WILMINGTON, Del. — One good break. One great shot. That's what it took Sunday for Patrick Cantlay to win the BMW Championship for the second straight time with a finish that was nothing like last year, except for his clutch moments.
One other difference: The victory didn't give him the No. 1 seed going into the FedEx Cup playoffs finale that starts Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
That was of little concern to Cantlay after his birdie-par finish for a 2-under 69, giving him a one-shot victory over Scott Stallings at Wilmington Country Club.
"I was glad not to go six holes in a playoff," Cantlay said, referring to his unlikely playoff win last season over Bryson DeChambeau at Caves Valley, the course near Baltimore that hosted the 2021 BMW Championship.
This edition of the pentulimate event of the PGA Tour season looked to be headed that way when Cantlay and Stallings were tied down the stretch, with Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele lurking.
Tied with two holes to play, Cantlay took an aggressive line to cut off the corner of a dogleg and figured he was headed for a cluster of bunkers. But the ball landed short of the last trap, took a big hop over the sand, tumbled into the first cut and rolled out to the fairway, just 64 yards from the hole.
"I thought hitting it on that line, it would for sure be in a bunker," he said. "Got an excellent break -- maybe one of the best breaks I've gotten coming down the stretch -- and when you get a break like that, you need to pay it off."
That he did, hitting a spinner with a wedge that skipped and stopped five feet behind the hole for a birdie and a one-shot lead. Stallings in the group ahead narrowly missed a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet on the last hole for a 69.
Cantlay needed par to win and fanned his drive into a bunker, the ball above his feet, 158 yards to pin on a steeply pitched green.
"I tried to slice an 8-iron about as hard as I could and went to about where I thought I could get it, and it was one of the best shots I hit all week," he said.
His putt caught the lip of the cup, leaving him a tap-in, about the easiest shot he had all day.
Cantlay, who finished at 14-under 270, became the first player to win the BMW Championship in consecutive years since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. The victory, his second of the year, moved him to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
He played all four rounds with Schauffele, and only later did he realize he could have used a little help from his best friend on tour. Schauffele (71) missed a seven-foot birdie putt on the last hole that would given him third place and moved Scheffler to fourth.
That would have made Cantlay the No. 1 seed, which comes with a two-shot lead before the Tour Championship begins Thursday. Now he will start two shots behind Scheffler, who had missed a short par putt on the last hole that ultimately didn't cost him in the FedEx Cup.
Stallings has gone 238 starts since his most recent victory, and he played like that drought might finally be over. 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.
"That was the biggest goal of the year," Stallings said. "Better late than never."
Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell (71) tied for 32nd at 3 under, and fellow Baylor School graduate Luke List (73) shared 61st at 4 over. Neither advanced to the Tour Championship.
'No drama' victory
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Padraig Harrington won the Dick's Sporting Goods Open for his second PGA Tour Champions victory of the year.
The 50-year-old from Ireland closed with a 5-under 67 at En-Joie Golf Club and finished at 16-under 200 for a three-stroke triumph over Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee (66) and Canada's Mike Weir (71) in the 54-hole event.
"Unusual for me, no drama, no real drama," Harrington said. "Normally, I create something coming home. ... Got the right breaks at the right time, holed the right putts and played nicely."
A stroke behind Weir entering the day, Harrington birdied Nos. 2, 3, 9, 11 and 12 in a bogey-free round.
Harrington won the U.S. Senior Open in June. He also has four runner-up finishes and a tie for third in 11 starts this year, his first on the senior circuit.
Jim Furyk (68) and Vijay Singh (69) shared fourth place at 12 under, and 64-year-old Bernhard Langer (68) followed at 10 under with Darren Clarke (69), Gene Sauers (70) and Ken Tanigawa (68).
Kieffer breaks through
VYSOKY UJEZD, Czech Republic — Maximilian Kieffer closed with a 6-under 66 to win the DP World Tour's rain-shortened Czech Masters, the first victory on the European circuit for the 32-year-old German.
Kieffer finished at 16-under 200, one shot ahead of overnight leader Gavin Green of Malaysia.
Play was suspended for the day Saturday at Albatross Golf Resort near Prague when the course was flooded after heavy rain early in the third round. The round resumed Sunday with the tournament decided over 54 holes instead of 72.
After starting the round four shots behind Green, he rebounded from a bogey on the 15th with a decisive seventh birdie of the round on the par-4 17th to take the lead. Kieffer had four runner-up finishes on the tour before finally getting his first title.
Green (71) equaled his best tour result; he was runner-up at the 2017 Hero Indian Open.
Finland's Tapio Pulkkanen bogeyed the final 18th hole for a 67 and tied South Africa's Louis de Jager (68) for third at 14 under.
Aggie wins U.S. Am
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. It was closer than he would have liked.
Bennett was 3 up after the first 18 holes and won two more holes early in the afternoon to seize control. Carr, a fifth-year senior at Georgia Southern, kept chipping away and pulled within one hole with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th.
"I got off to a hot start, then after lunch, he started dropping in putts and chips from everywhere," Bennett said. "It made me nervous. I got pretty tight."
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 not only a USGA title but exemptions into the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open next year.