Tony Finau overcomes early triple bogey to contend at Mayakoba

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – All Tony Finau could do after making a triple bogey on his second hole of the week was to laugh it off.

And after finishing with a 3-under 68, that mental approach paid off.

Finau, who birdied six of his final 12 holes to get back into red figures for the day, had two penalty shots on the par-4 second. He almost fell flat on his face after his third shot, he said with a smile, as the ball was above his feet and a mighty lash nearly caused him to miss the ball entirely.

“It was a seven,” said Finau, “but it was quite funny. I almost missed the golf ball on a real shot in a real tournament. I took (the score) pretty lightly.

“I knew it was really early in the day but mostly early in the tournament. If you’re going to make big mistakes like that, you’re going to want to do it early.”

Finau managed to settle into his round after that, making birdie on the very next hole. He started to play a little more consistently through the balance of the day and had a round-saver, he said, after chipping in for par on the ninth.

There was mud on his ball for his approach shot which ended up 35 yards left of his intended target. When he found his ball near the green, there was a stick behind it so he couldn’t make clean contact.But he got it to a good enough spot that his deft touch allowed him to knock it in for par.

“Up to that point I had made a couple birdies, but when things were not going my way, they were really not going my way,” said Finau. “It was little things that could have made me frustrated, but I just decided that we were going to roll with the punches, and I was happy I did, because I made a nice run on the back nine and just looking to keep it up tomorrow.”

Finau added birdies on Nos. 11, 13, 15, and the par-4 closing hole. He’ll be well back of the 9-under 62 shot by Will Gordon, who has the first-round lead, but Finau knows he finished well after a tough start.

“I was happy to fight my way back into the thick of the scores on a day when it was very scoreable, and I thought that 3-under was respectable after the start,” said Finau. “There are 3-under’s that feel like, ‘ehh’ and there are 3-under’s that feel like, ‘Wow, that was great’ and that was the second of the two.”