DETROIT (AP) — Tony Finau sent an approach from 250 yards soaring over trees and onto the seventh green at Detroit Golf Club, going for the reward and ignoring the risk with a difficult shot.
The way he has been playing over the last week, it made a lot of sense.
Finau, coming off his third career victory on the PGA Tour, and Taylor Pendrith shared the first-round lead at 8-under 64 on Thursday in the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The pivotal shot on Finau's 16th hole, a 560-yard par 5, set up a two-putt from 43 feet for one of his eight birdies.
“I had to get all of it to get it to the hole and hit it right in the middle of the green,” he said.
The leaderboard was filled with players who took advantage of favorable scoring conditions with morning tee times. In the afternoon, the wind picked up and the scores did as well.
Former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, Michael Thompson, Cameron Champ, Lee Hodges and Matt Wallace were two shots back.
Si Woo Kim and Kurt Kitayama, both ranked among the top 70 in the world, were in the pack at 67.
Finau, who rallied from a five-shot deficit with 11 holes left to win the 3M Open by three shots Sunday in Minnesota, opened with a birdie and had five birdies on his front nine.
After cooling off with four straight pars, Finau closed with his seventh and eighth birdies in a bogey-free round. He hit all 18 greens in regulation for the first time in 728 PGA Tour stroke-play rounds.
“Do the math, I missed 10 putts," he said. “Obviously, 64′s a very good round, but this is a golf course where a lot of guys are going to make birdies."
On the par-4 eighth hole, he made a 41-foot putt downhill with a slight break from right to left for another birdie and a three-shot lead.
“It was nice to just get a
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