JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Tony Finau was developing a label as the player who did everything right but win. What he never lost was his belief he could beat the best.
That moment finally arrived late Monday afternoon at The Northern Trust against the sunlit backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. Finau delivered the best back nine of his career to track down Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1 player, and then beat Cameron Smith in a playoff.
Finau tapped in the winning par putt at Liberty National, tilted his head to the sky and fluttered his lips in a sigh that was equal parts relief and satisfaction.
“It’s more massive I think for just my sense of accomplishment,” he said. “It’s hard losing, and it’s hard losing in front of the world. I’ve done it already a couple of times this year. That made me more hungry. If it doesn’t discourage you, it makes you more hungry. You guys keep telling me, ‘When are you going to win again?’ That makes me more hungry.
“It all equals up to now. It was time for me to win again.”
In a rain-delayed start to the FedEx Cup playoffs, with players sitting out Sunday as Hurricane Henri moved off the eastern seaboard, Finau ended a drought that had stretched more than five years and 142 starts on the PGA Tour.
He had eight runner-up finishes, three of them playoff losses, and 39 top 10s since his lone victory in the Puerto Rico Open in the spring of 2016.
That ended with a dynamic charge, starting with a birdie-eagle-birdie stretch for a 30 on the back nine to close with a 6-under 65.
And like most victories on this tour, he needed plenty of help.
Rahm, who had a two-shot lead at the turn, made his first bogey of the final round on the 15th hole and then had to settle for par on the reachable par-4 16th, which felt like a bogey. He had to settle for a 69 to finish alone in third.
Smith had a big finish of his own with two straight birdies and a chance at three in a row with a 25-foot putt on the 18th for the win. He missed and shot 67, and that was as close as the Australian came to winning.
Returning to the 18th in the playoff, Finau pounded his drive down the middle. Smith pushed his drive so wild to the right that it sailed over the retaining wall that separates Liberty National from the edge of the Hudson River.
At that moment, the playoff was effectively over. For Smith, it was the second straight time a bad drive at the end cost him a chance to win.
“Just a terrible swing, mate,” he said. “My driver has cost me a few tournaments this year. That makes me more determined to try and figure it out before the end of the year.”
The timing was just right for Finau. He moved atop the FedEx Cup standings for the first time with two events left in the chase for the $15 million prize.
It also moved him to No. 6 in the Ryder Cup standings. The top six after the BMW Championship this week automatically qualify. Even if Finau falls out, it would be hard for U.S. captain Steve Stricker to leave him off the 12-man team.
“I told myself, ‘If you didn’t win, you’re not going to make the team.’ Although I’ve always been high in the rankings, I wanted this validation more for myself to be part of a team like that as a winner this season and playing good golf going into the Ryder Cup,” Finau said.
Finau, who had to save par from the bunker with a 6-foot putt on the 18th in regulation to finish at 20-under 264, only had to two-putt for par in the playoff.
“I’ve played really nicely in big tournaments, but to turn in a 30 on the back nine of a playoff event, trying to chase down the best player in the world, those are all things that will go in the memory bank,” Finau said.
There were other big winners Monday, starting with Keith Mitchell. He was at No. 101 in the FedEx Cup, and only the top 70 advance to the BMW Championship. Mitchell needed a big finish and delivered with three straight birdies for a 69 to tie for eighth at 13-under 271.
Tom Hoge started at No. 108 and tied for fourth to advance. That was his best finish of the year, and it came at just the right time with points counting quadruple.
Also moving on to the BMW Championship later this week were Alex Noren, Erik van Rooyen, Harold Varner III and Harry Higgs. Van Rooyen was in contention on the front nine until he hit two shots in the water on the par-3 11th and made a quadruple-bogey 7.
The final round was postponed on Sunday as Hurricane Henri approached, and the edges of what became a tropical storm at landfall dumped more than 6 inches of rain on Liberty National. There was another four-hour delay in the morning and spectators were kept away.
They missed quite a show, and a popular winner. Few others have been so gracious as so many chances to win got away from him.
“I hope I don’t have to wait another five years for the next one,” Finau said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
