TThe thermometers read 30 degrees Celsius in Rome on Sunday, but it felt a lot warmer on the parched grass of the Marco Simone Country Club. The air was brutally clear, there was not enough breeze to stir the leaves, and barren hills provided very little shade, so the spectators were all huddled together in the shelter of the pine trees.
Behind the shadows it was mad dog and English weather again, and even they wore protection: baseball caps, baggy caps, bucket hats, berets, bandanas, panamas, Stetsons, trilbies, and even the occasional gladiator helmet.
There must have been 6,000 people around the 16th green; almost everyone had something on top. Inside the ropes, Justin Rose wore a cap, as did the two caddies, Mark Fulcher and Joe LaCava, the cameramen, the commentators and journalists, the wives, brothers and sisters, children, friends and agents, the coaches, the officials, even the children holding the scoreboards. And then, there alone, alone, Patrick Cantlay stood, squinting, over a 50-foot putt, sweat dripping down his brow. No hat Pat, the last bare-headed man this side of the Tiber.
They will look back on this week and wonder when, why and how the biggest story of the tournament ultimately turned out to be the curious case of Cantlay’s missing hat. It all started on Saturday afternoon, when Sky’s golf correspondent posted a tweet saying that his sources had told him that Cantlay was upset that the team was not being paid by the PGA to play here this week, and that he was “demonstrating his frustration ”. ‘ by ‘refusing to wear a hat’. And it’s apparently true that Cantlay is upset that someone else is taking advantage of his surge this week.
However, Cantlay denied the point about the hat. He insisted that the reason he didn’t wear one was because “it didn’t fit”. To his credit, he managed to keep a straight face as he said it. If it was a protest, it doesn’t exactly happen next to Tommie Smith’s glove or Henry Olonga’s bracelet. They will, however, remember the crowd’s reaction, and all the fuss on Saturday afternoon, when they heckled him so much that LaCava snapped after Cantlay holed a birdie putt to put US 1 ahead in the fourballs match against Rory McIlroy. and Matt Fitzpatrick.
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LaCava began walking through the green, waving his cap like an old man shouting at a group of teenagers crossing his lawn. McIlroy said he had to leave because he had another putt of his own. LaCava came back at him, then Shane Lowry gave his opinion, while the entire US team waved their own caps in celebration in the background. And then there were the afters, when McIlroy and Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay shouted about it in the parking lot that night, carrying on as if it was time for the Dog & Duck.
You couldn’t miss Cantlay on Sunday. The crowd wouldn’t let you. Everywhere he went he was serenaded: ‘Where’s your hat?’ to the tune of Basement Jaxx’s Where’s Your Head At on the 2nd; “Hats off to your bank account!” to the tune of Village People’s Go West on the 3rd; ‘Where’s your hat? Where’s your hat? Cantlay! Cantlay!” to the Cranberries’ Zombie on the 5th; “It’s all about money, money, money!” to Jessie J’s price tag on the 7th. In between all that, every joker in the gallery shouted at him or waved cash in his face.
“That’s the moneylender, Patrick!” and “Cantlay, you should be paid by the hour!” and, from a feisty Scotsman: “It’s no wonder you don’t get paid!” when he dumped his tee shot into a bunker at seven o’clock. And everywhere he went he was greeted as if George VI were walking onto the pitch at a cup final, with everyone frantically taking off their caps or waving them in the air.
Cantlay didn’t care about any of it. More often than not, he would answer it all with a smile and a nod, then get ready for his shot. He was happy being the villain and is even used to it considering all the support he gets for his slow play.
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And he played brilliantly. Too good for Roos. Cantlay went 1 up with a birdie on the 2nd and never lost his lead; it was 2 when Rose made bogey at 7, and 3-up with another Cantlay birdie at 11. He was strong enough to hold off Rose when he came back at him with back-to-back birdies at the 12th and 13th.
LaCava, on the other hand, cannot have enjoyed the round. “Do you have a putt, Joe?” the crowd shouted and “When is it your turn?” and “Watch out for those sight lines, bagman!” But judging by the way he’d acted the night before, he’d expected it. Fulcher gave him a lesson in how to do that as he walked out to quiet the crowd before Cantlay’s putt went to half-16.
Cantlay may not love the Ryder Cup like some other players do, he may think the PGA should offer players more than a $200,000 donation to their favorite charity to play in it, but the sport is big enough for all types of players. , and his perseverance and good humor helped make this tournament happen. Towards the end of the round you could feel that he was even starting to win over the crowd. And the image of him leaning on his club at the side of the fairway, squinting so he could stare into the sun as he plotted his next shot, will be one of the few the American team will want to remember from this week . .