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ATLANTA — The system is one Patrick Cantlay still dislikes, one that saw him earn $15 million on Sunday as the PGA Tour’s season-long champion despite not shooting the lowest 72-hole score at the Tour Championship.

No matter.

Cantlay followed the format, and he hit the big shots when necessary to hold off Jon Rahm and win the FedEx Cup title at East Lake while also stamping himself a big-time player over the past few weeks.

After dispatching Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship in a six-hole playoff a week ago, Cantlay stayed on form and led the strokes-adjusted Tour Championship from the moment he teed off on Thursday until he tapped in his winning birdie putt on Sunday.

And it brought to full circle a 10-year journey that saw him as a hotshot college player at UCLA and top-ranked amateur in the country to a low point when a back injury kept him from playing golf for two years. Now, here he is, beating the best players in the game while planting himself among them.

“The biggest thing is it’s given me great perspective,” said Cantlay, 29, who is ranked fourth in the world. “I think for a long time, everything just went great. Growing up, I felt like I got better and better in golf and life got better and better, and then it got as bad as it could have been. I felt as low as it could have been for a little while.

“Coming out on the other side of that, I feel like I am a better person having gone through those dark days. But it gives me great perspective, and it makes me very grateful to be in the position I’m in, because it wasn’t always a sure thing. I was very close to going back to school and putting golf behind me.”

“And so, I’m just very grateful to be where I am,” he added, “and I’m so satisfied with all the hard work paying off.”

Cantlay seemingly had the tournament secured when he birdied the 16th hole to take a two-shot lead over Rahm. Then Cantlay nearly gave it all back with an approach over the green at the 17th, a chip shot that came up short and a testy 5-footer for bogey to maintain a one-shot advantage.

And when Rahm knocked his second shot on the green at the par-5 18th, setting up an eagle opportunity, Cantlay followed — having hit a 361-yard drive — with a 6-iron to 11 feet. That set up a two-putt birdie and a one-shot victory.

It meant a $15 million payday for Cantlay from the FedEx Cup bonus fund, with Rahm getting $5 million.

“Felt like a huge win, and it was,” Cantlay said. “I played great [Sunday]. I kept telling myself to focus and lock in, and I did a great job of that today.”

Cantlay had no choice if he was to leave East Lake with the title. Rahm posed an intimidating presence as he played the final three rounds with Cantaly, doing his best to overcome a four-shot deficit at the start of the week that was part of the unique FedEx Cup formula, in which players began via staggered scoring related to their position in the points race.

The reigning U.S. Open champion shot 68 on Sunday without a bogey but simply could not get enough birdie putts to drop to ever forge a tie. And when it looked like things might turn at the par-4 17th, Cantlay delivered again.

“Patrick played great golf, and he was four shots ahead of me (at the start of the tournament). Even though I might have been the better man over the week, he earned it,” Rahm said. “He played amazing. That up-and-down after missing [the first chip on] 17, the second shot from 18 to almost make it is even more impressive.

“I think you can say he won this. He played amazing golf.”

Rahm still had a good payday, leaving with $5 million.

“It felt really weird to have this feeling of disappointment of not winning on a day you are making $5-million,” Rahm said.

Both Cantlay and Rahm have pointed out flaws with the FedEx system. They both have made clear their feelings about its deficiencies. And yet, they are the ones who provided the drama, as no one else could get close.

Rahm was unaware at the time that he actually tied Kevin Na for the lowest 72-hole total, shooting 14 under par. Xander Schauffele was next at 12 under and Cantlay was tied at 11 under, along with Viktor Hovland and Justin Thomas.

“I think this format is less confusing. But I don’t think it’s a good format,” Rahm said. “I dislike the fact that we no longer have a Tour Champion. So I dislike the fact that no one knows, when they look at the leaderboard, who shot the lowest round this week.”

All players knew the rules going in, however, and Cantlay managed to protect his two-shot advantage starting off the entire week. That’s a different kind of pressure, one he said was difficult to process.

The last three rounds, especially, were intense as both Cantlay and Rahm put on an impressive show, one that would be fun if it were reprised in three weeks at the Ryder Cup, where Cantlay is suddenly looking like the top American player and Rahm will undoubtedly be among those counted on the most for Europe.

It was the fourth victory of the season for Cantlay, who captured the Zozo Championship last October, the Memorial Tournament in June, the BMW and the Tour Championship.

