Getty Images
While John Rahm remains undoubtedly the best player in golf right now, the man who blocked him on Sunday may submit his name for consideration.
In a rematch of the 2022 Mexican Open, where Ram picked up his first of seven wins last year, Tony Finau came out on top this time.
Venau started Sunday with a two-shot lead over Ram and Akshay Bhatia and finished with a bogey-free 66 to finish at 24-under, good for a three-shot win at this year’s Mexican Open in Vendanta over Ram. The top three spots on the leaderboard are identical to what they were a year ago with Brandon Wu after sharing a solo third place this year.
Now Finau joins Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa as multiple winners on the PGA Tour this season. He moved into fourth place in the FedEx Cup standings, after the aforementioned trio.
With his sixth career PGA Tour win, it’s also his fourth in the last 18 tours (280 days) after winning back-to-back events at the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic last July.
Finau may not have racked up many headlines since winning the fall portion of the schedule at the Houston Open, but he’s quietly put together a very solid season. He only missed one cut in 12 starts and finished in the top 25 nine times.
He was equally consistent on Sunday, making a birdie on the opening hole and then another on the par-3 5.
Wu was the only player to seriously challenge all day, briefly tying Finau after an eagle birdie run on 6 and 7 brought him to 21 under. However, Finau made a birdie of his own in the par-4 7th drive car. Wu deepened the eighth and later suffered disaster when he hit a tee ball into the pond and pulled away by two strokes. He was tied for the second time with the Ram on 18, but made a sloppy bogey to finish on 19 under.
Finau’s lead was never less than three after that. He played a simple, error-free game. In the 490-yard tenth, he completely took the water out of play by hitting an irons drive on the green.
The Ram were on neutral for much of the early over and could only muster a charge late on the back nine with back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th.