Cantlay tops BMW field in playoff marathon

Patrick Cantlay made a litany of must-have putts, culminating in a 17½-foot birdie on the sixth playoff hole that carried him to a victory over Bryson Dechambeau at the BMW Championship outside Baltimore.

The victory at Caves Valley Golf Club gave Patrick Cantlay 2,000 Fedex Cup points, enough to move into first place entering next week’s Tour Championship.

Dechambeau, who came up just shy of a round of 59 two days earlier, missed four putts to place second at the tournament — the 72nd hole and each of the first three playoff holes at Owings Mills, Md.

Cantlay drained his slightly left-to-right, mid-range putt at the par-4 18th hole, and Dechambeau missed a nine-footer that would have extended the playoff.

Both players finished at 27-under 261 after rounds of 6-under 66.

Sungjae Im of South Korea shot 67 and finished third at 23-under. Northern Ireland’s Rory Mcilroy also turned in a 67, taking fourth place at 22-under.

The International Paralympic Committee said on Sunday that the well-being and mental health of two newly arrived Afghan athletes are its top priority, and the pair will not be speaking to media during the Paralympic Games.

Zakai Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli arrived in Tokyo on Saturday to compete in the 2020 Paralympics after Khudadadi made a video appeal for help to leave Kabul after the Taliban swept to power.

The two athletes met IPC President Andrew Parsons and other officials on arrival at the village, the IPC’S chief communications officer, Craig Spence, told a news conference.

Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw smashed the half marathon world record on Sunday, finishing in one hour, three minutes, 43 seconds at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon in Larne, Northern Ireland, to shave 19 seconds off the previous mark. The previous record was set by Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich in Istanbul on April 4.