At the Zozo, Cantlay held off Thomas and Rahm. He beat Collin Morikawa in a playoff at the Memorial — after Rahm withdrew due to a positive COVID-19 test when leading by six shots after 54 holes. Last week at the BMW, Cantlay continually made putts to stay alive, finally winning with a birdie putt to dispatch DeChambeau on the sixth extra hole.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call him underrated, but I might call him under-appreciated,” said Stewart Cink. “Patrick just doesn’t have any one thing that stands out, but that’s what makes him such a great player is that he doesn’t have anything that is a weakness either.

“He’s plenty long. He hits plenty of fairways. He’s got a massive short game. He’s tough under the gun and he’s a great putter. I mean, I know golf pretty well. You tell me if I’m missing anything here. He’s just the whole package.”

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Baffert’s Rodriguez wins Wood, enters Derby field

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Baffert's Rodriguez wins Wood, enters Derby field

Rodriguez led all the way to win the $750,000 Wood Memorial on Saturday, earning enough points to move into the 20-horse field for next month’s Kentucky Derby.

Breaking from the rail, the Bob Baffert-trained colt ran 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:48.15 under Hall of Famer Mike Smith in light rain and 45-degree temperatures at Aqueduct in New York. Rodriguez won by 3 1/2 lengths.

The victory was worth 100 qualifying points for the May 3 Derby, potentially giving Baffert three entrants as he seeks a record-setting seventh victory in his return to the race from which he was banned for three years.

Later Saturday, Baffert was to saddle Citizen Bull, last year’s 2-year-old champion, and Barnes in the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby in California, where it was sunny and 82 degrees.

He sent Rodriguez to New York to split up his Derby contenders. The colt was sent off at 7-2 odds in the 10-horse field and paid $9.30 to win the 100th edition of the Wood. He is a son of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic.

“Bob told me this horse is probably quicker than you think,” Smith said. “He can get uptight pretty easy, and the whole key was just letting him alone out there. I don’t think he necessarily has to have the lead. He just wants to be left alone.”

Smith has twice won the Kentucky Derby. Rodriguez would be his first mount since 2022. At 59, he would be the oldest jockey to win.

“That’s up to all the owners and Bob,” Smith said. “I was glad they pulled me off the bench and I hit a 3-shot for them.”

Grande, trained by Todd Pletcher, was second. He went from having zero qualifying points to 50, which should get him into the Derby starting gate for owner Mike Repole, who is 0 for 7 in the Derby.

Passion Rules was third. Captain Cook, the 9-5 favorite, finished fourth for trainer Rick Dutrow, who hasn’t had a Derby runner since 2010 after winning the 2008 race with Big Brown.

The $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland was postponed from Saturday to Tuesday due to heavy rain and potential flooding in the region. That race and the Lexington Stakes on April 12 are the final Derby preps of the season.

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Nebraska transfer WR Gilmore dismissed from team

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Nebraska transfer WR Gilmore dismissed from team

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska receiver Hardley Gilmore IV, who transferred from Kentucky in January, has been dismissed from the team, coach Matt Rhule announced Saturday.

The second-year player from Belle Glade, Florida, had come to Nebraska along with former Kentucky teammate Dane Key and receivers coach Daikiel Shorts Jr. and had received praise from teammates and coaches for his performance in spring practice.

Rhule did not disclose a reason for removing Gilmore.

“Nothing outside the program, nothing criminal or anything like that,” Rhule said. “Just won’t be with us anymore.”

Gilmore was charged with misdemeanor assault in December for allegedly punching someone in the face at a storage facility in Lexington, Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Leader reported on Jan. 2.

Gilmore played in seven games as a freshman for the Wildcats and caught six passes for 153 yards. He started against Murray State and caught a 52-yard touchdown pass on Kentucky’s opening possession. He was a consensus four-star recruit who originally chose Kentucky over Penn State and UCF.

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.

The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.

What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.

Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball


What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?

The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.


How does it help hitters?

The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.

The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.


Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?

Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?


OK. How is this legal?

Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.


Who came up with the idea of using them?

The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.

When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.


When did it first appear in MLB games?

It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.


Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?

In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.


How is this different from a corked bat?

Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.


Could a rule be changed to ban them?

Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.


So the torpedo bat is here to stay?

Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.

Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.

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