Defending champion Tony Finau caught fire toward the end of his round and posted an 8-under 62 to grab the 36-hole lead at the Texas Children’s Houston Open on Friday at Memorial Park Golf Course.
After starting his day with three birdies on the back nine and making the turn with a bogey 5 at No. 1, Finau rolled in birdies at Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 7 before a perfectly read chip-in eagle at the par-5 eighth to go out in 5-under 30.
It marked Finau’s second round of 62 in Houston; he also shot that number during the second round in November 2022, when he won the event.
Finau rose to 9 under for the tournament, where few players could threaten him the rest of the day. Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti made a 30-foot birdie at his last hole, the par-3 ninth, to polish off a 67 and take second place at 7 under; Belgium’s Thomas Detry carded a 64 and is alone in third at 6 under.
Finau had his putter to thank for most of his birdies down the stretch. He drained a left-to-right 27-footer at the fourth hole, a tough right-to-left 30-footer at the sixth and another 30-footer at the par-3 seventh to take the outright lead.
“You just kind of take it a shot at a time, you’re not really thinking about score too much in that situation,” Finau said. “I knew I was in contention, near the top of the leaderboard with a handful of holes there to go and then the putter just got hot. I hit some nice shots, but it was mostly just draining some long putts from long distance.”
Once unable to break through at a standard-field PGA Tour event, Finau now has six titles to his name, five coming in the past three years. He knows now what it’s like to try to defend a title.
“Nothing really changes,” Finau said. “I’ve played some nice golf the first couple days and the game’s in a good place. Just don’t overthink it, just get some rest, be properly prepared, properly rested for the weekend.”
Tosti, a tour rookie, had three birdies over his first 10 holes before dropping back with consecutive bogeys at Nos. 3-4. He holed a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 6 before his massive putt at the ninth.
“I think everything is kind of going in the right direction,” Tosti said. “Last week I had a terrible week with my putting and I went ahead, made some changes before the start of the week that I thought that would help me and the same putter, changed the grip, changed the weights a little bit and definitely it’s feeling a lot better.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler touched 7 under several times during his round but settled for an up-and-down 70 and a tie for fourth at 5 under. After a bogey and three birdies on his front nine, Scheffler picked up two more of each down the stretch before making a mess of the par-4 18th green.
After lipping out a par putt, his 2-footer for bogey also refused to go down and he accepted a double bogey. Scheffler’s streak of 28 straight rounds under par on tour was halted by the even-par 70.
“Frustrating lapse in judgment there,” Scheffler said. “You never really know what’s going to be up there around the cup on 18. Yeah, just hit something and knocked the second one offline.”
Tied with Scheffler at 5 under are first-round co-leader Taylor Moore (71), Chad Ramey (66), Akshay Bhatia (68), Joe Highsmith (70) and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger (66).
Notable names to miss the cut of 1 over par included Jason Day of Australia (2 over), Padraig Harrington of Ireland (4 over) and Joel Dahmen (4 over). Will Zalatoris rebounded from an opening 74 by shooting a 67 on Friday to make the cut on the number.
–Field Level Media
