Finau Survives Final Day Drama at TPC Twin Cities, Wins 3M Open

July 24, 2022 | 14 min.
By Michael R Fermoyle


BLAINE -- The wind was consistently 15 miles per hour in Blaine for most of the afternoon on Sunday, and it was gusting to more than 20 mph. That turned the course at TPC Twin Cities into a mine field, and almost none of the leaders came through the final round of the 3M Open unscathed. Tony Finau could have been a casualty, but he got a lucky bounce just when he needed it, and he also played really well for the fourth day in a row. As a result, he was able to claim his third PGA Tour victory.

Finau, a 32-year-old who is the first person of Samoan descent to play on the PGA Tour, was tied for third place when the final round began. He trailed the 54-hole leader, Scott Piercy, by five shots, and Emiliano Grillo by one. But he closed with a 4-under-par 67 in the perilous conditions. It was the second-best score of the day, and it gave him a 72-hole total of 267 (17 under).

"Man, talking about the last few hours, I think I'm still trying to catch up, still trying to figure out what happened," Finau said afterward. " I think the win is finally settling in."

The victory was worth $1,350,000, and that elevated Finau from No. 37 on the 2021-22 PGA Tour money list to No. 21, with $4,021,636 in 21 tournaments.

Grillo, who seemed to fall out of contention when he made a triple-bogey 7 at the seventh hole followed by a bogey the par-3 eighth, fought back with three birdies on the first four holes of the back nine and salvaged a 71, which earned him a tie for second place, along with Sungjae Im, at 270. Im, who opened with a 65 on Thursday and shared the first-round lead with Piercy, had fallen out of the top five with a 70 on Friday and a 67 on Saturday. But he was the only player to get through Sunday's round without a bogey on his way to a 68.

As for Piercy, he was the TPC Twin Cities most visible victim on Sunday, making four bogeys and a triple in a span of seven holes on the back nine, and ending up with a 76. In spite of all that, he still managed to tie for fourth place at 271. That was worth $315,625 and moved the 43-year-old PGA Tour veteran into the top 125 on the money list (with $982,815) and put him in a position to make the FedEx Playoffs for the 14th time in 15 years.

Also in the three-way tie for fourth were Tom Hoge, the former two-time Minnesota State Amateur champion, and James Hahn, who shot the day's low round -- by two -- with a 65. Hoge made an early biride at the 486-yard, par-4 third hole -- it used to be a par 5 when the Champions Tour played at TPC Twin Cities -- and like a lot of other guys on Sunday, he bogeyed the 507-yard, par-4 ninth. But he birdied the par-5 12th (581 yards) and the treacherous, 412-yard, par-4 14th, and was making a nice, steady move up the leaderboard -- until the 16th hole.

The tees at the 16th were moved up this weekend, making it a driveable, 302-yard par 4. Hoge flaired his drive to the right -- and caught an unlucky break when his fall plugged in a bunker. He was no more than 30 or 35 yards from the green, but it took him two shots from the plugged lie just to get to the fringe, and his mini-charge on the back nine was derailed by a bogey 5. He had a chance to get into the tie for second when he hit his third shot at the 572-yard, par-5 18th hole to 14 feet, but he missed the putt and signed for a 70.

Hoge tied for ninth at the PGA Championship in May, but had missed six cuts in a row since then.

It might seem strange, but even though he earned more than $300,000 for the week, Hoge dropped one place on the money list, slipping from No. 19 to No. 20, because Im passed him, going from No. 21 to No. 18. But don't feel sorry for Hoge. A winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year (his first PGA Tour victory), he's made a tidy $4,271,346 in 20 events during the '21-22 tour season.

Hahn got his share of fourth with a pretty spectacular back nine charge that began with an eagle at the 12th He parred the 13th and then ran off three birdies in a row on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes. .

Even though he's from Fargo -- and won several North Dakota state titles -- Hoge is considered a kind of honorary Minnesotan as a result of his State Am victories here in 2009 and '10. The other sort of tangential Minnesotan in the 3M Open was Troy Merritt. He's from Idaho, but his family moved here just in time for him to start high school at Spring Lake Park. He played Division II golf at Winona State for two years before moving back to Idaho and playing Division I golf for Boise State.

