After playoff loss last year, Patrick Cantlay aces way back into Heritage contention

Patrick Cantlay highlighted a 6-under 65 on Friday at the RBC Heritage with a hole-in-one at the par-3 seventh.

“Yeah, it was just a perfect 6-iron number, a little into the wind, high 190s (yards) to the hole. A one-yard cut that just came off perfect,” said Cantlay, who was more subdued in making the ace than those who witnessed it. “Yeah, [the fans] went nuts. There’s a bunch of fans around that seventh green, so it was nice to show off for them a little bit.”

Starting on the back nine at Harbour Town, Cantlay made five birdies and two bogeys over his inward half. He was more stable on the front side, his second nine, with one birdie and the hole-in-one.

Cantlay was runner-up at this event a year ago, losing to Jordan Spieth in a playoff. He enters this weekend at 8 under par, four shots back of leader Jimmy Walker.

Full-field scores from the RBC Heritage

“I think this golf course is really about driving the ball in the fairway. If you do, you’ll have a lot of chances,” said Cantlay, who leads the field in strokes gained: off the tee, picking up nearly 3.6 strokes on the field.

“I’m going to keep trying to do my game plan as much as possible, and that’s in general be aggressive off the tee but not necessarily air it out. Really try to hit the right shape shot off the tee and leave myself a lot of wedges.”