Can We Finally Get Rid of Patrick Cantlay?

In this addition of Ask Alan, our Alan Shipnuck takes reader questions in the aftermath of the U.S. beating the Internationals in the Presidents Cup, 18.5-11.5.

You are given the reins to determine what the 2026 Presidents Cup will look like. What changes, if any, would you make? @DREAMWeaver2784

I’m going to start by moving the event to TPC Sawgrass. It’s the ultimate risk-reward course and would be bonkers in match play. Next, I’m going to have captains who bring actual juice: Phil Mickelson for the U.S. and Greg Norman for the Internationals. Enough with the vanilla nice guys! This event needs some real animosity, not the fake tough guys deleting tweets. Obviously LIV golfers will be welcomed back; it makes zero sense to ban the most popular player in the game, Bryson DeChambeau, and some of the biggest stars in international golf. I like four rounds of golf—hey, my Thursdays are boring otherwise—but the format gets very redundant so I’m mixing in one session of worst-ball scramble and one session of Wolf Hammer. Malbon will do uniforms for both teams. And I’m banning Patrick Cantlay simply because his constipated visage is bad TV.

Can we get rid of Cantlay? I cannot ever support a team he is on. @pcmancini

Notwithstanding the answer above, we cannot. And, actually, it’s a good thing: he’s the only antihero left on the PGA Tour. It’s too bad Cantlay is no longer endorsing Goldman Sachs because Cantlay reminds me of Matt Taibbi’s famous description of Goldman: “A great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” OK, maybe that’s a little harsh but Cantlay is one of the key obstructions in the neverending PIF-Tour negotiations and therefore partially responsible for the game remaining broken. He remains bitter that he turned down a $75-million offer from LIV and is now exacting his pound of flesh. But props to Cantlay because he has been the U.S.’s grittiest player at the last two Cups, Ryder and Presidents. He adds spice to the whole thing, even if it’s pungent.

I’m all for the Keegan redemption, as he got screwed two years ago. But after those three putts to WIN the Pres. Cup, none of which were all that close, I’d prefer he stick to the headset rather than have a putter in hand at Bethpage. Thoughts on Keegan as playing captain? @jackback24

Yeah, Bradley was bleeding to death at the end of his singles match versus a game Si Woo Kim but let’s not forget Keegan managed to win the match for his second full point of the week. Putting is always going to be a weakness but the rest of his game is so strong he remains a threat. If he is an automatic qualifier for the Ryder Cup, he will certainly tee it up but I think this Prez Cup made it obvious he should have a limited role, perhaps one fourball session and then sit himself until singles, when there are no more decisions to be made. 

Can Tom Kim expect some negative reaction from American crowds at future regular PGA Tour events as a result of his antics this week? #askalan @deskeenan65

Kim reminds me of my pooch Monty, who loves to bark at delivery men … but the one time the Amazon guy accidentally pushed open the front door, the dog hid behind the couch. No one is taking Kim’s antics seriously enough to be genuinely put off. The Presidents Cup is an entertainment product and Kim made the whole thing more interesting, which was badly needed. He’s simply too harmless for there to be any lingering bad blood.

Still scratching my few follicles trying to understand Weir’s Saturday pairings. Your thoughts?  @colmburke

Weir sending out the exact same teams for the afternoon session after they got smoked in the morning is among the most head-scratching things I’ve seen in three decades of covering the Presidents Cup. The 3-1 loss in the afternoon session doomed the Internationals to an insurmountable deficit but had other knockdown effects. Benching four guys the day before singles is a death blow to their confidence and Weir also forced five of his players to play all five matches. Their flagging energy on Saturday afternoon and into Sunday killed any chance of an International comeback. You can’t underestimate the Canada factor here, as three of the eight players Weir rode so hard on Saturday are fellow Canucks he selected as captain’s picks. He was giving the home crowd what they wanted and the thrill of a lifetime to players he has mentored. The Internationals were so outmanned they were going to lose this Cup no matter what the captains did but it does feel like Weir’s quizzical decision-making robbed us of a more competitive event.

