Cantlay is absolutely not ahead of Rickie. He has 1 more professional win than Rickie (and one was a Zurich win with Xander), and zero second place finishes in majors, to Rickie’s 3. Rickie has had 3 season of at least two top tens in majors (and one season with four top 5’s, and another with two top 5’s). Cantlay only has five career top 10’s.
Cantlay has two top twenty finishes at the players, with a top finish of 12th (this year).
Two memorials and two BMW’s is great for most guys, but Rickie has a players, a better major resumé, and a comparable resumé of other non-major wins
What’s the factor that goes into the best player without a major consideration? Is it best otherwise resume without a major? Best chances at a major without executing? Most potential/skills with no major? Something completely different?
I’m inclined to thing its a combo of 1 and 2 but the pod seemed more based around 3…
So Cantlay is getting credit for things we assume he might do in the future? He’s 33 now (only 3.5 years younger than Rickie), so is he going to rack up a bunch of top 10’s in majors over the next few years? If he doesn’t, does that mean Rickie had the better career? If we’re asking “who is the best player to never win a major”, we should be evaluating what they’ve actually done, and not what they could do in the future. Especially with a player who isn’t young and hasn’t looked like he’s on an upward trajectory for a couple of years
For the record I think they meant going forward for that conversation but the point still stands. His 2015 players win is among the best non major wins considering the field etc.
Hand up - I was not aware that was the case when I posted and began angrily looking at wiki pages to screenshot as proof. Turns out I just needed to listen about three more minutes to realize my mistake
@MerchCzar couldn’t be more right. I grew up in Long Island and left in my mid 30s and I don’t think I played bethpage past high school age. Impossible to get on, even before bots. Backed up constantly and the attitude was always you’re annoying them to be there. Public golf in Long Island is overall an atrocity. So few places to play, so many courses are private or closed for housing developments. The move is to drive into westChester or New Jersey the further north or west or south you can get the better the golf experience becomes.
@Randy 's story of knocking off the sprinkler head and his encounter with the “night manager” had me howling while out walking the dogs this morning.
“That thing is 12, 000 PSI’s, it’ll blow your f’ing face off”.
The best…very Shotgun Start adjacent.