Finau on fire with second straight win
Tony Finau ran away with the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday at Detroit Golf Club to become the first PGA Tour player in three years to win consecutive regular-season events.
Finau closed with a fiveunder 67 for a five-shot victory and a tournamentrecord 26-under 262 total. Taylor Pendrith (72), Patrick Cantlay (66) and rookie of the year front-runner Cameron Young (68) tied for second.
“I wasn’t that close,” Young said. “Tony put on a show.”
Finau coasted to his fourth career victory, a third title in 11-plus months. He was the 3M Open winner last week in Minnesota. Brendon Todd was the last to win two straight in the regular season, doing it in 2019.
Finau began his stretch of success last August at the Northern Trust, where he had his first victory in five years and 142 PGA Tour starts.
“I’m proud of the way I’ve fought through adversity in my career,” said Finau, a Salt Lake City native with Tongan-Samoan heritage. “They say a winner is just a loser who kept trying, and that’s me.“
Stenson wins debut
Henrik Stenson’s decision to join the LIV Golf series that cost him the European Ryder Cup captaincy paid large and immediate dividends when he won the LIV Golf Invitational at Bedminster and picked up more than $4 million for three days’ work in his LIV debut.
Staked to a three-shot lead going into the third and final round at Trump National, Stenson opened with a 20-foot birdie putt and never let anyone get closer than two shots.
He closed with a two-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Matthew Wolf (64) and Dustin Johnson (68).
“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” Stenson said on the LIV Golf telecast.
Birdie binge fuels Furue in LPGA
Ayaka Furue of Japan ran off six straight birdies in the middle of her round and rallied from a four-shot deficit with a 10-under 62 to win the Women’s Scottish Open for her first LPGA Tour title.
A seven-time winner on the Japan LPGA — once as an amateur — Furue became the second rookie to win on the LPGA Tour this year, and she did it in style at Dundonald Links.
Starting the final round four shots behind Celine Boutier of France, the 22year-old finished the front nine with four straight birdies and added two more to start the back nine.
“I thought it would be difficult to catch the top, good players. But I’m very happy I played good golf and I was able to come out as a winner,” Furue said.
USC alum Crocker wins European title
Sean Crocker held off Eddie Pepperell to claim his first European tour title with a wire-to-wire win in the Hero Open in Scotland.
Crocker, who was born in Zimbabwe before playing at Westlake High and USC, shot four-under 68 at Fairmont St. Andrews to finish one shot ahead of Pepperell, who closed with 65.