Patrick Cantlay rips journalist over 'false' Ryder Cup hat story: "It's crazy"

Patrick Cantlay ripped into the journalist who broke the 'story' about his refusal to wear a cap at the Ryder Cup as a protest over money.

Ben Smith

01 Oct 2023

Patrick Cantlay rips journalist over 'false' Ryder Cup hat story:

Patrick Cantlay ripped a journalist after he won his Sunday singles match at the Ryder Cup.

Per Sky Sports, Cantlay was said to have been leading a rift within the Team USA locker room over his apparent unhappiness that players at the Ryder Cup do not get compensated.

It was claimed he wasn't wearing a hat as a protest and sitting on a separate side in the dressing room alongside his good buddy Xander Schauffele.

For his part Cantlay denied the story about the cap, saying it simply didn't fit and the plan all week was not to wear one.

From Saturday afternoon onwards thousands of European fans waved their caps at the American to goad him.

Team USA players had his back, with several players deciding not to wear them as support.

Justin Thomas pretended to tip an imaginary cap all day. Schauffele also got involved in the antics.

Cantlay wouldn't answer the question directly when asked on Saturday evening if players should be compensated in the biennial dust-up.

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It was shortly after ugly scenes developed involving Rory McIlroy and Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava, who McIlroy accused of overstepping the mark with his celebrations after the 30-year-old drained huge putt to ultimately defeat the Ulsterman.

After Cantlay defeated Justin Rose 2&1, he spoke to a pool of reporters where he said the report 'couldn't be further from the truth'.

"It's totally false," he said, adding: "It couldn't be further from the truth. There hasn't been one word of that all week. The U.S. Team has been close all week."

Cantlay said he thought the interactions with the fans 'was great'. 'It's what the Ryder Cup is all about," he said.

"I just try to use it as fuel. You know, you can take all that energy and turn it into focus and turn it into good adrenaline. That's what I tried to do this week."

So what is the truth?

Cantlay said: "[There's] not a shred of truth in the article that just one journalist wrote. It's crazy that one journalist can put a tweet out there totally unfounded with complete lies and the crowd ran with it, and I tried to have fun with them all day, smile.

"That's what this event is about. You've got to embrace the crowd, and, you know, I'm happy to be out there today."