Someone forgot to tell the players moving day came early this week at the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open.
SAN DIEGO — Someone forgot to tell the players moving day came early this week at the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open.
Just 18 of the 79 players who made the cut were under par on Friday on the South Course at Torrey Pines, and the low rounds of the day were a pair of 4-under 68s from Ryan Brehm and Will Zalatoris.
The third round featured the return of the CBS walk-and-talk with a San Diego native, a new swing analysis tool, the return of a rising PGA Tour star and a gritty golf course fit for a testy Saturday finale. Here’s what you missed from the third round of the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Like most years, we had a bunch of names most of us have never heard of near the top of the leaderboard. Some of the marquee names made a move. Some marquee names made a move in the wrong direction.
And for the fourth straight year, there won’t be a repeat champion.
So pretty much par for the course at the halfway point of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Detroit Golf Club.
At the very top of the leaderboard sat two journeymen and two Taylors. Taylor Moore, a first-time winner in March at the Valspar Championship, and Canadian Taylor Pendrith held a one-shot lead at 13-under 131. Moore, who’s ranked 51st in the world, shot 67 on Friday. Pendrith, who’s ranked 127th, shot a 64.
Hot on their heels were two of the tournament’s biggest names. Rickie Fowler caught fire late in the afternoon, eagled the par-5 17th, added six more birdies and shot 65 to reach 12-under 132. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa eagled the par-5 14th, shot 67 and was at 11-under 133.
Fowler struggled on the “bouncy” and “beat up” greens in the first round, but avoided that problem by simply hitting it close for several tap-ins Friday. Two weeks ago at the U.S. Open, he closed with a 75 and tied for fifth. Last week at the Travelers Championship, he followed a third-round 60 with a 69 in final round and tied for 13th.
On Saturday, Fowler will be in the second-to-last group, in prime position knowing what he must, and must not, do.
“I mean, the biggest thing, we can’t try and press too hard,” he said. “I definitely know we can win. … How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”
This is the blessing and the curse of the Rocket. Anybody — and I mean anybody — can win this thing.
Rickie Fowler walks to the second green during Round 2 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Friday, June 29, 2023, at the Detroit Golf Club.
Fowler, a big fan favorite here, can bounce back from his U.S. Open faceplant and win this thing. But so can a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Andrew Landry. He won two tournaments a few years ago, but now he’s the 660th-ranked player in the world and on the road back from two shoulder surgeries. He had a bogey-free round with nine birdies for a 63 that tied Nate Lashley’s 2019 tournament record. That put him at 10-under 134.
Moore’s another example of a player on his own road to redemption. He was lucky to survive a collapsed lung in 2019 and missed the cut in his past two tournaments. Last year, he finished sixth at the Rocket and now he’s regaining his confidence with everything clicking. He went out early in the morning and outplayed partner Max Homa, the world No. 9 who shot 68.
“It might be a little bit of that,” he said of his growing confidence, “but golf’s just such a finicky game.”
In a way, I’ve always looked at the Rocket as a proving ground on the PGA Tour. A place where people can find their swings and some confidence. Or where players suddenly lose their mojo and make their exit.
— Rocket Mortgage Classic (@RocketClassic) June 30, 2023
Defending champion Tony Finau closed with a 38 on the back nine, shot 72-71 to finish at 1-under 143. The cut was at 4-under 140. Finau is still looking for his first top 10 since he won the Mexico Open in April.
Justin Thomas, a two-time major champ who made his Rocket debut, was the tournament’s biggest disappointment. He rallied from a disastrous opening 76 with a 69 on Friday and finished at one-over 145.
Playing well at the right time is always the key winning in golf. But so is the right attitude and it’s a secret Morikawa might have a unlocked better than anyone so far this week in Detroit. The player with an ever-present smile kept his promise to sign autographs following a quick break after his first round and he’s embraced the city, having dinner downtown taking in the Morgan Wallen concert at Ford Field.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Look, golf is meant to be enjoyable. We’re out here to have a good time. It’s frustrating at times as well, but so far this week has been amazing. The people out here, the fans have been great, we saw a lot of people out here today. So it’s been a nice ride.
“This is when work really starts. Make the weekend, you’re in contention and we just want to post two really low numbers this weekend.”
That’s certainly the key for Morikawa and Fowler. But it could also be the key for half of the remaining field.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Rickie, Collin and Ludvig are lurking heading into the weekend at Detroit Golf Club.
DETROIT – Taylor Moore is striking a pose this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The 29-year-old Arkansas grad backed up his opening-round 64 with a 67 at Detroit Golf Club on Friday to share the 36-hole lead with Taylor Pendrith.
Moore, who claimed his first PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship in March, had missed three straight cuts and shot in the 70s in 11 of his last 13 rounds.
“I think in the past I might have hit panic a little bit with how my game’s been, scores that I posted, tried to really reinvent some stuff and try to make a quick fix,” Moore said. “But my golf swing’s good, mentality’s good, just going to keep playing golf and I feel like I would eventually play myself out of some of the scores I was shooting. Thus far I’ve done that.”
