DETROIT – We haven’t seen this kind of rip in the upper Midwest since Commodore Oliver Perry in the War of 1812.
Ride his momentum A return victory in the 3M Open Championship Last week in Minnesota, Tony Fino played the most flawless golf of his career and took home the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday for his third PGA Tour win in his last 25 games. A five-under-67 shutdown at Detroit Golf Club enabled the Utah native to take a five-stroke win over the trio of world number 4 Patrick Cantlay and rookies Cameron Young and Taylor Pendrith.
In the past two weeks, Finau, 32, has been ruthless against his peers. He’s 43 years below par and starting to deliver on a promise he’s been showing through a series of near misses – including eight second place finishes – since winning the 2016 Puerto Rican Open. He has suffered one bogey, who came on the 65th hole of the championship, in breaking the 72-hole record with a total of 262 under 262, better than Nate Lashley’s effort at the inaugural edition in 2019.
Although he scored an impressive victory, Finau felt he still had something to prove this week. mission accomplished. In fact, he accomplished two tasks, because one of his goals this season was to score multiple victories.
After opening 18 holes [at the 3M Open] I had kind of a bitter taste in my mouth, and I think it gave me extra motivation to put myself out there again this week and prove to myself the kind of champion I am and do my best when you really need it,” he explained in his post-tour press conference. “That’s all I tried to do. When I got to tee 14, my goal was to fly 14 and 17. If I could do that, I knew I would win the golf tournament, and I was able to do it. I was proud of the way I finished. I thought This week I was able to prove to myself the hero I feel.”
Cantlay FedEx Cup holders, made an early five-bird run in his first eight holes en route to 10th in the top ten list in the 2021-22 season. He’s scored six under 66 and scored 21 under 267, while Young Bird has four of his last six holes for 68 and Pendrith has had an up-and-down run of 72.
Young solidified his credentials for this year’s PGA Tour Rookie with a fifth-place finish joining six others for most of them in a single season in the past 40 years. The New Yorker has seven places in the top three – five of which have come in his last eight games, including runner-up to Cameron Smith in the Open Championship on his previous tour.
“I would be lying if I said it was easy to just watch other people win,” Young, 25, said. “Obviously, today Tony beat us all a lot, but it’s not fun to be that close often and not have one. All in all, I think it’s great. It proves that I can at least put myself out there. Yeah, I think overall it’s a good thing, but it’s a little disappointing not to win one yet.”
Pendrith, who started the day after tying the leaderboard with Finau, couldn’t keep the pace for his first three rounds. Playing alongside Finau in the final duo for the second day in a row, the Canadian national scored his career best in only his third event after taking 12 weeks off with a broken right rib.
“Yeah, it was hard, and I couldn’t do anything and didn’t get off to the best start like I did in the past three days, but kind of just stuck there,” Pendrith, 31, said, a bit depressed despite the $635,600 Personal Consolidation award. “You know, in the middle of the round, I hit some really cool iron shots and couldn’t get anything down… I lost my sense of hitting speeds.”
vino, Which raised $1.512 million, pulled two Pendreth on the turn, and came out in two under 34, capping an 11-foot parallel on the ninth that kept his stealth-free streak alive. Rolling at 21 feet on day 10 for Byrdie, his lead swelled to three shots, and although he flopped in 11th with his only 72-hole drawback, Finau bounced back with 31 feet leading to a fist pump. In the meantime, he plunged Pendrith into the same pit, and the outcome was no longer in doubt.
After opening with eight people under 64 He hit all 18 greens in regulation for the first time in his career on the PGA TourFinau only said he was playing with confidence, buoyed by his performance in the previous week, but he didn’t say anything about being in zone or even playing relatively stress-free. “I hate to say she’s stress-free in this game,” he said. “I hate the easy saying.”
But the cute 6-foot-4 veteran who easily generates energy made it look easy from start to finish. He hit 46 of 56 passes, 66 of the Greens in regulation (he has been tied for third in the Tour since 1980) and sinks 338 feet of hits. He led the field in earned strokes/tee to the green and the rounds for each green in the regulation. It was a complete performance for a player that would climb to number 13 in the world.
He said, “Evolution” is an apt description of his game. After trying a distance chase he didn’t need, he focused on boosting and putting in his short game. He’s also noticed his thought process and how his body feels about shots in the midst of conflict and tried to apply these lessons to successful opportunities.
“Those are all things I’ve known for the past couple of years and I’ve worked really hard on it, and now that I’m enjoying the success I’m having, it’s partly because I just looked at myself in the box and said, ‘I’m seeing and knowing I’m not as good as I can be and I take those parts of my game’ which needs to rise to be a great player.” “I think what you see over the last few weeks of me is that I have been able to put myself in similar situations in the past, but my game is more intense, I am stronger and I am just a better player to be able to close the deal and dominate. golf tournaments.
Finau played 142 events before adding a second win to his Northern Trust resume last year and then needed only 23 to claim his third. Now he is the first player to win consecutive weeks during the regular season since Brendon Todd in 2019. It was believed that Finau was simply too nice to win. He’s still one of the prettiest on the tour. He has just learned to apply his immense talents in a manner that is emphatic and lacks empathy.
“You two have had a lot of heavy losses. I put myself in situations to win before, I couldn’t do that, but I am very optimistic.” “I’ve always been like this. I’ve always had hope and faith that things will come to an end if I keep working hard and put myself out there. But I’m proud of the way I’ve struggled through adversity throughout my career. They say a winner is just a loser who keeps trying, and that’s who I am for” T. “How many times do I lose? But the one thing I won’t do is give up, and I’m only here as a winner because I chose not to give up and just keep going.”
Don’t be surprised if it keeps working.