Tour Championship 2022: As Patrick Cantlay heats up, his overlooked yet stellar season comes into focus

Would you believe the golf for Cantlay in 2022 has actually been ... better than it was last year?

It's taken nearly the entire golf season, but Patrick Cantlay might finally be providing an encore worthy of his four-win FedEx Cup championship campaign from a year ago. Logging exactly zero individual PGA Tour wins prior to Sunday's BMW Championship, Cantlay's follow-up to his dizzying 2021 summer could have been considered a disappointment.

However, after four rounds in Delaware last week, he now has a chance to do something only Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have ever accomplished: become a multi-time winner of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Cantlay will start the Tour Championship in second place on the leaderboard, beginning his title defense at 8 under, two back of leader Scottie Scheffler and at least one clear of everybody else in the field. While the Tour Championship is not a major, to go back to back at East Lake with the caliber of field present each year -- and this much money at stake -- would be a monumental achievement.