Patrick Cantlay’s performance at the US Open gave him confidence heading into the Travelers Championship

With Rory McIlroy falling short on the Pinehurst No. 2 greens at the US Open on Sunday, his final-round partner Patrick Cantlay tried to stay in contention for the first major victory of his career.

Cantlay, the leader after a first round of four under on Thursday, was unable to increase his lead in the second and third rounds, leaving him chasing eventual winner Bryson DeChambeau on Sunday. And the greens weren’t just unkind to McIlroy; the entire field struggled against Pinehurst all week.

“It’s definitely unique because the most challenging part of the golf course is the green complexes,” Cantlay told Fox News Digital ahead of the PGA Tour’s next stop: the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. “The locations of the holes were difficult. Lots of people have been walking the greens late in the day, and they are very fast. The hole locations were on a lot of slopes, so it’s a challenge when you have those short putts.”

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Cantlay finished third at Pinehurst, which is still a fantastic finish despite not being able to lift the trophy.

However, Cantlay has not been able to call himself a tournament winner since August 21, 2022, when he took home the BMW championship. He sits at eighth in the World Golf Rankings after his finish last week, 10th in the FedEx Cup Rankings and has three top-10 finishes this season.

Simply put, Cantlay is one of the best on Tour, and has been that way for quite some time. Still, he’s eager to get back into the winner’s circle, and he feels his game is in the right place to do that on a course he’s dominated since he was an amateur.

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The Travelers Championship is an event Cantlay looks forward to every year because he knows how to get the job done at TPC River Highlands.

“Travelers is always one of my favorite events of the year,” he said. “They do a fantastic job. I think this might be the event I’ve played the most on Tour. I think I’ve played it seven or eight, maybe even nine times now. The track is in the best shape I have ever seen. They have made some minor adjustments to the golf course that I have seen, and I think these will be improvements. The course is really in fantastic condition and with the weather we hopefully won’t get any thunderstorms.”

At the time of writing this article, thunderstorms are forecast for Friday and Saturday as a heatwave sweeps through the Northeast. But rain in Cromwell is something Cantlay has seen in the past, and it worked in his favor in 2011 when he scored a 60, which is still the lowest score for an amateur in PGA Tour history. It was also the course record at the time until Jim Furyk broke it in 2016 with a 58.

“My game is in a good place,” Cantlay said. ‘I’m not sure the weather will cooperate in the year I’ve been shooting 60. The day before it rained all day; Thursday was actually a rain shower. So the golf course was soft and accessible. With the forecast, I imagine it will be quite difficult compared to that year and this year. But I feel good about my game, especially last week, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Cantlay has finished in the top 15 or better in each of his past six starts at TPC River Highlands, including a tie for fourth in last year’s Travelers Championship.

And after last week’s tricky putting surfaces, where he and caddy Joe LaCava may have had trouble reading the greens, Cantlay says he will “draw on the experience and good play” to shoot low.

While hitting putts, especially those that put a circle on the scorecard, is always the goal on Tour, Cantlay explained how hitting fairways, especially in rain and a long rough, will be crucial to getting into contention .

“I think the rough is going to last quite a long time this week, and because the greens are firm, or what I expect to be firm given the weather forecast, I think it’s going to be important to play from the fairway,” he said. “This week’s golf course will give you some opportunities if you do that. I think if I can control the ball well, I should have a chance.”

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Despite the result, if last week is any indication of Cantlay’s play heading into this year’s Travelers Championship, he should be among the favorites to walk away with a win.

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