulate; I think Jack and Nick would agree with me in saying that he proved to us all that consistent hard work really pays off.”

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ESPN+ and the PGA TOUR have reached an agreement for ESPN+ to stream live, featured-hole coverage from 12 PGA TOUR events this season, starting with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend through the FedExCup Playoffs and the TOUR Championship, Sept. 6-7 in Atlanta. The new pact comes ahead of the launch of PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+, the nine-year domestic rights agreement announced in March, which begins in 2022. For the remainder of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season, ESPN+ will stream coverage of two featured holes on Saturday and Sunday of each event, concurrent with the full telecast on CBS or NBC. The featured holes will be selected each day by the PGA TOUR. “We’re excited to be adding live PGA TOUR coverage to ESPN+ as this season resumes, and we look forward to ESPN+ being the future home of PGA TOUR LIVE beginning in 2022,� said Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President & General Manager, ESPN+. PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ When it launches at the start of the 2022 season, PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will deliver to golf fans more than 4,000 hours of live coverage from 36 tournaments a year, including a full four days of coverage at 28 events with four simultaneous live feeds each day. PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will also feature on-demand replays of PGA TOUR events, original golf programs, speed round recaps and more. The coverage of PGA TOUR featured holes this season complements upcoming ESPN and ESPN+ coverage of the PGA Championship and the Masters. ESPN+ will be available to ESPN+ subscribers as part of the base subscription, which is available through the ESPN App on mobile and connected devices, ESPN.com or ESPNplus.com. It is also available as part of a bundle offer that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu (ad-supported), and ESPN+ at a discounted price.

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Already with three victories and a career-best 17 finishes in the top 10, Rory McIlroy has put himself in position to add to those totals going into the weekend at the HSBC Champions.

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