Tony Finau shot a final-round 4-under 67 on Sunday to win the 3M Open at 17-under for his third career PGA TOUR victory.
With a risky, last-ditch approach to get back on track, his next try from the bunker splashed in the water short and left of the green — instead of a safer play to the right. His foot bothered him so much he started taking his right shoe off after each swing and walking in his sock to the the next lie. Finau, who tied for third at the 3M Open in 2020, jumped from 30th to 17th in the FedEx Cup race. With Piercy looking on from the fairway, Finau made a 3-footer for bogey to seal it. On the daunting par-5 18th, Finau found the water off the tee to face one final challenge. His tee shot clanged off the side of the grandstand, ricocheted back onto the green and rolled into the rough — just a few feet from the water.
Tony Finau powered to his third PGA Tour victory at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities after overnight leader Scott Piercy collapsed.
Finau also got choked up as he dedicated the victory to his mother who died in 2011 in a car accident. His next shot found the water and it led to a triple bogey. His tee shot was right and ended up in the fairway bunker. He took home $1.3million for the win. It was a truly ugly hole and not for the faint of heart. Piercy, 43, endured problems of his own yesterday.
But he began to wobble on Sunday, and on the back of a long losing run, a wobble turned into a lurching fall. Tony Finau took full advantage to secure his third win on the PGA Tour.
His tee shot went way long and crashed into the stands, bounced back and looked certain to go in the water but it somehow dug its heels in on the edge of the lake. As such, it was never likely to be easy and he inexplicably found the water off the tee on 18. The third shot was a daunting one, as he had to carry the water from 190 yards out of the sand. He did nothing spectacular early in his round on Sunday, but the tournament came to him and his class kicked in on the back nine. His tee shot was buried in a bunker, and he was unable to get it out at the first time of asking. Scott Piercy suffered the equivalent of a golfing nightmare on Sunday as he threw away a five-shot lead and was overhauled by Tony Finau in the final round of the 3M Open.
Tony Finau notched a come-from-behind victory at the 3M Open for his third PGA TOUR title. Here's a look inside his bag.
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Tour Only WV 125 S (50-56), Nippon N.S. Pro Wedge 125 S (60) Shafts: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 105 X (3), Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 TX (4-PW) Irons: Nike Vapor Fly Pro (3), Ping Blueprint (4-PW)
Tony Finau Secures 3M Open Title Following Piercy Collapse - Finau cruised to his third PGA Tour title after Scott Piercy struggled over the back nine.
Now a freelance writer for Golf Monthly and the PGA, he covers all aspects of the game, from Tour news to equipment testing and buyers’ guides. Thankfully, Finau found dry land with his next two shots as his par putt just slid by the hole. Yet again, it wasn't plain sailing, as Finau stuck his tee shot in the one place you couldn't go, the huge lake on the right hand side! It wasn't over though, especially when Finau pulled his tee shot on the 17th into a grandstand! Such was the collapse of Piercy that Finau saw himself go from four shots behind to four shots ahead in just 90 minutes! At the 3M Open, there were celebrations and commiserations as Tony Finau claimed a third PGA Tour title in commanding fashion.
Finau played consistently at TPC Twin Cities, using a strong Sunday to surge past the rest of the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, Scott Piercy's troubles persist as he is at 13 under and five back. Adding another birdie, Tony Finau is at 18 under and four strokes clear of those in second place. The bad news is he is a shell of his former self and only has one year of status remaining due to his 2015 Players Championship victory. T38. Rickie Fowler (-3): The five-time winner on the PGA Tour was looking for a spark to kickstart the end of his season, but was unable to find it in Minnesota. Finishing in the middle of the pack, Fowler continued his drought, as he has been held without a top-20 finish in 2022. Playing his final 63 holes in 13 under, the three-time winner on the PGA Tour ended a skid that included five consecutive missed cuts. Piercy started the week 138th in the season-long race and propelled himself to 112th with his play in Minnesota. A win would have seen Piercy inside the top 50, but with only two weeks left in the regular season, seeing his name inside the top 125 does at the very least provide some sense of job security. The South Korean withdrew ahead of the Travelers Championship and missed the cut at the U.S. Open. The epitome of consistency, he got right at TPC Twin Cities and married his steady ball striking with some competent putting. For Finau, the wins have yet to stack up, but golf is often a game of runs. Lucky to catch a break on the par-3 17th when his tee shot remained dry after ricocheting off a grandstand, Finau was able to get up and down for par. Finau kept his head down, however, and continued to plod along and added birdies on Nos. 14-16. Beginning the day five strokes off Piercy's lead, Finau handled his business on the front nine and turned in 1 under. Yet, just as a level of comfort was appearing to surface, the 43-year-old felt a shock to his system, carding four bogeys and an ugly triple-bogey over his next seven holes.
