Chris Stroud surges, wins first title at Barracuda Championship

HOUSTON — Tony Finau wants to end his big year in a big way, and he took a step Thursday by biding his time and delivering late birdies for a 5-under 65 that gave him a share of the lead in the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Finau used a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 second hole, his 11th of the round, to start a stretch of four birdies in five holes. He was tied for the lead with bogey-free Aaron Wise and Alex Noren of Sweden, who could use a big week in Houston to nail down a spot in the top 50 in the world as he tries to get a Masters invitation. Tyson Alexander also was at 5-under and drove into the left rough when the first round was suspended because of darkness. Alexander chose not to finish his round and will finish the 18th on Friday morning before starting his second round. The large group at 66 included Sanderson Farms winner Mackenzie Hughes of Canada and Keith Mitchell, who was poised to take the lead until his second shot into the par-5 16th went into the water and led to bogey. Finau won consecutive starts this summer in Minnesota and Detroit for his first season of multiple wins. He missed the cut last week in Mayakoba and wasn’t faring too well at Memorial Park, except that he knew the course was demanding from tee-to-green. “I knew the golf course — it’s a tough golf course to play,” Finau said. “You have to drive it in the fairway and your work’s not done. It’s hard to hit the greens. You know if you miss the green, it’s hard to get up-and-down, so I was just patient with myself. “I made a couple bombs, I think that kind of opened it up.” The biggest one was on No. 2, and with a breeze at his back, he had no trouble adding another birdie on the par-5 third. He hit a wedge to 4 feet on No. 5 and then holed a birdie putt from 12 feet on the next hole. Finau also finished with a bang, rolling in a 35-foot putt on the par-3 ninth. His big summer has Finau at No. 15 in the world ranking, courtesy of his big run through late July and early August. The TOUR has two tournaments left this year before resuming the season at Kapalua the first week of January. “The season that I’ve had this past season was very nice, but I want to go out in a good way and I want to finish the year strong,” Finau said. “And I think that’s what I’m looking for this week.” The top 50 in the world at the end of the year typically get Masters invitations, and Noren put himself into the mix with a runner-up finish in the Dunhill Links in Scotland. He came into the Houston Open at No. 50 and knew he had his work cut out for him. Noren tied for 42nd last week at Mayakoba on a tight course cut through the mangroves that requires more precision than power and a superb wedge game. Memorial Park has a lot more beef, and Noren wasn’t sure what to expect out of his game. “Last week was like medium to short course, a lot of wedges that you have to get close. Here is longer, you’ve got to hit fairways and you’ve got to hit greens,” Noren said. “So I was a little bit nervous coming into today. Didn’t feel great in practice, but found something and got the irons a lot better. Overall, I would have taken 65.” Wise ran off four straight birdies on the front nine and played bogey-free. His only win on the PGA TOUR so far was the AT&T Byron Nelson in the Dallas area. Is another title in Texas in the cards? “It would be good,” Wise said. “I don’t want to win them all in one state, but I’ll take two in Texas.” Memorial Park had plenty of bite. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was 4 over through 10 holes in the morning when he salvaged a solid round with four birdies coming in for a 70. Scheffler can regain the No. 1 world ranking with a win. Sam Burns wasn’t so fortunate. He had eight bogeys and seven pars until making his first birdie on the par-5 16th and finishing with a 77.

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SYDNEY — No one was more surprised by who won the Australian Open than the champion himself. Cameron Davis came from six shots behind going into the final round to win by one stroke on Sunday, shooting a 7-under 64 that included a birdie on the 18th and an eagle after holing a 100-meter approach shot. The star draw cards — Jason Day and Jordan Spieth — were top 10 finishers, but weren’t holding the Stonehaven Cup aloft at the end of the day. “It’s a little bit numb at the moment,” Davis said. “I just didn’t expect to be in this situation.” Davis started his round six groups ahead of the final one that included Day. When Davis finished with his 64, he had to wait more than an hour, most of it taken up at the practice range in case there was a playoff. “I didn’t even see a leaderboard before I hit that putt on the last hole,” Davis said. “So I made that, and I thought, `I’ll be up around the top’. But to come into the scorers’ hut and see where I was at, I was kind of blown away. I had no idea I’d be there.” Adding to the surprise: Davis lost his card to play on the Mackenzie Tour in Canada this year and before Sunday, had never had a top-10 finish as a professional. And last week he missed the cut in the New South Wales Open. The 22-year-old Australian finished with an 11-under total of 273 at The Australian Golf Club, where gusty and unpredictable winds made low scoring difficult. Sweden’s Jonas Blixt, who missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have forced a playoff, shot 68 to finish tied for second with Matt Jones (68) while third-round leader Day was fifth after a 73, three strokes behind. “It was quite a simple putt, maybe a little longer than I would have wanted,” Blixt said. “I thought it was a lot quicker than it was.” Davis, whose eagle came on the 12th hole when he hit his approach about 10 meters past the flag, then watched it spin back and into the cup, also qualified for The Open next July at Carnoustie. The Australian Open was the first of 15 events in 10 countries that will make up The Open qualifying series for 2018. Also qualifying were Blixt and Jones, among the top three players not already eligible. Day double-bogeyed the ninth hole after the most unfortunate of circumstances — his shot out of a fairway bunker hit the lip of the bunker, caromed left across the fairway and into a water hazard. He was making his first tournament appearance in Australia since 2013. “I just didn’t play my best and obviously it’s not great to shoot 2-over par on the final round when you’ve got the lead,” Day said. “Cameron came back and played a wonderful round of golf.” Spieth, attempting to win his third Australian Open in four years, finished with 4-under 67, including an eagle on the last. He was eighth, five strokes behind Davis. “It was a great finish,” Spieth said. “I really felt like I shot 62 today and it was 67, I had so many looks.” He was non-committal about making another trip down under next year. “I’d love to explore it,” Spieth said. “It’s just a matter of, like I’ve said every year, I try and figure out what’s going on the next week, let alone a year from now.” Spieth will play next week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, where tournament host Tiger Woods will make his return to competitive golf. NOTES: Jones’ trip to Carnoustie next year could come with some concern back home. “I can’t wait but I just hope that our baby doesn’t come that week. My wife (Melissa) is due at that time, so we will have to see what happens.” … Davis will be playing his first major at Carnoustie. But just to bring him back down to earth, he’ll head to Arizona next week for the final stage of the Web.com Tour qualifying school.

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