Patrick Cantlay wins second straight BMW Championship in thrilling finish

Patrick Cantlay won another thriller Sunday in the BMW Championship, getting a great bounce on the 17th hole that set up a short birdie and led to a two-under-par 69 and a one-shot victory over Scott Stallings.

Cantlay became the first player to win the BMW Championship back-to-back since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. This was on a different course and he didn’t have to go six playoff holes. He also doesn’t have the FedEx Cup lead going into the finale next week 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 driver, and he feared it would get hung up in a series of bunkers down the right side. But the ball landed short of the last bunker, took a big hop over the sand, and tumbled through the first cut and into the fairway just 64 yards from the hole.

“I hit a lot of solid and got a lot of good breaks,” Cantlay said. “That break was something I was not expecting. It was big for me to take advantage of it.”

That he did. Cantlay hit a spinner that skipped and stopped five feet from the flag, holed the birdie putt for the lead and 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 at the Tour Championship, which comes with a two-shot margin before the tournament starts, and Cantlay won the FedEx Cup and its $18 million prize with a one-shot win over Jon Rahm.

This time, he goes into the FedEx Cup finale as the No. 2 seed, meaning he will start next week two shots behind Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler put on a late charge with three birdies in a four holes and was one shot behind. But he missed a four-foot par putt on the final hole for a 70, and it looked as if it might cost him.

Xander Schauffele, playing in the final group with Cantlay, had a seven-foot birdie putt. If he made it, Schauffele would have finished alone in third, moving Scheffler to fourth. That would have made Cantlay the top seed. But the putt slid by on the right. Schauffele had a 71.

Stallings has gone 238 starts since his last victory eight years ago at Torrey Pines, and he played as if that drought might end. But he missed four birdie chances inside 18 feet at the end, the last one from just inside 10 feet.

The consolation prize is his first trip to the Tour Championship.

U.S. Amateur Championship

PARAMUS, N.J. — Texas A&M senior Sam Bennett won the U.S. Amateur on Sunday, building a 5-up lead over Ben Carr and holding on for a 1-up victory at Ridgewood Country Club.

Bennett is No. 3 in the world amateur ranking and had to get past three straight players ranked in the top 10 to reach the championship match.

Bennett was 3 up after the first 18 holes and won two more holes early in the afternoon to seize control. Carr kept chipping away and pulled within one hole with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-five 17th.

Needing to win the 18th to extend the match, Carr missed the fairway to the right and came up short. He chipped to eight feet. Bennett was on the green and had two putts from 12 feet to win. He lagged it within inches for the win.

Bennett is exempt into the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open next year.

PGA Champions Tour

ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Padraig Harrington won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on Sunday for his second PGA Tour Champions victory of the year.

Harrington closed with a five-under 67 at En-Joie Golf Club for a three-stroke victory over Mike Weir and Thongchai Jaidee.

A stroke behind Weir entering the day, Harrington birdied Nos. 2, 3, 9, 11 and 12 in a bogey-free round to finish at 16-under 200.