Merritt has won twice on the PGA Tour, but he never quite got going during the 3M. He ended up tied for 49th at 283 (72-69-70-72) and made $18,885. That bumped his earnings for the 2021-22 season to $1,612,454, and he's No. 73 on the money list. 

Piercy had things under control  through seven holes. He birdied the par-4 second hole and the par-5 sixth, and was 20 under through 60 holes at that point, and he'd made only three bogeys. But he began to leak a little oil when bogeyed the 185-yard, par-3 eighth. The long par-4 ninth was playing downwind, and you'd think that would help, but it made the second shot tougher, because players wanted to make sure they cleared the water hazard that fronts the right half of the green, and a lot of their shots then bounced into the gnarly rough beyind the green. 

That was what happened to Piercy's ball, and he suffered his second bogey in a row. His second shot at the par-4 10th went over the green, as well, but he made nice pitch shot and saved par. He bogeyed the 11th (467 yards, par 4), but got that lost stroke back with a birdie at the par-5 12th. It was at the 185-yard, par-3 13th that Piercy really started to unravel. He blocked his tee shot 30 yards right of where he was aiming and made a bogey.

So he was 1 over for the day, and had retreated to 17 under for the tournament. He was still two ahead of Finau.

Finau, meanwhile, was 2 under for the day and 15 under for the tournament when he arrived at the 14th hole, a 412-yard par 4 that winds around small lake. It was a treacherous hole Sunday, but Finau played had no trouble with it, hitting his drive into the middle of the fairway, putting his approach within 8 feet and making the putt for a birdie. 

Now he was within one of Piercy. That, however, would change -- dramatically and quickly.

Having hit his 6-iron tee shot right at the 13th, Piercy did it again with his driver at the 14th, but this time the consequences were disastrous. His ball buried itself in a fairway bunker. The lie was so bad that he couldn't get the ball out of the bunker. Lying two in the sand, Piercy lost his footing with the third shot, and it splashed down about 20 yards short of the green.

By the time he finished the hole, he had a triple bogey 7.

Suddenly, Finau, who was 16 under, was two ahead of Piercy. He increased his lead to four by draining a 30-foot birdie putt at the 15th (450 yards, par 4), and then driving the 16th green (actually, he was just over it) and making another birdie.

Finau made a potentially disastrous mistake when he chose a 6-iron at the 197-yard, par-3 17th, and flew the tee shot something like 20 yards over the green, the ball smashing into the grandstand and bouncing backwards and to the left. It had the potential to be Jean van de Velde all over again (van de Velde's second shot on the 72nd hole of the 1999 British Open bounced off a grandstand into a water hazard and cost him the championship) -- but Finau's ball ended up about 1 inch from the water hazard on 17 at TPC Twin Cities.

He was only about 25 feet from the hole, and got up and down for par. 

"When I really needed to hole putts, I did, starting on 11, again on 14, 15, 16," Finau said in summing up his comeback. "I mean, I made some really crucial putts when I really needed them. Then a little bit of a crazy bounce on 17. I called bank in the air, so I think that cancels everything out."

The par-5 18th hole at TPC Twin Cities can yield a lot of birdies on a normal day. But Sunday wasn't a normal day in Blaine, and the 18th was the fifth toughest hole on the course. Finau, still leading by four, could have played it cautiously, but he hit a driver off the tee. It went into the water to the right of the fairway, but by then the bogey that Finau made on his last hole didn't really matter.      

"I was just chasing all day. That's all I remember," a tired but happy Finau noted. "Really all week. Scott played amazing golf and the thing about out here. I just know what the experience that I have has taught me, that you just have to keep playing. Anything can happen and that's what I did."

Finau might be the best athlete on the PGA Tour. He had offers of college basketball scholarships, but he turned professional in 2006 at age 17 instead, and played on a variety of mini-tours, including the Gateway and NGA Hooters. He and his brother Gipper both took part the Golf Channel's reality golf series, the Big Break, in 2009, and Tony finished second on Big Break Disney Golf. 

