Tony Finau’s lackluster play — by his standards — in the last six majors continued at rain-soaked Oak Hill Country Club on Saturday in the third round of the PGA Championship.
Playing early Saturday when conditions were at their worst at times, the Utah native shot a 3-over-par 73 for the second straight day and is 8-over par heading into Sunday’s final round.
Hoping to make up some ground on “Moving Day” after being on the cut line (+5) when Friday’s rounds were completed, Finau got off to a poor start and never really found any rhythm.
He made a double bogey on the first hole and spent the rest of the round trying to recover.
In his last five majors before this one, Finau finished tied for 35th at the 2022 Masters, tied for 30th at the PGA last year, missed the cut in the 2022 US Open, tied for 28th at The Open Championship in Great Britain, and was tied for 26th at the Masters last month.
He was around 60th place when he completed his round Saturday, well before second-round leaders such as Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Corey Conners and Bryson DeChambeau had even started their third rounds.
On No. 1, Finau hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker, then left his second shot in the same bunker. His third shot traveled just 73 yards, and he finally hit the green with his fourth shot.
A routine two-putt resulted in the double bogey.
Related
He birdied the next hole, a 404-yard par-4, but that was the only birdie on the day for one of the top players in the world. Finau entered the tournament at No. 4 in the FedExCup playoff standings.
On the second hole, Finau used a hybrid off the tee so he would hit the fairway as the rain poured in western New York. His approach came to rest 6 feet from the hole, and his putt dropped for the 3.
The rest of his round was fairly routine, with bogeys on the par-4 6th and the par-4 18th.
On the 6th hole, his 10-foot putt for par lipped out. That hole was played at 505 yards and competitors were averaging a score of 4.5 on the gnarly hole through the first two rounds.
Finau’s worst showing in the PGA in tournaments in which he made the cut is the T64 he posted at Bethpage Black in New York in 2019. He missed the cut at the 2016 PGA at Baltusrol.