Weekly Recap: For Finau, The Time is Now

It's hard to say that Tony Finau picked the perfect time to win. After all, when you've gone forever without winning, any time would be right.

Finau ended the most famous and agonizing winless streak on the PGA Tour, capturing The Northern Trust playoff event in a one-hole playoff with Cameron Smith on Monday at Liberty National.  

It took the 31-year-old Finau more than five years and 143 starts to finally win for the second time. Plus one extra day. Plus one extra hole.

The first leg of the three-event FedExCup Playoffs was pushed to a Monday finish because of Hurricane Henri, then was pushed to a 73rd hole when Smith birdied the 16th and 17th to catch Finau at 20-under. Smith's playoff drive was so wayward it may have left the Liberty National grounds, and that was that.

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Finau -- one of the elite golfers in the world except for the fact that, you know, he couldn't win – played the final seven holes in six-under-par, overtaking world No. 1 Jon Rahm in the process.

He had not won since the woeful opposite-field Puerto Rico Open in 2016, yet he had come close oh-so-many times. Finau has had eight Tour runners-up, including three this year, since that victory. It's hard to believe that one of the world's best golfers was becoming a punchline, but that was the case.

It's no secret that putting had been Finau's Kryptonite. All one of the world's best ball-strikers had to do was just putt bad instead of horrendous. At the Northern Trust, he was downright good, ranking 16th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He had a birdie-eagle-birdie stretch on the back, culminating with a 30-foot birdie on 14.

To recap:

• Finau won for the first time in five years.
• He stared down the best golfer in the world on the back-nine of the strongest playoff field ever.
• He moved to No. 9 in the world rankings, matching his best position ever.
• He secured his place in the Tour Championship in two weeks and has the inside track to the $15 million first prize.
• And -- and here's where the "perfect time" comes into play -- he moved into the sixth and final automatic spot to make the Ryder Cup team with just one week left of qualifying.

Ryder Cup qualifying ends after next week's BMW. Even if Finau is overtaken, he very likely has shown U.S. captain Steve Stricker enough to secure one of the six captain's picks who will be named the week after East Lake.

Finau has been a quality Ryder Cupper in the past, but he was likely being overtaken by others, such as Harris English, who were actually winning tournaments.

Of course, Finau can put the decision in his own hands by winning the BMW.  Just kidding, a good finish should be good enough.

But wouldn't that be something -- Tony Finau winning two in a row!

THE TOP 70

Six golfers made it into the top-70 at the last possible moment, the most since the playoffs switched to the three-event format: Alex Noren, Erik van Rooyen, Tom Hoge, Harold Varner, Keith Mitchell and Harry Higgs. Hoge made the jump since the inception of the new format, moving from 108th place thanks to a tie for fourth with Noren and Justin Thomas.

The six guys who bowed out were Matthew Wolff, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Martin Laird, Troy Merritt and J.T. Poston. It's been a difficult year for Wolff and he deserves a pass. But Hatton and Fitzpatrick? They each missed the cut and were ranked in the top-25 in the world – Hatton in the top-15. They pretty much play full schedules on the PGA Tour. They have had some success in the States, especially Hatton, so it's too easy to chalk this up to their games not translating to the PGA Tour. But these are bad, bad misses by both of them to not make it to even the second playoff event.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Cameron Smith
Smith will rue his tee ball in the playoff. But it was a great week for him. He shot 60 on Saturday, then 67 on Monday. He moves to a career-best 23rd in the world rankings. This was his third top-10 in a row after a T10 at the Olympics and a T5 at the WGC-FedEx. It would surprise no one if the Aussie made it into the top 10 of the OWGR next season.

Jon Rahm
Rahm was cruising on the back-nine. Victory seemed imminent. He did bogey a couple of holes coming in but, really, Finau simply played better. It was Rahm's 11th top-10 in 16 worldwide starts in 2021. Quite clearly, Rahm is the best in the world right now and is a threat to win every tournament he's in.

Justin Thomas
Thomas turned in by far his best result in almost six months, tying for fourth. He hadn't had so much as a top-10 on the PGA Tour since winning THE PLAYERS in March. It was only a matter of time before Thomas came around.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy was never in the mix – again – and now is in real jeopardy of not reaching East Lake. He did make the cut, tying for 43rd, but fell from 26th to 28th in the point standings and now needs a great BMW week to avoid the embarrassment of an early end to his season. On top of that, he's fallen out of the top-15 OWGR for the first time since 2009, now down to 16th.

Jason Kokrak
Kokrak missed the cut but he'll still safely make it to East Lake thanks to his two wins this season. But since his second victory at the Charles Schwab in late May, he's missed three cuts in six starts with just one top-25. This was a track well suited for his game, too. Definitely trending in the wrong direction.

Collin Morikawa
What a clunker. And on a course where he could've won. Morikawa missed the cut and never really got close to making. Maybe that's what separates him and Jon Rahm, the other contender for Player of the Year -- Rahm doesn't have clunkers.

Phil Mickelson
Mickelson had another terrible week but managed to survive one more week into the BMW. He appeared clearly safe at No. 58 in the point standings but got perilously close to fall from the top-70 but stopped short. Actually, if you'd have said at the beginning of the year that Mickelson would squeeze into the BMW, it would be viewed as a successful year. But when winning a major tournament, that should happen with ease.

Gary Woodland
Woodland made the cut, but his season still ended outside of the top-70 in the point standings. He's also outside the top-70 in the world. At age 37, and now coming off a second bad year in a row, it's fair to wonder whether his best days are over – stunningly, just two years after winning the U.S. Open.

Adam Scott
Scott missed the cut and his season is over. He's now 43. But he's also still in the top-40 in the world, won a big tournament just last year (Riviera) and was a runner-up just a week ago at the Wyndham. His value in fantasy is in question because he simply doesn't play enough – just 24 tournaments total since the beginning of 2020.

Matt Kuchar
Kuchar is 43, barely made the playoffs and is now out with a missed cut. Even though he won tournaments in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – that last one was a weak field in Singapore -- his days as a top player appear over. Sure, he could have an outlier week next season, but he's no longer a strong fantasy option, now ranked outside the top-80 in the world.

Jason Day
Day is only 33, about a decade younger than Kuchar, at least chronologically. You have to wonder where he stands after years of back trouble. His season is also done with a missed cut, he's outside the top-75 in the world. He hasn't won a tournament in more than three years. It's inconceivable that he has fallen so far so fast.