… and the fact the Internationals were refused the ability to select their best team.  @GaryDaly

There is no question here so I will simply say that, per Strokes Gained numbers, replacing Max Homa with Bryson DeChambeau would have given the U.S. a bigger boost than the Internationals subbing in Joaco Niemann and Cam Smith for any of the lesser Internationals. Smith and Niemann certainly have more flair and more box office than, say, Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, but the advanced metrics don’t suggest they would have been game-changers.

Can you think of a more highly anticipated Ryder Cup in recent years? @leaderboardco

Yeah, Bethpage is going to be immense. I honestly hope no alcohol is served so the Noo Yawk crowd doesn’t get totally out of control. Either way, it promises to be the most overheated environment since the War by the Shore in 1991. In the last two decades, only one road team has prevailed: Europe, with its epic comeback at Medinah in 2012. The core of the U.S. team is so strong and all of these players know the Americans’ mettle is in question after pathetic performances at two of the last three Cups. Meanwhile, Europe has reloaded with awesome young talent. Players from Rory McIlroy to Jordan Spieth have talked about a road win in the Ryder Cup as one of the things they covet most in the game. No matter how the teams shake out, it’s going to be an incredible Cup. But, as always, the tour wars hangs over all of this, as Europe would be badly diminished without Jon Rahm and the U.S. could miss out on the firepower of DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. (Other LIV golfers who would potentially be in the mix include Tyrrell Hatton and Sergio Garcia and even Dustin Johnson, who, lest we all forget, went 5-0 at the last Ryder Cup he played in and I think is due for one last gasp in the majors, which would bolster his candidacy.) But the Ryder Cup is bigger than any of the players and Bethpage is going to be a corker.

Do you honestly think Rahm isn’t going to be at Bethpage!? @pocketaces718

He’ll be there. Note that the European Tour is taking its sweet time to hear Rahm’s appeal on the unpaid fines that would have prevented him, as a LIV loyalist, from competing in Euro Tour events. I would bet the farm that the Tour will wait another few weeks to deal with the appeal, allowing Rahm to play in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Andalucia Masters. That would give him the required minimum of four starts this season on the Euro Tour to retain his membership and be eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup. Of course, Rahm is very likely to lose his appeal, meaning that to actually compete at Bethpage the fines will have to be paid. LIV will actually cough up the money but for Rahm, a proud and stubborn personality, it is a matter of principle. He is offended that after years of supporting the Euro Tour it would deign to impose sanctions on him. But Rahm loves the Ryder Cup and knows his team needs him and that it would be a huge black mark on his career if he doesn’t play, likely dooming Europe to defeat over a pissy bureaucratic dispute. Ultimately, I believe he’ll back down, the fines will quietly get paid and he’ll be a load at Bethpage. 

What do you think about the idea of adding LPGA players to the Presidents Cup teams in the future? @GothGolfGirl

This comes up around every Presidents Cup and of course I love the idea, because, as constructed, the Prez will always be second fiddle to the Ryder Cup and it will take a radical rethink to change that. (There is basically zero public outcry to mess with the Ryder Cup format, despite five straight lopsided results.) But the Prez Cup is one of the PGA Tour’s crown jewels and the lords of Ponte Vedra don’t want their players to share the stage. In the scenario of adding female pros to the Presidents Cup, what about the European women – would they be forever left out? If you do add them, the whole nationalistic flavor of the competition gets increasingly muddled. We now have the Grant Thornton Invitational, bringing together the best PGA Tour and LPGA players; the Scandinavian Mixed for their Euro counterparts; the Sandbelt Invitational, in which Aussie men and women play together, and the Pebble Beach Invitational, a fun off-season event where male and female pros compete on the same leaderboard. The last decade has been a boom time for mixed tournaments but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen at a Cup.

Feel like golf desperately needs an offseason. There is never any build up. As much as I love the game it seems to never end. @HighFades

It used to be different. I remember Mickelson at a long-ago PGA Championship in August ending a press conference by telling reporters he’d see them next at Torrey Pines … which was five months away. The FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai and Fall Season has changed all of that and not for the better. This is one thing LIV has gotten right: less is more. The Tour would be much better off if the schedule shrank by at least a third.

Have you considered donating your eyebrows to charity? @scottgolfs

Not sure any NGO is equipped for such a large donation.

Top Photo Caption: Patrick Cantlay celebrates a dramatic win during the Presidents Cup last weekend. (GETTY IMAGES/Harry How)

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