Even with two top-10 finishes among his credentials, Tony Finau has played much worse in the U.S. Open than in any of golf’s other three major tournaments.
That trend continued this week for the West High School graduate, who missed the 36-hole cut by two strokes at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
Finau bogeyed his last two holes of the second round, thanks to mistakes around the greens, and posted a 2-over-par 72. He finished at 5 over for two days, and the cut line moved just slightly in his favor in the afternoon as the wind died down.
Finau is now 3 for 7 in cuts made in the U.S. Open and 17 of 18 in the other majors.
He was in decent shape as of late in Friday’s round, having overcome a double bogey to begin the day on the par-4 No. 10 early in the morning. Finau recovered with birdies on the par-5 No. 14 and the par-4 No. 17, where his fairway bunker shot landed about 60 feet above the hole and trickled down the slope to within tap-in range.
A backward roll proved costly on the par-5 No. 8, though. At one time, his second shot was on the green. But the ball didn’t stay there for long, falling off the front edge and rolling down the hill. From there, Finau pitched poorly, with the ball going over the green and into the rough, leading to a bogey.
On the par-4 No. 9, Finau three-putted from 42 feet, after running his first attempt nearly 10 feet past the hole. He had bogeyed three of the last four holes in his opening round, which started on the front nine.
Over two rounds, erratic driving cost him more strokes than his putting, compared with the field’s statistics.
Finau will remain in the Northeast, having entered next week’s Travelers Championship in Connecticut. The final major of the 2022 schedule is the 150th British Open, July 14-17 at St. Andrews in Scotland. Then come the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, beginning in late August.
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