Tony Finau is a Salt Lake City native, but he’s looked right at home in the Midwest the past two weekends. Finau won the 3M Open last weekend in Minnesota and followed that up with a second straight victory this time at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit G.C.
Finau had a dominating 64-66-65-67 weekend to card in at -26 and cash out at 12/1 as the second highest betting favorite heading into the weekend. Top favorite Patrick Cantlay (10/1) couldn’t recover from an opening round 70 but did battle back for a second place finish at -21.
Finau Locked In
Finau was tied with Canadian Taylor Pendrith heading into the final round, but Pendrith folded on Sunday with a 72 while Finau pulled away for the win.
Is there now a new narrative surrounding Finau? He was forever known as the guy who couldn’t close with 10 career runner-ups since turning pro in 2007. Finau’s first career win finally came in the 2015/16 Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach, but he’s since won the 2021 Northern Trust as well as the 2022 3M Open and now the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
With this weekend’s victory Finau became the first golfer in three years to win on consecutive weekends. He came back from five strokes down in the Twin Cities last weekend, but broke another barrier by winning for the first time in six tries when holding onto a 54-hole lead.
Rough Weekend for Cantlay, Young
While Pendrith may seem like the biggest sore luck loser of the weekend, tying for second was still the best finish of his career. Any time you fail to win as the favorite, as Cantlay did at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, it has to be considered a disappointment.
Cantlay is ranked #4 in OWGR but still has just one win this year and that was in a team event with Xander Schauffele at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Cantlay’s second place finish at the Rocket Mortgage Classic was his third runner-up in 2022, also falling short at the WM Phoenix Open and the RBC Heritage.
Cameron Young’s first Tour win is coming soon, but not quite yet as he also was in the group that tied for second at -21. Young was 16-1 before the weekend but could only muster his astonishing fifth runner-up of the season.
Young has also finished second at the Sanderson Farms Championship, the Genesis Invitational, the Wells Fargo Championship, and the Open while coming in third at the PGA Championship and the RBC Heritage. Perhaps all that heartbreak will have a nice payoff during the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Will Zalatoris (14-1) and Max Homa (22-1) were also a couple of the RBC Mortgage Classic betting favorites heading into the weekend. Zalatoris opened up play with a 70-71 but was able to regroup for a -13 to finish in the top 25. Homa had a similar fate with an even par on Thursday but came back to wind up at -12 to also come within the top 25.
