Tony Finau can do no wrong, eyes third-straight win at FedEx St. Jude Championship

It’s a good thing that Tony Finau learned to fire knife dance as a kid.

His golf game has been on a serious heater of late. The 32-year-old Utah native of Tongan descent has registered victories in his two most recent PGA Tour starts. He fired 6-under 64, two strokes off the lead, at TPC Southwind on Thursday to continue his blistering run at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

“It started with a lowlight, duck hooked my first tee shot,” said Finau, who trails Si Woo Kim and J.J. Spaun during the first round. “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.”

Finau, who entered the week in seventh place in the FedEx Cup standings, recorded his 10th straight round of 68 or lower, becoming just the eighth player since 1995 to do so, and is four rounds away from matching the longest streak during that time frame held by Tiger Woods.

Finau had gone 143 starts and a span of 1,975 days between victories at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and the 2021 Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. That event was replaced by the St. Jude as the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events. Technically, Finau is considered the defending champion this week.

FedEx St. Jude Championship: PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ | Leaderboard

“Quite a different place,” he said Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. “It’s definitely strange defending on a golf course that I haven’t won on.”

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Finau won the 3M Open and the Rocket Mortgage Classic seven days apart, but credits his win a year ago to kick off the playoffs as his breakthrough.

“Usually the hardest one to win is your first one,” Finau said. “Mine was the Northern Trust because of how much time was in between the two and my own expectations in my mind of what could be and all the close calls I had. So, to overcome that hurdle was huge and I think it’s kind of proven that over this last month.”

Finau skipped last week’s tournament, the Wyndham Championship. He hosted his charity fundraiser and celebrated with his family, including a birthday party for his daughter at a pool, where he was caught on video accidentally dropping his wife’s cell phone in the water while dancing. The phone survived, and it led to Finau rehashing the story of his days as a Polynesian dancer.

“My mom had a luau, a traveling luau, so that’s why I had to learn how to do the fire knife dance,” he explained. “I’m not shy to dance and entertain just because I’ve been doing that since I was young and things.”

Finau also made sure he kept his game sharp by playing at home every day.

“I know how big these three weeks are,” he said.

Kim, who shot 28 on the back nine, the lowest nine-hole score of his career, and Spaun, who won the Valero Texas Open in April, shot matching 62s to share the lead.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tony Finau can do no wrong at FedEx St. Jude Championship