Tony Finau looks to force Tiger's hand, earn Presidents Cup pick

LAS VEGAS – Tony Finau stopped short of saying he would text U.S. Presidents Cup captain Tiger Woods a picture of his Saturday scorecard from TPC Summerlin, but did smile at the suggestion.

Finau scorched his way around the course in the third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with a 9-under 62, a career-low on the PGA TOUR by two shots.

It left the former Puerto Rico Open winner at 15 under for the tournament, giving him the clubhouse lead when he signed his card and moving him into a tie for eighth place after 54 holes, seven shots behind leader Kevin Na.

The 30-year-old knows he’ll still have work to do on Sunday if he wants to earn his second career win and all but force Woods to add him as one of his four captains picks.

Finau also plans to play the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP (Oct. 24-27) in Japan and the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions (Oct. 31 - Nov. 3) in China, after which Woods will finalize his team for the Dec. 12-15 event at Royal Melbourne.

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Finau finished ninth among potential U.S. team players in points, making him the first player to miss automatic qualification.

“It motivates me… I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't make the team,” Finau said of the Presidents Cup carrot.

“Maybe that's lighting a little bit of a fire in me going into the season. It would be hard to win a golf tournament in the fall and not get picked, I feel.

“He's (Woods) paying attention, he's watching. He's the captain of the USA team, and it would be great to play on the team, but I unfortunately haven't played my way on yet, and the only thing I can do is play some good golf in the fall and see what happens.”

While he broke through with his first win in 2016, Finau’s career has been about near-misses since. He was sixth in the FedExCup in 2018 and seventh in 2019 without winning an event.

Over the past two PGA TOUR seasons ,Finau has 17 top-10s, including five runner-ups and a third-place finish. He wants the drought to end sooner rather than later.

“Every week I tee it up and I try to put myself in contention to win. This week I've got that opportunity,” he said.

“It's nice. My lowest round of my career, one of the best rounds I've ever played out here on the PGA TOUR. So it's really nice to get off to this type of start this early in the season.

“Somebody can still go really low that's already started the day four or five in front of me, so I could very well still be trailing going into tomorrow… but to shoot 9-under today, it was what I needed, and again, I'm going to have a chance to win tomorrow, which is exciting.”