After playing on the Canadian Tour during the summer of 2013, he tied for third in the Web.com (now Korn Ferry) Q-School, which gave him full status on golf's highest minor league, and he won the Stonebrae Classic in August of 2014. He finished the regular season eighth on the money list and was 12th in the Web.com Finials, which earned him a place on the PGA Tour for the 2014-15 season. 

His first victory came at the Puerto Rico Open in 2016, but despite being in contention on a regular basis -- he's had 50 top-10's and 10 second-place finishes -- he didn't win again until the 2021 Northern Trust, the first of the FedEx Playoff tournaments last year. It was one of four consecutve events in which he finished in the top four.

With all those top-10's and the 10 seconds, you know that Finau has lost tournaments because he was unlucky. So if he did get a little bit lucky on the 17th hole Sunday, he deserved it.  


3M Open

At TPC Twin Cities 

Par 71, 7,431 yards

Blaine

Final results 


1. Tony Finau                 $1,350,000        67-68-65-67--267 (17 under par)

T2. Emiliano Grillo            $667,500        67-65-67-71--270

T2. Sungjae Im                 $667,500         65-70-67-68--270

T4. Scott Piercy                $315,625         65-64-66-76--271

T4. Tom Hoge                   $315,625        67-68-66-70--271

T4. James Hahn               $315,625        69-70-67-65--271

T7. Danny Willett              $235,625        72-66-68-68--274

T7. Callum Tarren             $235,625        71-63-71-69--274

T7. Greyson Sigg              $235,625        70-68-64-72--274

10. Chesson Hadley          $204,375        68-69-66--72--275

T11. Robert Streb              $160,875        68-67-71-70--276
        
T11. J.T. Poston                 $160,875        71-69-64-72--276

T11. Andrew Putnam          $169,875         71-68-64-73--276

T11. Peter Malnati               $195,675          68-69-69-70--206

T11. Kelly Kraft                    $195,675          70-71-68-67--206

T16. Cameron Champ         $103,313          75-68-67-67--207

T16 Hank Lebiota                $103,313           68-74-67-68--207

T16. Cam Davis                   $103,313           70-68-70-69--207

T16. Doug Ghim                  $103,313            67-68-65-77--207

T16. Scott Brown                 $103,313            69-69-67-72--207

T16. Michael Gligic              $103,313            72-69-67-69--277

T16. Lee Hodges                $103,313             70-67-67-73--277

T16. Adam Long                  $103,313            69-69-67-72--277

T38. Rickie Fowler                 $31,125            70-72-69-80--281

T49. Troy Merritt                    $18,885             72-69-70-72--283

T49. Chez Reavie                  $18,855             75-68-69-71--283

T58. Rick Lamb                      $16,800             71-69-68-77-285              

T64. Jason Day                      $15,975             70-72-72-72--286
       
Missed cut -- 143

Ryan Moore                                                         71-75--146

Sahith Theeglaa                                                   73-73--146

Andre Metzger                                                      72-76--148

Daniel Gale                                                           74-74--148

Jefff Sorenson                                                       77-74--151

Chris Naegel                                                          77-75--152

Mardy Fish                                                             81-74--155

WD -- Hideki Matsuyama                                         77-WD  




 

Michael R Fermoyle

Mike Fermoyle’s amateur golf career features state titles in five different decades, beginning with the State Public Links (1969), three State Amateurs (1970, 1973 and 1980), and four State Four-Ball championships (1972, 1985, 1993 and 2001). Fermoyle was medalist at the Pine to Palm in 1971, won the Resorters in 1972, made the cut at the State Amateur 18 consecutive years (1969 to 1986), the last being 2000, and amassed 13 top-ten finishes. Fermoyle also made it to the semi-final matches at the MGA’s annual match play championship, the Players’, in 1982 and 1987.

Fermoyle enjoyed a career as a sportswriter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch before retiring in 2006. Two years later he began a second career covering the golf beat exclusively for the MGA and its website, mngolf.org, where he ranks individual prep golfers and teams, provides coverage on local amateur and professional tournaments and keeps tabs on how Minnesotans are faring on the various professional tours.

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