Indeed, he has thanks to a hot putter. Moore ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.602), and already holed more than 226 feet of putts. But his focus has been on holding his finish on his swing, and so far it’s done the trick.
“That’s kind of just always been something for me as a junior golfer all the way through my golf career, that’s kind of brought me back just to hitting better shots and more quality shots and just kind of staying there until the ball’s finished,” he said. “That’s something I’ve tried to bring back this week.”
Here are four more things to know about the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Gusting wind and rain on Saturday at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am forced tournament officials to call play early, pushing the PGA Tour’s annual stop on the Monterey Peninsula to a Monday finish, the first at Pebble Beach since 2019.
After the third-round action finished early Sunday afternoon, the final round began at 3:20 p.m. ET. Each player completed the front nine, and of the 75 players to make the cut, 16 completed their round.
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Here’s a look at the International Team heading to Charlotte.
It’s time for the 2022 Presidents Cup.
The competition will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina at Quail Hollow Club. The course is a regular stop on the PGA Tour, hosting the Wells Fargo Championship, as well as the 2017 PGA Championship.
Now, some of the best players from around the world, Europe excluded, will come together and look to win on American soil for the first time in the event’s history.
Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, is the captain for the International squad, and he has four assistant captains: K.J. Choi, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas and Mike Weir.
Here’s a look at the 12 players representing the International team in the 2022 Presidents Cup:
Some players didn’t do too well in the Presidents Cup tune up.
If the PGA Tour’s season-opening Fortinet Championship is foreshadowing anything, next week could be rough for the International team at the Presidents Cup.
The United States is heavily favored at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte in an event it has lost only once in its history. The International team, which features plenty of talent but a lot of newcomers after the losses of Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann, among others, to the LIV Golf Series, would pull off a huge upset if it were to find a way to be victorious.
Yet members of the International team struggled at Silverado Resort’s North Course while the lone U.S. member sits in the lead.
Max Homa, the defending champion, is tied for the lead at 12 under. The other U.S. connection is assistant captain Webb Simpson, who is a member at Quail Hollow. He missed the cut, which was at 2 under, after rounds of 70-74 put him at even par.
For the Internationals, Cam Davis and Corey Conners can head east early. Davis, from Austrailia, shot 2 under in the second round, but a 74 on Thursday had him in an early hole. Conners, a Canadian who has one PGA Tour victory, birdied four of his last five holes on the front nine to make the turn at 3 under for the day and 5 under for the tournament, but he had two bogeys, a triple bogey and no birdies on the back nine to miss the cut.
Hideki Matsuyama was below the cut line with only three holes to play, but he birdied Nos. 16 and 18 to make the cut at 3 under. Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, has the second-most experience among International Presidents Cup members, trailing only Adam Scott on this year’s team.
Taylor Pendrith, the 31-year-old Canadian making his first Presidents Cup appearance, made the cut. He was on the number until a birdie on the 18th, moving him to 3 under for the tournament.
After several close calls last season, keep an eye on Theegala in Napa.
And just like that, we’re back. It’s time for the start of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season and the boys are in Napa, California, for the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa (North Course).
Understandably, Homa enters this year’s event as the betting favorite at +1300 (13/1). Hideki Matsuyama and Corey Conners are next on the list, tied at +1500 (15/1). Last year’s runner-up, McNealy, sits at +2000 (20/1).
Let’s dive into our first Tour preview of the season.
Silverado Spa and Resort (North) | Par 72 | 7,123 yards
A general view of the course during round one of the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa on September 16, 2021, in Napa, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Key stats
Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
Total driving
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. Annandale GC, 2. Memorial Park Golf Course, 3. TPC Scottsdale
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Max Homa (4.8 percent), 2. Corey Conners (4.7 percent), 3. Taylor Pendrith (3.7 percent)
When Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann made the jump to LIV, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections.
Trevor Immelman’s job as the Presidents Cup captain for the International Team has become more difficult as the competition approaches.
The top eight players on the points list had earned a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, meaning Immelman had four picks to make.
But when a pair of players — Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann — made the jump to LIV Golf before the recent event outside Boston, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections to play with. This followed the costly defections of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, about whom Immelman had previously said, “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”
The Presidents Cup is a match-play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and a 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.
Here’s a look at the six players Immelman selected on Tuesday to fill out his team.
Tony Finau’s bank account has grown quite larger the past eight days.
On Sunday he won for the second straight week, capturing the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. Finau finished at 26 under, five shots clear of second-place finishers Patrick Cantlay, Taylor Pendrith and Cameron Young. Finau is the first back-to-back winner on the PGA Tour since Cantlay won the BMW Championship and Tour Championship last year.
Finau is taking home a check worth $1.512 million. Check out how much money each player earned this week at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“They say a winner is just a loser that just kept on trying, and that’s me to a T.”
If winning is a habit, Tony Finau may officially be addicted to it.
Finau, who had posted 39 top-10 finishes, including being a runner-up eight times between his maiden victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and validating last August by claiming the Northern Trust, had gone 143 starts and a span of 1,975 days between those titles.
