Finau shoots 62, shares RBC Canadian Open lead with McIlroy
Tony Finau birdied the final hole Saturday for an 8-under 62 and a share of the RBC Canadian Open lead with defending champion Rory McIlroy.
“I didn’t finish the way I wanted to yesterday and I think all it did was kind of light a fire in my belly to get after it today,” Finau said. “That’s pretty much what I did. I made some birdies and I just played really clean golf. “
McIlroy had a 65 to match Finau at 11-under 199 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto.
“I’m just happy to give myself a chance, be in the final group,” McIlroy said. “Once I saw, I think Tony had got to 10 or maybe 11, I think I was on like 8 or 9 at the time. I just said to myself, ‘Let’s just try to get yourself in the final group.’ ”
McIlroy had to wait three years to defend his 2019 title because of the COVID19 pandemic that canceled golf ’s fourth-oldest championship the last two years.
“I need to set myself a number and be super aggressive,” McIlroy said. “I know I’m going to have to make some birdies out there to win this thing [Sunday].”
Finau had the best round of the week, eagling the par-5 ninth in a front-nine 29 and making four birdies and a bogey on the final nine. He won the FedEx Cup playoff opener last season at Riviera for his second PGA Tour victory.
PGA champion Justin Thomas (63), Colonial winner Sam Burns (65), Wyndham Clark (68) and Alex Smalley (67) were all 9 under.
Thomas eagled the par-5 15th.
“It was very — it was easy,” Thomas said. “I mean I just played really solid. I didn’t do anything great, [but] I just didn’t do anything bad . ...
“I took advantage of some of the opportunities when I had them there in the middle of the course and just stayed patient and waited for my run.”
Schwartzel wins LIV event:
At St. Albans, England, former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel banked $4.75 million by winning the richest tournament in golf history, while the event’s Saudi backers faced renewed backlash after a 9 / 11 victims’ group called for American players to withdraw from the rebel series.
Schwartzel held on for a one-shot victory at the inaugural LIV Golf event outside London to secure the $4 million prize for the individual victory — along with another $750,000 from his share of the $3 million purse earned by his four-man Stinger team for topping the team rankings.
Schwartzel collected more prize money from winning the three-day, 54-hole event than he had from the last four years combined. Not that it could match the sense of sporting achievement that he felt after his win at Augusta National in 2011.
Fellow South African Hennie Du Plessis, who was selected for Stinger by team captain Louis Oosthuizen in the draft, earned $2.875 million by finishing second at Centurion Club, located between Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans.