It took an extra hole and an extra day, but Tony Finau came out victorious at The Northern Trust, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
After the final round was pushed to Monday due to Hurricane Henri, Finau and Cameron Smith each ended the four rounds of play at 20-under. Neither could birdie on the 18th hole, setting up a playoff for the win. While it’s never an easy task, Finau had the pressure off him with Smith hitting his first tee shot out of bounds, immediately putting himself two strokes behind off the tee box. Finau finished with a par on the hole to get his first PGA Tour win since 2016.
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A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Finau is no stranger to playoff holes. His last win came 1,975 days ago at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach, in a playoff win over Steve Marino. Since then, Finau has finished in second place eight times, including three playoff hole losses. He most recently fell short against Max Homa in a playoff this year at the Genesis Invitational.
Finau entered Monday in a tie for fourth at 14-under. A 6-under performance in Round 4 pushed him to the top of the leaderboard, thanks to three birdies and an eagle on the final nine. Finau now sits in first in the FedEx Cup standings, as the 2,000 points earned in The Northern Trust win jumped him up 22 spots in the leaderboard. He has a total of 3,348 points.
Despite the disappointing performance for Smith on the playoff hole, the Australian was able to move up 13 spots in the standings with 1,200 points for the second-place finish. Smith has 2,738 points, sitting just behind Jon Rahm.
Rahm finished third in the tournament, shooting 18-under in the tournament. He was tied with Smith entering the final 18 holes and was in the lead for a good portion of Monday’s play. However, two missed birdie putts on 9 and 10 and a bogey on 15 were costly for Rahm. He will look to defend his BMW Championship title next weekend while sitting second in the standings.
Both Alex Noren and Tom Hoge had crucial performances to keep their hopes of the FedEx Cup title alive. Each golfer finished 15-under in a tie for fourth along with Justin Thomas at The Northern Trust. Noren entered the playoffs at 94th, but his finish at The Northern Trust earned him 460 points, catapulting him into the Top 70 at 43rd. Hoge came into this past weekend at 108th, but his 460 points brought him all the way into 48th. Thomas, who came in ninth, now sits in fifth.
Looking at the rest of the FedEx Cup Standings, Collin Morikawa entered the weekend leading the way in the FedEx Cup standings with 2,171 points, but he failed to make the cut after finishing 2-over par after the first two rounds. Morikawa dropped to sixth in the standings after not receiving any points with the finish.
Jordan Spieth (+1) went down from second to seventh, Patrick Cantlay (-12) dropped from third to fourth and Harris English (-8) moved down from fourth to eighth.
The top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings move on to next weekend, where the focus shifts to the BMW Championship. Those golfers will compete for a spot in the top 30 to move on to compete for the FedEx Cup title and $15 million in bonus money at the Tour Championship.
The BMW Championship is set to start Thursday, Aug. 26 and run for four days to Sunday, Aug. 29 at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.