Tony Finau had just rolled in three straight birdies, and on the last he finally got a glimpse of the leaderboard and couldn’t believe what he saw: he was leading the 3M Open.
Finau started the day trailing Scott Piercy by five, but thanks to Finau’s surge and Piercy’s triple-bogey 7 on 14, Finau was out in front. He had two holes left, and then the nerves kicked in.
“Seemed like Scott wasn’t letting up all tournament, so to all of a sudden have the lead, I will say I got quite nervous on 17 just because it was a whole different feel on how the week was going,” Finau said. “I never was near the lead. I was near the top of the leaderboard, but I was never within four or five shots. All of a sudden I was the one leading the golf tournament.”
Now leading, on the par-3 17th Finau hit a 6-iron and said he double-crossed it. The ball bounced off the back grandstand and looked like it was bound for disaster, but it somehow stayed dry and rolled along the edge of the green until it stopped pin high in the rough. It was just inches from going in the water, which would have made the final 30 minutes much more interesting.
Finau said he tried to hit a hold shot toward the middle of the green but wasn’t able to fully commit to the swing he made. “I just got lucky,” he said.
“I called bank in the air, so I think that cancels everything out,” Finau said, “but I did get a great bounce there and I took advantage of that.”
Finau got up and down for par and kissed his ball on the way to the 18th green; he led by four. He bogeyed 18 to win by three, but his par save on 17 gave him plenty of wiggle room.
“I think it’s going to go down as one of the luckiest shots, however you want to look at it,” Finau said, “but at the end of the day, again, sometimes you need the bounces and I got that one today.”