The overall purse at TPC Twin Cities was $7.5 million with the winner, Tony Finau, earning $1.35 million.
T-16: Adam Long, 277/-7, $103,312.50 For his win, Finau claimed the $1.35 million first place prize money payout from an overall purse $7.5 million. Enter Tony Finau, who started five back of Piercy but made six birdies in his first 16 holes. After shooting even-par on the front nine, Piercy was still two shots ahead with five holes to play despite bogeys on the 11th and 13th. Scott Piercy, searching for his fifth career PGA Tour title, came into the final round at TPC Twin Cities with a four-stroke lead, despite making a bogey on the 18th hole Saturday evening. The 3M Open had a runaway winner.
Tony Finau poses for photos with the trophy after his win in the 3M Open golf tournament at the Tournament Players Club in Blaine, Minn., Sunday, July 24, 2022.
A big swing came when Finau birdied No. 14 to go 16-under and Piercy got in all kinds of trouble on the same hole. He finished the third round with a 65 to move into contention. Finau opened the tournament with a bogey, but gradually figured out his putting stroke and finally caught fire on the back nine. “I really got things going in the middle of our back nine, and once I took control of the golf tournament, it was a whole different mindset.” The top six earn automatic inclusion on the U.S. team for the international competition at Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, in September; Another six will be Captain’s selections. He tied for 28th last year. It was the largest final-round comeback in 3M Open history. “Really, everything I had. The win vaulted Finau, 32, to 17th place in the FedEx Cup standings and moved him into contention for a berth on the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup. He held the No. 11 spot in the standings before the tournament, and projects to be No. 7 now. “It is so special just to have my family here with me and to celebrate this win with me. “I love my family. I love my mom.
Tony Finau has won the 3M Open following a final round of four-under-par to win the 3M Open by five shots.
Interestingly, Finau pulled out the driver on the 18th tee and proceeded to trickle his tee shot into the water down the right side. But by that point in the round, Finau had a five-shot lead. Finau began the final round 5 shots behind overnight leader Scott Piercy but quickly tracked down those in front of him with a 22-foot birdie roll on the second green. Piercy made the turn at even par, but quickly found issues on the back nine. A few whirly swings down the stretch but I called bank on 18 and was able to get it done,” Finau said immediately following the victory. With the win, Finau made $1,350,000.
Tony Finau shot a 4-under 67 to win the 3M Open by three strokes Sunday, erasing a five-stroke deficit with 11 holes left as Scott Piercy tumbled out of the ...
With a risky, last-ditch approach to get back on track, his next try from the bunker splashed in the water short and left of the green -- instead of a safer play to the right. But with Piercy looking on from the fairway, Finau made a 3-footer for bogey to seal it. They stayed with him in a rented house next to the course and followed him from tee to green. His tee shot clanged off the side of the grandstand, ricocheted back onto the green and rolled into the rough -- just a few feet from the water. Finau, who tied for third at the 3M Open in 2020, jumped from 30th to 17th in the FedEx Cup race. Piercy bogeyed four of six holes before a triple-bogey implosion on No. 14, allowing Finau -- playing in the preceding trio -- to take over for good.
Here is a breakdown of the purse and FedExCup points for winner Tony Finau and the rest of the players who made the 3M Open cut.
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Momentum quickly shifted to Tony Finau on Sunday at the 3M Open, but he didn't win the title without a most fortuitous bounce on the 71st hole.
Standing on the tee on the par-5 home hole, Finau stayed aggressive, pulling out a driver. On the par-3 17th, he got quick with his swing, rocketing his tee shot off the bottom of the grandstands left of the green. But he kept attacking, and with four birdies on his back nine, along with a surprise implosion from third-round leader Scott Piercy, Finau suddenly was himself the runaway leader, four shots out front with two holes to play.
Tony Finau took advantage of a Scott Piercy collapse to win the 3M Open on Sunday in Minnesota, claiming his third career PGA Tour victory.
