Cantlay became the first player to win the BMW Championship in back-to-back years since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. This was on a different course and he didn’t have to play six holes in a playoff. He also doesn’t have the FedEx Cup lead going into next week’s final at East Lake. All that mattered was winning at Wilmington Country Club, but he needed a little help. He was tied for the lead on the 420-yard 17th hole when he decided to hit a driver and feared it would hang in a row of bunkers on the right side. But the ball landed just short of the final down, took a big hop over the sand and dropped through the first cut and into the canyon just 64 yards from the hole. “I hit really hard [shots] and I got a lot of good breaks,” Cantlay said. “This break was something I didn’t expect. It was big for me to take advantage of that.” That’s what he did. Cantlay hit a spinning spinner that stopped 5 feet from the flag, holed the birdie putt to take the lead, then found the green on No. 18 from a fairway bunker. A year ago, he made one clutch putt after another about an hour down the road at Caves Valley and beat Bryson DeChambeau. That gave him the top seed in the Tour Championship, which comes with a 2-shot lead before the start of the tournament, and Cantlay won the FedEx Cup and its $18 million prize with a 1-shot victory over Jon Rahm. This time, he goes into the FedEx Cup Final as the No. 2 seed, meaning he’ll start next week 2 shots behind Masters champion Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler charged late with three birdies in four holes and was 1 shot behind. But he missed a 4-foot putt on the final hole for a 70, and it looked like it might cost him. Xander Schauffele, playing in the final group with Cantlay, had a 7-foot birdie putt. Had he succeeded, Schauffele would have finished alone in third place, moving Scheffler to fourth. That would make Cantlay the top seed. But the shot slipped to the right. Schauffele had a 71. Stallings has 238 starts since his last victory eight years ago at Torrey Pines, and he has played as if to end the drought. But he missed four birdie chances to within 18 feet at the end, the last from just 10 feet. The consolation prize is his first trip to the Championship Tour. Stallings was not alone. Adam Scott returns to East Lake. He was ranked No. 77 in the FedEx Cup when the postseason began, and a tie for fifth last week moved him to No. 45. Scott birdied the 12th hole and hit some great lag fakes on firm, crisp Wilmington greens for a 71 to tie for fifth. Needing par on the final hole, Scott pulled his tee shot to the edge of a bunker, meaning he had to stand in the sand and try to get out of the first cut with the golf ball up to thigh height. He pulled it into a dugout and then hit a great shot to get in. Aaron Wise had a 73 to tie for 30th. He was among four players to break into the top 30 eligible for the Tour Championship. The others were Stallings, Scott, Wise and KH Lee, who had a 65 on Sunday to tie for fifth.
