If winning is habit, Tony Finau may officially be addicted to it.
Finau, who had posted 39 top-10 finishes, including being a runner-up eight times between his maiden victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and validating last August by claiming the Northern Trust, had gone 143 starts and a span of 1,975 days between titles.
The gap between wins three and four was significantly shorter. Seven days after Finau erased a five-stroke overnight deficit heading into the final round of the 3M Open to earn his third Tour title, he made it back-to-back wins by shooting a final-round 5-under 67 at Detroit Golf Club to clinch the Rocket Mortgage Classic in The Motor City by five strokes over Patrick Cantlay, Taylor Pendrith and Cameron Young.
Finau, 32, became the first player to win consecutive tournaments since Patrick Cantlay did so a year ago at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. It was Cantlay who produced the biggest threat in the final round to spoiling Finau hoisting another trophy. Cantlay birdied five of the first eight holes in his final round, but a bogey at No. 12 was costly. The reigning FedEx Cup champion shot 6-under 66, recording his Tour best 10th top-10 finish of the season.
Pendrith, a 31-year-old Tour rookie from Canada, sat out nearly four months with a fractured left rib. He had just one career top-10 finish entering the week, but made 25 birdies in his first 54 holes to share the lead going into Sunday. Playing in the final group alongside Finau for the second day in a row, Pendrith’s inexperience showed as he carded an even-par 72 and tied for second. Young, a fellow rookie, closed in 68 to register his fourth runner-up finish this season as he still seeks his first Tour title.
Finau made birdies at the two par 5s on the front nine to grab the lead. He sank a clutch 11-foot par putt at the ninth and extended his lead with a 21-foot birdie putt one hole later at No. 10. Finau went 64 holes, the longest bogey-free stretch of his career, before making a three-putt bogey from 69 feet at No. 11. It was just his third bogey in his last 135 holes, during which he was an eye-popping 42-under par.
How did Finau respond to his first bogey in Motown? At the 12th, he drained a 31-foot birdie and pumped his right fist as he stretched his lead to four shots over Pendrith.
This is the type of golf that has been accepted of Finau for some time. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, second in SG: Off the Tee and third in driving accuracy.
“I think that’s a big reason I’ve been hitting so many greens,” he said of his driving prowess. “I’m just hitting a lot more fairways than I’m accustomed to or than I have in the past. This golf course really opens up to you if you hit it in the short grass.”
It didn’t hurt that Finau was a perfect six-of six in scrambling and ranked 11th in putting. Finau shot a new tournament record 72-hole total of 26-under 262.
“Anytime you win, you breed confidence. I was just happy to carry that confidence from last week right into this week,” Finau said. “I’ve been working extremely hard on my game all year and I think I’m just kind of bearing the fruit of the labor I’ve had throughout this season and it’s coming together for me late in the season. But this thing, this game has taught me it doesn’t matter when it comes. If you continue to work hard, at some point I think you can go on some nice stretches and I think that’s what I’m seeing this week and last week.”
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