Sport
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am preview: Count on Cantlay to deliver at Pebble
While many of the PGA Tour’s best have jetted over to Saudi Arabia, plenty have stayed loyal to their roots meaning we still have a strong field for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Played over three courses – Spyglass Hill, Monterey Peninsula and of course, the iconic Pebble Beach, this is one of the events that players really want to win. So, given the number of celebrities about this week, get ready for some great golf, stunning views and some comedic moments all thrown into one.
Cantlay a rightful favourite
When trying to find the winner of any golf tournament, one often tries to find reasons to take on the favourite, but in Patrick Cantlay we appear to have one who is very hard to knock.
The FedEx Cup champion has made an impressive start to 2022 having finished fourth at the Sentry Tournament of Champions before cruising into contention at the American Express after a superb opening round. He struck the ball superbly on both occasions and had it not been for a cold putter – he was 14th in Hawaii and 39th at the Amex – he would surely have already tasted success
Going back through the recent winners of this event and it’s clear that approach shots are key, with the past 10 winners having an average ranking of ninth for Strokes Gained: Approach, while they ranked sixth for greens in regulation. Cantlay is 41st on approach this season, but given he’s only had six measured rounds that can be upgraded, particularly as he ranked inside the top 25 in that category the previous two seasons.
In terms of greens in regulation, Cantlay tops the rankings this season alongside Collin Morikawa, with the pair averaging nearly 80% of greens hit in the right number. He was 10th in that statistic last season, so it’s clear it’s a real strength of his game and if he can just get the putter working, the rest of the field are going to have their work cut out.
Cantlay’s case is heightened by the fact he returns to an event where he has solid form with three top 11 finishes in five starts, while he was 21st in the 2019 U.S. Open. He was third here last year where he didn’t do much wrong and it was just perhaps that, given he hit over 80% of greens in regulation, his putter wasn’t again firing on all cylinders.
As mentioned, that’s been the hindrance so far this campaign, but he really isn’t far away and could put this field to the sword at 15/2 if he gets hot on the greens.
