Great opening: Fowler puts on ‘clinic’ at Erin Hills

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — First, there was the hole-in-one during the Par 3 Contest. It was the 12th of his young golfing life and certainly the biggest, considering it happened on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National. Certainly a great reason to celebrate. Then there was the jog down the tee box, the 180-degree turn to see his family, then the dislocated left ankle when he misstepped while backpedaling, followed by his instinctive reaction to reach down and pop the ankle back in place (“I saw where it was and I knew where it needed to be,” he explained). If you’ve seen the video, it probably made you cringe. If you haven’t seen it … well, it’s not for the faint-hearted. Then there was the pain and uncertainty, a restless night in bed with his foot iced and elevated. It was the eve of his first Masters start, but instead of green jacket dreams, he tossed and turned, worried simply about his playing status. Would he have to WD? Had he suffered any major damage? Then there was the 6 a.m. wake-up call, followed by the 7 a.m. MRI, then the 8 a.m. results. His doctor had good news: A couple of torn ligaments but nothing major. Cleared to play if he didn’t mind the pain. No worries — this was a guy who grew up fire-knife dancing, which his mother taught him as a nod to their Samoan heritage. A high ankle sprain wasn’t going to keep him from the first tee. With an early afternoon tee time, he arrived at the range well in advance, testing the heavily taped ankle against the powerful swings that makes him one of the PGA TOUR’s longest hitters. He couldn’t put full weight on his left foot on some shots, so he made some on-the fly adjustments. Yet could he hold up on a course that’s deceptively hilly? Eighteen holes later, he had his answer: A 4-under 68 and a share of second place in his Masters debut. Oh, and one last thing — a visit to Butler Cabin to tell his story on national TV. This was 24 hours in the life of Tony Finau. “Nothing short of a miracle,” he said. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised — beware of the wounded animal and all that. Finau acknowledged that worrying about his ankle alleviated any pressure he might have felt about making his Masters debut. It helped narrow his focus, despite all the gallery members who innocently kept the topic front and center by asking about his health and wishing him good luck. “Mind over matter,” Finau said. “I felt like I did a pretty good job of making the pressure because I had to worry about my foot. … I was able to stay in the moment.” We also shouldn’t be surprised because Finau, ranked eighth in the FedExCup standings and 34th in the world, is one of the TOUR’s bright young stars. His length off the tee and improving short game makes him a threat at any time. Consider the key element of Thursday’s six-birdie, two-bogey round: his putter. He led the 87-man field in strokes gained: putting, gaining 5.199 strokes on the field. In fact, he was 1.5 strokes better on the greens than Jordan Spieth, who shot a 66 to lead Finau and Matt Kuchar by two strokes. “Honestly, I’m not really surprised,” Finau said. “I like the golf course and my foot started to feel better the more I played. And you know, my story’s quite crazy and I’m sure most of you guys knows it by now. “I feel like my back’s been up against the wall my whole life, so something like this is just another part of the story, I guess. But to sit up here and say I’m surprised? Not really.” His backstory may be new for anybody who only watches the Masters, but for golf fans, it’s a familiar and heartwarming one. Growing up in humble surroundings in Utah, the first PGA TOUR player of Tongan and American Samoan descent. Four brothers and two sisters — and a desire to grow his own big family. He and his wife Alayna have four children. Hard worker. Good guy. PGA TOUR winner. One paragraph doesn’t do it justice. But perhaps the fire-knife dancing does help explain how Finau so successfully dealt with the pain Thursday. “I started doing fire-knife dancing when I was four,” he said. “If you catch it on the wrong side of the stick, you burn your hands. It’s kind of a hook and a knife on top of it. So you could also cut yourself — and I did a lot of that as a kid. … “I look at myself as a pretty mentally tough person, and I think I showed that today in my round — just able to put my head down and just play.” It helps that he’s also one of the most athletically gifted players on TOUR, perhaps on the same level as Dustin Johnson. Ironic that it was just a year ago that DJ also suffered a pre-tournament injury when he slipped on some stairs and injured his back, forcing him to withdraw. Finau was spared the same fate Thursday morning, but he did learn a lesson about how to celebrate — and more important, how not to celebrate. “A pretty embarrassing moment,” he said. “I feel like I’m a good athlete and to see myself kind of roll an ankle on an easy little backpedal wasn’t really athletic. “It’s kind of blown up on social media and I’ve seen the video replay over in my head millions of times overnight. It is what it is. Embarrassing moment but scary moment at the same time.” Finau said it will be the last time he celebrates in that manner. It’s doubtful, however, that this will be the last time he’s in contention at Augusta National. Just imagine what he can do on two good ankles.

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