Finau Grabs First Round Lead at the Memorial

By Dave Shields

Most of the buzz going into this week’s Memorial Tournament centered around Tiger Woods making his post-pandemic debut, but Tony Finau grabbed the headlines after carding a 6-under 66 to take the first-round lead.

Finau birdied four of his last five holes to surge into a one short lead over Ryan Palmer. He didn’t play last week at the Workday Charity Open on this course, but it didn’t matter.

"I don't know about an advantage, but I definitely felt like I played this golf course this way before," Finau said, reported the PGA. "I don't know what the numbers might be as far as the guys that played last week compared to this week. I've played this golf course in these type of conditions, and it definitely helped me."

Palmer, as mentioned, was one shot back at 5-under while Brendan Steele and Gary Woodland each shot 4-under and are 2 shots back. Charles Howell and Jon Rahm fired rounds of 69 and are both 3 shots back at 3-under.

There was a whole slew of golfers at 2-under, including Jordan Spieth, defending champion Patrick Cantlay, and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy.

As for Woods, he is lurking at 1-under after shooting a 71 in his first round back. He started off with great promising, birdying the first hole, but then he just couldn’t get it rolling.

"Got off to almost an ideal start and got a feel for the round early," Woods said. "I just didn't make anything today. I had looks at birdies, but I really didn't make much."

Woods would be playing for the first time in a tournament without huge galleries cheering him on, but it didn’t bother him.

"I definitely didn't have any issue with energy and not having the fans' reactions out there," Woods said, reported the PGA. "I still felt the same eagerness, edginess, nerviness starting out, and it was good. It was a good feel. I haven't felt this in a while."

Among other big names, Brooks Koepka was Even par, while Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau both finished at 1-over. Just Thomas, who lost in a playoff last week at the Workday Charity Open, finished a disappointing 2-over. Last week’s winner at the Workday, Collin Morikawa, was even worse at 4-over.

But the worst round among the world’s best was turned in by Dustin Johnson, who was 8-over, and Rickie Fowler, who finished 9-over.