Credit: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
Tony Finau fired a 7-under-par 65 on Saturday to level with Canada’s Taylor Pendrith at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
The pair sit at 21-under 195, great for a four-shot bearing. Pendrith gets a 66 card.
Pendrith and Finau drew for the lead after Thursday, and Pendrith has a one-shot lead over Finau heading into Saturday’s third round at Detroit Golf Club.
Cameron Young (65) sits solo third at 17 under, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger (65) sits five shots back in fourth, Patrick Cantlay (66) sits solo fifth at 15 under, and Scott Stallings (67) seven shots back at sixth place.
Finau dealt a clean card to chase a second win in a row. Finau recorded seven birdies, including four outs. In fact, Finau has yet to get a bogey through the first 54 holes of the tournament.
“Until now there have been no bogeys on the tournament scorecard, which is great,” said Finau. “I think this is a golf course that made some birdies. You’ll have a few looks, but not making mistakes at this point is great and I think that’s the main reason I found myself at the top of the leaderboard. ”
Finau, who won the 3M Open last week, is seeking to become the first player to win back-to-back during the PGA Tour regular season since Brendon Todd in 2019.
“Taylor plays great golf,” said Finau. “This is the kind of golf course where one can shoot 8, 9, 10 under, but if we put together a good round tomorrow, maybe a two man race and I’m looking forward to that challenge again.”
Pendrith’s day produced eight birdies but also two bogeys en route to his 66th. However, the tour rookie made four birdies from his last five holes.
“Obviously, he made a lot of birdies and I finished the round with a lot of birdies, so that was fun,” said Pendrith. “We walked back and forth. Tony bombed him off the tee and I hit him deep too, so it was fun, a similar type of play, I think, and we attacked him really well.”
–Field Level Media
