There’s a non-zero chance that Patrick Cantlay read “Hammer of the Gods,” Stephen Davis’ unauthorized 1985 biography of Led Zeppelin, written two weeks after the rock band followed its 1975 U.S. tour.
Cantlay has previously shared his affinity for Zeppelin. He did an interview with Golf Channel in 2020 in front of a framed Zeppelin poster. The following year, his coach, Jamie Mulligan, said in a PGATour.com article that Cantlay “probably never listened to a complete song written after 1979. He listens to Led Zeppelin, Jackson Browne, Cream.” A year later, in Phoenix, Cantlay said Golf Week“My musical tastes mainly boil down to Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, Zeppelin being my favorite.”
Unsurprisingly, in his team’s TGL debut at Atlanta Drive on Tuesday night, Cantlay chose Zeppelin to scream throughout the SoFi Center as he hit shots.
Afterward, he was asked again about his Zeppelin fandom, and he confirmed, “If it’s after 1980, I probably don’t listen to it.” »
Cantlay apparently also has another rule: he doesn’t throw the hammer when his team is leading.
“We got up early and we didn’t need to,” Cantlay said after TGL Atlanta’s 4-0 victory over New York Golf Club. “It was that simple.”
Cantlay’s teammate Billy Horschel added: “I think the hammer is a good thing, and we’ve seen that in the last few weeks, but if you don’t use it wisely it can backfire on you. … We’re all very strategic and trying to figure it out, but Patrick takes it to another level, and he says, guys, we don’t use it in certain ranges and stuff, and we let him make the decision of when we had to throw it, and once we got up early, he said, hey, guys, we’re going to hang on to this.
For as unpopular as Davis’ biography with Zeppelin was, Cantlay’s hammer principle was not well received by New York’s players.
“Yeah, I thought that was the aim of the hammer,” Matt Fitzpatrick said when asked if he hoped Atlanta would throw it. “Hey, just me.”
