Tony Finau’s performance this week at Memorial Park may have been the most impressive of his five PGA TOUR victories.
He led from start to finish, shooting 65-62-68-69. He held four-shot advantages after both the second and third rounds and was eight ahead with just nine holes remaining.
He’s just the eighth TOUR winner in the past 20 years to lead the field in both Driving Accuracy and Greens in Regulation, and he was second in Strokes Gained: Putting to boot.
This was Finau’s third win in his last seven starts, more than he had in his first 211 TOUR events. It started with back-to-back victories in July at the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic. Those victories were by three and five shots, respectively.
Three wins by three-plus shots matches the most in a single calendar year since Tiger Woods had four in 2002 (the players to have three such wins in a season since then are Finau, Woods, Justin Thomas, Vijay Singh, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson).
This also was Finau’s fourth win in his last 30 starts, dating to his victory in the opening event of the 2021 FedExCup Playoffs. That victory at Liberty National ended a victory drought that had lasted more than five years since his first career win, at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open.
Who can beat him??