Tony Finau is far from contending in The Open Championship, but he turned the challenge of merely making the 36-hole cut into a satisfying achievement Friday.
After bogeying Nos. 16 and 17 to fall below the cut line, the West High School graduate holed an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 18 in the late evening in Scotland. Finau pumped his fist when the ball found the hole, then spread his arms in an expression of relief as he walked off the green.
He advanced to the weekend rounds for the sixth time in his six appearances in the historic tournament. Finau, whose family spends the summers in Lehi, is 21 for 26 in career cuts made in major championships.
Finau’s last stroke in that classic setting on the Old Course in St. Andrews concluded an adventurous day on the greens. His 1-under-par 71 was highlighted by five birdies, amid a double bogey and two bogeys, giving him an even-par total for two rounds.
His birdies came via putts of 37, 28, 18, 5 and 11 feet. Finau also three-putted from 9 feet in double-bogeying the par-4 No. 2 and from 33 feet on the par-4 No. 17, requiring his dramatic finish on No. 18. That’s where his 325-yard drive nearly reached the green, and then he managed to get up and down from 80 feet to extend his stay in Scotland.
Finau had missed the cut in last month’s U.S. Open. Having begun the 150th Open Championship with a 73, he knew he likely needed an under-par round to make the cut. He started with the long birdie putt on No. 1, only to have that putting disaster on No. 2.
After steadying himself with six pars, he made three birdies in four holes and was comfortably inside the cut line. But trouble in the rough led to a bogey on the par-4 No. 16, and his putting problems resurfaced on the par-4 No. 17, following a good approach shot from the rough.
That setback served to make his finishing birdie more meaningful, giving Finau the opportunity to play two more rounds at St, Andrews this weekend.
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