Tony Finau stayed as hot as the weather in Memphis Thursday as the FedEx St. Jude Classic got off to a birdie-laden start.
Finau, the Tour’s only back-to-back winner this season, still has his momentum — he opened with a six-under par 64 and was just two shots back of co-leaders Si Woo Kim and J.J. Spaun.
After some heavy rains at TPC Southwind earlier in the week, the field played lift-clean-and-place and that led to a scoring barrage — but not for everyone. Only the players who found fairways were able to put up the good numbers — greens were more than receptive thanks to some early morning rain, the rough was wet and not very manageable and Finau managed his round quite well.
“It started with a lowlight, duck hooked my first tee shot,” was how Tony described the early start to his day. “But I got lucky, had a shot, put it on the front of the green and chipped in. It wasn’t the ideal birdie start, but we’re off and running.”
Although he took last week off, Finau made sure he stayed sharp. My biggest thing last week was just to stay sharp, which I did,” Finau said. “I played every day, I didn’t really miss a day. I just wanted to play golf and make sure that I was going to be as sharp as I could going into the Playoffs because I know how big these three weeks are, so today just kind of proved I think that I was able to stay sharp.”
Finau, like everyone else, knows there’s $75 million ready to be handed out to those who play well with that huge $18 million jackpot there for the overall winner in three weeks. “I know how big these three weeks are,” said Finau, who won the first leg of the playoffs last year at the Northern Trust. Finau’s 64 made him the eighth player since 1995 to post 10 consecutive rounds of 68 or better. The record? That would be 14 by who else? Tiger Woods in 2007-2008.
It wasn’t a great day for FedEx leader Scottie Scheffler. He showed the layoff rust. The world’s No. 1 was four over after his first five holes (started on back nine) and had to work his way back to finish at 71, one-over, tied for 86th.
A total of 120 players started the day, Hideki Matsuyama was the latest casualty. The Japanese star withdrew on Wednesday as he battles a neck injury.
World No. 2 and FedEx No. 2 Cam Smith opened with 67, Sam Burns turned in a 65, Xander Schauffele carded 68, Patrick Cantlay’s double-bogey at the 18th left him with a 67. Rory McIlroy showed the effects of his three-week layoff and struggled to get to even par 79. Justin Thomas and Cameron Young shot 67s and Sunjae Im’s 70 rounded out the top 10 points leaders.
Sahith Theegala had the best round of the afternoon. He holed a 25-footer for birdie at his final hole (ninth) and his 63 left him just a shot off the lead.
One of the surprises near the top was Rickie Fowler’s 65.
There will be a 36-hole cut in this one on Friday to the low 70 and ties. It’s also a race to finish in the top 70 and move on to the second round next week in Delaware.
Phillip Knowles Leads At Korn Ferry Finale:
Phillip Knowles birdied two of his final four holes Thursday at The Club at Indian Creek and carded a six-under par 65 to set the pace at the Korn Ferry Tour regular season finale — the Pinnacle Bank Championship.
This is the first lead of any kind on the Korn Ferry Tour for Knowles, who is making his 16th start of the season and 18th of his career. Knowles’ previous career-high standing through 18 holes was T15 at last week’s Utah Championship.
“It was really good, it felt easy,” Knowles said. “Golf feels easy when you’re playing well for the most part. I feel like I’ve been playing a lot of good golf these last few weeks, just plagued by whatever it was – bad bounce here, lip out there. Today it was just pretty solid from beginning to end.”
Carl Yuan from China, the No. 1 player heading into this week, shot 67 and has punched his ticket to the PGA Tour.
 Stays Hot; 62s From Kim, Spaun){kind=link}