Patrick Cantlay’s choice of headwear Saturday at the Ryder Cup (or lack thereof) was the target of some good ol’ fashion heckling from the European faithful at Marco Simone.
Cantlay has gone capless at the Ryder Cup, and Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir reported early Saturday morning that there is a symbolic reason why.
“Understand from several sources that the US team room is fractured, a split led predominantly by Patrick Cantlay,” Weir tweeted. “Cantlay believes players should be paid to participate in the Ryder Cup, and is demonstrating his frustration at not being paid by refusing to wear a team cap.” (Sky Sports later published a story on the alleged dissension.)
Cantlay has not spoken to reporters since the report, but fans at Marco Simone have used the story as trolling fuel.
With Cantlay and Wyndham Clark on the 10th green in their match against Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick, fans started waving their hats toward the American star.
The NBC broadcast crew addressed the situation and analyst Paul Azinger held nothing back regarding what he thought of the report.
“That’s just hearsay! It’s a garbage story. It’s just clickbait in my opinion,” Azinger said. “[U.S. captain] Zach [Johnson] told everybody yesterday that this American team wasn’t feeling well. What are they supposed to all be huggy-kissy?
“And they’re saying they’re separated in the locker room and there’s this big fracture and I just don’t believe it.”
Azinger, like most of the media and fans, had not spoken to Cantlay or Johnson since the report came up Saturday morning, and he did not say why he believed the story was inaccurate.
“I may be wrong,” he added. “Maybe he does want to be paid, but I don’t think it’s a problem.
“I hope I’m right.”
Ryder Cup players are not paid directly for the week. But the PGA of America does give each U.S. player $200,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.
The European team is also not compensated by the DP World Tour.
Cantlay did not wear a hat during his previous Ryder Cup appearance in 2021, which is not uncommon as players are free from their typical sponsor obligations for the week. He did wear one at the Presidents Cup last year.
Heading into afternoon fourballs on Saturday, Cantlay was 0-2-0 in two foursomes matches with Xander Schauffele. Despite his excellent previous record with Schauffele in team play, Cantlay was repaired with Clark for the afternoon fourballs as the U.S. was in a massive 9.5-2.5 deficit.
