The next time you see Patrick Cantlay, he will wear a different hat.
Goldman Sachs drops PGA Tour star Patrick Cantlay following Ryder Cup ‘hat-gate’
Patrick Cantlay and Goldman Sachs ended their endorsement deal less than two months after the Ryder Cup.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world, has decided not to renew its endorsement deal with Cantlay, per Lauren Hirsch of The New York Times.
Cantlay has donned the Goldman Sachs logo on his cap since July 2020, when the two sides initially struck a sponsorship deal. The former UCLA Bruin became the first athlete in Goldman Sach’s 150-year history to have such an agreement with the firm.
The investment firm wanted to partner with Cantlay to help build awareness with Marcus, its online banking service. Cantlay wore Marcus-branded hats during tournaments. But Goldman Sachs is moving away from this part of its business, and as such, Cantlay will don a new hat going forward.
The news of this endorsement deal ending comes less than two months after the Ryder Cup, where Cantlay’s hat—or lack thereof—was the talk of the competition.
On that Saturday, reports surfaced about Cantlay’s refusal to wear a hat. He supposedly went cap-less to protest against the PGA of America’s pay-to-play policy for Team USA. Cantlay and others have since refuted that report.
Whether or not that report had any validity did not matter to the European fans. The home crowd constantly waved their hats at Cantlay all day, mocking him all over Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome.
The tension between the Americans and the fans boiled over on the 18th green, where Cantlay holed a 43-foot birdie putt to win his match over Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick. Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, then celebrated by waving his hat towards the crowd, but the looper’s demonstration came too close to McIlroy’s putting line, which irked the Northern Irishman.
McIlroy then had to be held back in the parking lot after the round, as a video of his frustrations surfaced and went viral.
But in the end, Team Europe emerged victorious, with ‘Hat-Gate’ being the most popular topic of the 2023 tournament.
Nevertheless, Cantlay’s relationship with Goldman Sachs is not entirely over. He may still appear at corporate events in the future, according to the report.
Plus, Cantlay sits on the PGA Tour Board of Directors along with Mark Flaherty, a Goldman Director and former partner of Wellington Management Company.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
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