The gap between wins three and four was significantly shorter.
Seven days after Finau erased a five-stroke deficit heading into the final round of the 3M Open to earn his third Tour title, he made it back-to-back wins by shooting a final-round 5-under 67 at Detroit Golf Club to clinch the Rocket Mortgage Classic in The Motor City by five strokes over Patrick Cantlay, Taylor Pendrith and Cameron Young.
“They say a winner is just a loser that just kept on trying, and that’s me to a T,” Finau said. “How many times do I lose? But one thing I won’t do is give up, and I’m only here as a winner because I chose not to give up and just keep going.”
Finau, 32, became the first player to win consecutive tournaments since Patrick Cantlay did so a year ago at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. It was Cantlay who produced the biggest threat to spoil Finau’s day. Cantlay birdied five of the first eight holes in his final round, but a bogey at No. 12 was costly. The reigning FedEx Cup champion shot 6-under 66, recording his Tour best 10th top-10 finish of the season.
“That’s what I’ve got to keep doing, just keep knocking on the door,” Cantlay said.
Pendrith, a 31-year-old Tour rookie from Canada, sat out 15 weeks with a fractured left rib. He had just one career top-10 finish entering the week but made 25 birdies in his first 54 holes to share the lead going into Sunday. Playing in the final group alongside Finau for the second day in a row, Pendrith’s inexperience showed as he carded an even-par 72 but still notched his best career finish. Young, a fellow rookie, closed in 68 to register his fifth runner-up finish this season, tying six other players for most in a season on Tour in the last 40 years, as he still seeks his first Tour title.
“Today, Tony beat us all by a lot, but it’s not fun being that close that often and not having one (victory),” Young said.
Tony Finau of the United States kisses the trophy after winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club on July 31, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Despite his FedEx Cup Playoff triumph a year ago and Ryder Cup success, Finau suffered through a lull early this season as he and his family dealt with the death of his wife’s (Alayna) father. Finau ranked 150th in the FedEx Cup point standings heading into the Mexico Open in late April. Finau finished second there, and rediscovered his mojo.
“He’s a lot tougher than people think,” said Finau’s swing instructor, Boyd Summerhays. “I think persistence and patience were the two biggest things. He never lost self-belief during that lull. Once he got hot, he was hungry.”
Finau made birdies at the two par 5s on the front nine to grab the lead. He sank a clutch 11-foot par putt at the ninth and extended his lead with a 21-foot birdie putt one hole later at No. 10. Finau went 64 holes, the longest bogey-free stretch of his career, before making a three-putt bogey from 69 feet at No. 11. It was just his fifth bogey in his last eight rounds, during which he shot an eye-popping 44-under par.
How did Finau respond to his first bogey in Motown? At the 12th, he drained a 31-foot birdie and pumped his right fist as he stretched his lead to four shots over Pendrith.
“We all know he needs to make more putts on Sunday to get the job done, and he’s just done that,” Summerhays said.
How does @TonyFinauGolf follow up his first bogey of the week …
This is the type of success expected of Finau for some time. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, second in SG: Off the Tee and third in driving accuracy.
“I think that’s a big reason I’ve been hitting so many greens,” he said of his driving prowess. “I’m just hitting a lot more fairways than I’m accustomed to or than I have in the past. This golf course really opens up to you if you hit it in the short grass.”
Since 1980, only two players have hit more greens in regulation in a 72-hole event on TOUR than Tony Finau (66 of 72) at the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic:
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) July 31, 2022
It didn’t hurt that Finau hit 66 of 72 greens in regulation, tying for the third-most on Tour since 1980, and was perfect in scrambling in six attempts. Finau shot a new tournament 72-hole scoring record of 26-under 262.
“It’s the culmination of him starting to hit it better than he ever has in his career, and he already was an unbelievable ballstriker,” Summerhays said. “Add in that he’s started to gain strokes on the green, and for him, he’s going to be there almost every single week.”
Despite his come-from-behind win last week in Minnesota, Finau still believed he had some unfinished business after catching a lucky break last week at 17 when his tee shot ricocheted off a sponsor chalet and stopped just short of the water and his drive at 18 rolled into the lake and cost him a penalty stroke. He wanted to finish this week in style as well as put to rest the stat that he had never secured a win in five previous attempts with the 54-hole lead or co-lead.
“For some reason I left (3M), and after bogeying the 18th hole I had kind of a sour taste in my mouth and I think it just gave me extra motivation to put myself there again this week and just prove to myself the kind of champion that I am and making birdies down the stretch when you really need them,” Finau said. “I thought that this week I was able to prove to myself the champion that I feel like I am.”
A champion whose wife was confident enough in her man that she flew to Detroit on Saturday night to be there. Behind the 18th green, Alayna waited for the final stroke to be struck and Tony rushed to wrap his arms around her. Their long kiss signified the struggles they have overcome and a job well done. Don’t look now, but Finau is starting to make a habit of these celebrations.
