Today it could get a little emotional tonight, but it's definitely been a dream. "Every day I've played golf, I thought about playing on the PGA Tour it was nothing else. "It means everything," Kim said of the chance to earn his card. With the seventh-place finish, the 20 year old all-but clinched his tour card of next season. Playing on a sponsors exemption, South Korea's Joohyung Kim shot the low round of the day that included an eagle on the 10th hole for 9-under. Stephan Jaeger was fifth at 20-under, followed by Taylor Moore one shot back. Cantlay finished five shots back in second, tied with Pendrith and Cameron Young, the front-runner for rookie for the year who shot 65 Sunday to finish at 21-under. Pendrith wouldn't let him pull away, the third-round co-leader who was even-par on the front nine, nor would Patrick Cantlay, the reigning FedEx Cup champion who carded 5-under on the front before an eagle on the par-5 14th hole that briefly cut his own deficit to three shots. 14, as well, before moving to 4-under on the day with his fifth birdie of the round on a tap-in putt. And he bounced back immediately from that rare square on his scorecard, dropping a 30 footer with perfect speed on the par-3 12th hole. On the next hole, a 68-foot birdie putt skirted just off the lip of the hole and trickled eight feet past as the Utah native who splits time between Lehi and Arizona accepted his first bogey of the tournament.įour days in and with less than nine holes to go, Finau had been all-but perfect, hitting nearly every green in regulation and gaining as many as three strokes per round with his putter. "These two weeks I've been able to make the putts when they count," Finau recounted.įinau dropped his third birdie of the day on the par-4, 429-yard 10th hole to move to 24-under on a hole he birdied in every round of the tournament. He's hitting 87% of his greens in regulation with an average of 26.16 strokes gain through striking.īut the payoff finally came in the last two weeks. In his last nine rounds on the PGA Tour, Finau is 49-under-par with 55 birdies to just six bogeys. From Canada to Mexico, Finau was on the verge of a breakout. His game has been trending upward - and fast - for more than just the past two weeks, though. His lead is back to 4 shots /2J4dnPJmXt- PGA TOUR July 31, 2022 How does follow up his first bogey of the week. "I guess when you look at mine, two weeks is now back-to-back weeks has now changed my life and it's a great feeling." "I think I've been quoted saying it many times before, a week can change your life," he said. 16 player in the Official World Golf Rankings that is expected to jump into the top 10 by the time he awakens in Utah on Monday morning. In a span of eight days, Finau went from a PGA Tour also-ran to one of the top golfers in the best golf competition in the world, the No. The Rose Park native took advantage of an early bogey by Taylor Pendrith, his playing partner, to take a lead early in the final round and never looked back, finishing off a wire-to-wire victory for back-to-back wins on the PGA Tour for the first time in his 11-year career. "How many times do I lose? But 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." "They say a winner is just a loser that just kept on trying, and that's me to a T," Finau told reporters after his final round. All Finau had to do was see out the final few strokes.Īfter a decade-long history of being the bridesmaid on the PGA Tour, Finau was about to do something he's never before accomplished with his fourth tour title: back-to-back wins for the first time in his career.įinau shot 5-under-par 67 to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a four-day total of 26-under 262, a tournament record in relation to par that beat out two-time Utah Open champion Nate Lashley's previous Detroit-best mark of 25-under. A personal-best mark of his career was within grasp - to say nothing of the $1.512 million winner's purse. SALT LAKE CITY - As his wife Alana stood next to the 18th green at Detroit Golf Club with the CBS television crew, Tony Finau tried to keep his stoic composure as he exited the fairway in the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.įor a brief moment, right as the crowd cheered and the PA announcer introduced the tournament's leader "from Salt Lake City, Utah," his eyes glistened.
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