It held up on the ledge and missed going in the water by mere inches, and he calmly chipped it close and took his par. He overshot the green on the par-3, but instead of going well past the hole, it ricocheted off the grandstand and bounced back pin high in the rough. It needed to be a centerpiece a few minutes later. Finau added the exclamation point a few minutes later, draining a 32-footer for birdie on 15. Even though he bogeyed 8 and 9, he still turned with a four-shot lead over Finau. Yet a couple of hours later, Finau walked to the 18th tee leading Piercy by four. He was tied for the lead after Round 1, leading by three after Day 2 and increased his lead to four before the final round, which included a 54-hole scoring record (18 under) that eclipsed the previous tournament record by three shots. He then took on the water with his next shot from 163 yards, but his ball splashed short of the green. “When I really needed to hole putts, I did starting on 11, again on 14, 15, 16,” Finau said. Before Piercy even hit his second shot on 14, Finau, who birdied 11, was rolling in a birdie putt on 14. Finau entered the day five shots back as everyone was chasing Piercy, which was basically the story all week. It’s something I’ve thought about and dreamed about for a long time. His wife and five kids have been traveling with him nearly everywhere this summer, but they weren’t there when he won his other two PGA Tour starts, at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and, most recently, the Northern Trust last fall.
Scott Piercy opened the final round with a four-shot lead, but he fell apart late as Tony Finau had four birdies on the back nine.
The 32-year-old shot a 4-under 67 Sunday thanks to four birdies on his back nine, including three in a row from Nos. 14-16. The 43-year-old was looking for his first solo win since the 2015 Barbasol Championship (he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with partner Billy Horschel in 2018) before a pair of bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9 and another on No. 11 threatened to ruin his day. The former kept his cool and patiently made his way around TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, and took advantage of Piercy's mistakes en route to a three-shot win.
Tony Finau's iron game was solid all week and his putter awakened just in time to win the 2022 3M Open.
An eight-foot birdie putt at the 14th gave Finau the lead when Piercy tripled the hole shortly after and a 32-footer by Finau boosted the lead to two. The Blueprint is a forged iron with a narrower sole, topline and less offset than most Ping irons. A 16-footer at the 11th kept the pressure on Piercy, who was starting to show signs of stress. “A lot of things happen on a Sunday on the PGA Tour,” he said. Helping was a little work on the practice green after the third round. Although his putting wasn’t all that great during the week, Finau was on target Sunday. He rolled in a 22-footer for birdie on No. 2 and an 11-footer two holes later.
Tony Finau wins the 3M Open by three shots after Scott Piercy falters on the back nine at TPC Twin Cities.
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As Scott Piercy blew a five-shot lead, Tony Finau also seized command, becoming the unexpected runaway winner TPC Twin Cities.
I hit a lot of fairways, I hit a lot of greens and I stayed patient with my putter. Another was winning again after his playoff victory at last year’s Northern Trust, and he figured his game was trending well when he walked off the Old Course at St. Andrews in last week’s Open Championship with a closing 66. That should be enough to make the playoffs for the 13th time in the last 14 years. But then he missed the green at No. 9 for another bogey and three-putted again at the 11th to drop another shot. The four-time tour winner had to be content with a consolation prize—a T-4 that enabled him to jump from 138th to 112th in the FedEx Cup standings with two events left in the regular season. Finau nearly made it hard on himself at the end just as he found himself, stunningly, in the lead. The problem at the par-4 14th started with a plugged lie in a fairway bunker that he could only move a few yards. On a temperate but blustery afternoon, Finau, 32, was the player most under control and thus most likely to take advantage of an opening. He three-putted the eighth for only his fourth bogey of the tournament. Oh, and also a new pair of shoes, which proved to be the only, ahem, misstep over the first three days while he was setting the 54-hole tournament record of 18-under 195. I expected myself to contend and win again this year, so to be able to do it this late in the season when you're running out of tournaments and you put that type of expectation on yourself, it's so satisfying. Scott played amazing golf and the thing about out here, I just know that you just have to keep playing.
If Tony Finau is writing thank-you cards after Sunday's wild win at the 3M Open, at the top of his mailing list will be Scott Piercy and the 17th-hole ...
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Tony Finau took advantage of a lucky break to keep his 3M Open lead. "I called bank in the air, so I think that cancels everything out."
He bogeyed 18 to win by three, but his par save on 17 gave him plenty of wiggle room. I was near the top of the leaderboard, but I was never within four or five shots. “I just got lucky,” he said.
Tony Finau only climbed one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking following his third career PGA Tour victory on Sunday, but who he passed was notable.
Scott Piercy still rose 51 spots to No. 246 with his tie for fourth after letting a four-shot lead slip away as he shot 76 on Sunday. Johnson is the highest-ranked LIV Golf player as the series prepares for its third event this week. The top 13 remained unchanged this week. World No. 2 Cameron Smith, who is coming off his first major victory at The Open Championship, is reportedly in discussions with LIV Golf. After Johnson, the highest-ranked current LIV Golf player is Abraham Ancer, who slipped another two spots this week to No. 22. OWGR chairman Peter Dawson said only that “examination of the application will now commence.” Tony Finau passes Dustin Johnson in world rankings Back to video