British Open: Utah’s Tony Finau hoping to rebound after missing the cut last month at Torrey Pines

One poor performance in the U.S. Open changed the conversation about Tony Finau. No longer viewed as the golfer who almost always finishes in the top 10 in major tournaments, he’s just trying to save a once-promising season that’s getting away from him.

It’s also true that Finau, a West High School graduate and part-time Lehi resident, can get himself going again this week when he plays in the British Open at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. He hopes to follow through on his third-place effort in 2019, the last time the tournament was staged. Last year’s British Open was canceled, due to the pandemic.

Finau will join Billy Horschel and Adam Hadwin for the first two rounds, playing Thursday afternoon and Friday morning in England. Those starting times translate to 5:53 a.m. MDT and 12:52 a.m. MDT.

Finau missed the 36-hole cut in the U.S. Open last month at Torrey Pines near San Diego, after placing in the top 10 in nine of the previous 13 majors. That showing was part of what qualifies as a slump for him, with five missed cuts in his last nine starts – although this stretch includes top-10 finishes in the Masters and the PGA Championship.

In his only appearance since the U.S. Open, Finau shot 76-67 to miss the cut in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

So what’s at stake for Finau this week and beyond? He’s among several candidates to be a captain’s pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and this is his last chance to make a good impression in a major. Finau is No. 23 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings. With the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs starting in mid-August, he’s in mild danger of falling out of the top 30 and missing the Tour Championship for the first time in five years.

— Kurt Kragthorpe, special to The Salt Lake Tribune

John Rahm’s revelation: A club foot at birth and shot at history

Jon Rahm arrived at Royal St. George’s as a newly crowned major champion with the chance to join an elite group of players who have won golf’s two oldest championships in the same year.

Yet, in one way, Rahm already is very different.

In a revelation on Tuesday ahead of the British Open, Rahm said there was a reason for his unusually short backswing, and it couldn’t be further from the theories he has heard that the Spaniard has “tight hips.”

“I was born with a club foot on my right leg,” said Rahm, who was eager to take the opportunity to reveal much more.

“My right leg up to the ankle was straight, my foot was 90 degrees turned inside and basically upside down,” he said. “So when I was born, they basically relocated it, pretty much broke every bone in the ankle and I was casted within 20 minutes of being born from the knee down. I think every week I had to go back to the hospital to get re-casted.”

His right leg, Rahm said, is a centimeter and a half shorter than his left, meaning he has reduced mobility and stability in his right ankle. Hence the short swing which he learned at a young age, a swing that has propelled him to being the world’s best golfer going into the final major of the year.

“Don’t try to copy me,” he said. “Don’t try to copy any swing out there. Just swing your swing.”

Rahm won his first major title at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last month, momentarily lifting him back to No. 1 in the world ranking. A victory would see him become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win the U.S. Open and British Open in the same year. With only Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones having also done so, Rahm would be joining quite the pantheon.

— Steve Douglas, The Associated Press

Delivery driver brings perspective to his 1st British Open

Any other week, Nick Poppleton would be working as a supermarket delivery driver to supplement his modest income as a player on the third tier of European golf.

Maybe even fitting windows with a good friend, just for a bit of extra cash.

Not this week.

Instead, the 27-year-old Englishman is walking the rolling fairways of Royal St. George’s in his first appearance at the British Open. Indeed he already has been lucky enough to play his first practice round in Sandwich in the company of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.

“I wasn’t really interested in their golf game or how they were playing, because it was all a bit too much for me,” said Poppleton, taking a break from the practice green to talk about his first time on golf’s biggest stage. “It was just nice to watch them go about their business.”

Indeed, for Poppleton, it’s just nice to be on a golf course.

The pandemic didn’t just result in his nascent golf career, and therefore his earning potential, grinding to a halt in 2020. It also gave him some perspective.

His partner, Amber, is a radiographer at a children’s hospital. As the coronavirus raged through Britain in April 2020, she offered to work in one of the hastily constructed emergency hospitals — called the “Nightingales” — set up for COVID-19 patients.

Her working hours were long. The stress was huge. Golf, suddenly, took a back seat for Poppleton.

“My role wasn’t a golfer,” he said, “it became a support for her. That’s what it had to be.

“I was there if she needed someone to talk to, to get anything off her chest. It’s not a great job already — one day you are dealing with a kid who is in remission or having a cancer scan, the next you are dealing with someone who is fighting for their life.”

It’s why Poppleton is giving short shrift to any player at this week’s British Open grumbling about operating under strict COVID-19 restrictions implemented by the R&A.

“You hear players complaining about the bubble malarkey,” he said, “but it’s a piece of cake in comparison.”

In the darkest days of the pandemic, Poppleton resorted to going to fields near his home in Sheffield, England, to hit some golf balls. The EuroPro Tour — a level below the Challenge Tour, which is the secondary tier to the European Tour — shut down for 2020 but did at least manage to put on some localized events Poppleton refers to as “mini tours.”

He played them but also had to take on work as a delivery driver, which he still does mostly on Saturdays.

“I’m lucky,” he said, “I’ve got this week off.”

That’s because he won a local qualifying event at West Lancashire by three shots to get to Royal St. George’s and the biggest week of his golfing life. He said there are “probably about five people” watching an average round on the EuroPro Tour — at this British Open, there will be about 32,000 per day, marking the biggest crowds since golf returned after the coronavirus outbreak.

He got a feel for what it will be like by going round Monday with Mickelson and DeChambeau, by far the biggest names he has ever played alongside. They knew who he was, and how he got to the British Open, when they introduced themselves on the first tee. That impressed Poppleton.

“They were just on it straightaway. Professional. Proper dialed in,” he recalled.

“I knew what I was getting into by playing with Bryson. It’s going to be forwards and it’s going to go far. But it’s very impressive.”

Even if Poppleton finishes last of the 156 entrants, he will earn $5,350, which is almost as much as he has made on tour this year.

He’ll be playing in the final group in the first round on Thursday and taking a relaxed approach, born out of his experiences during the pandemic.

“It’s going to be a bit different, but you’re still hitting a ball around a field into some long rough and finding it,” Poppleton said. “It’s the same gig, just the course is a lot harder.”

— Steve Douglas, The Associated Press