The 29-year-old is contemporary off the again of profitable the BMW Championship final week — his third Tour victory of the yr — and headed into the PGA Tour Championship with a 2-stroke lead this week.
But whereas pleasure builds round him, Cantlay is staying calm and targeted on the job at hand.
It’s an perspective that, in tandem together with his regular hand on the inexperienced, has earned him the nickname “Patty Ice.”
“If the fans want to call me that, I think it’s great. I think it’s a term of endearment a little bit.”
Cantlay was in a position to present these trademark nerves of metal on the BMW Championship final weekend, the place he made numerous clutch putts in a nail-biting, six-hole sudden-death playoff towards Bryson DeChambeau.
When requested how he manages to remain so calm underneath stress, Cantlay says it’s kind of of nature and nurture.
“I have that disposition to begin with,” he provides. “And then I also come ideologically from a place of I’m going to do things that help, so if it doesn’t help, I’m going to try not to do it. ”
“If I assumed that getting amped up, getting excessive, getting low would assist, then I’d do it. I do not suppose it helps me, so I’m not going to do it.
“I try to get as focused as I can and I try to, especially when I’m putting, almost enter like a trance-like feeling and being the way I am, I think, facilitates that.”
But his unflappable exterior isn’t all the time a sign of what is occurring beneath the floor.
While there could also be ice operating via his veins within the greatest moments on the course, there’s all the time an simple pleasure that he is on the market doing the factor he loves essentially the most.
“Winning golf tournaments, believe it or not,” he says when requested what will get him excited.
“The alternative to make putts like that once they matter, I feel that is one of the intriguing and enjoyable components of golf.
“And so being in that moment is everything I’ve prepared for and everything I’ve practiced for. If you don’t love that moment, you’re doing the wrong thing.”
‘The hardest factor I’ve needed to take care of’
Being in a position to play golf isn’t one thing Cantlay takes with no consideration anymore.
The Californian has skilled some darkish years prior to now, together with a critical again damage that pressured him to overlook round three years of aggressive top-level golf.
“It was obviously the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with in my life up to this point,” he provides. “The most traumatic and possibly life-altering.
“Your perspective adjustments immediately. I keep in mind feeling as if every little thing, every little thing that might have been crucial factor to me on this planet, was immediately of zero significance.
“I think I am probably a better person now because of it, but I don’t wish that on anybody. It’s not something you want to go through to gain that perspective.”
Cantlay is now again having fun with golf and dealing laborious to satisfy his potential.
While he tries to keep away from setting main targets, he is targeted on ironing out the weaknesses in his recreation and this week’s PGA Championship is yet one more alternative for him to construct on the successes of this yr.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he is began the event in high-quality type and retained his two-shot benefit after the primary day on Thursday.
The American hit a three-under-par 67 to remain forward of Spain’s Jon Rahm.
