Leaderboard: CareerBuilder Challenge

BLAINE, Minn. (AP) — Tony Finau shot a 4-under 67 to win the 3M Open by three strokes Sunday, erasing a five-stroke deficit with 11 holes left as Scott Piercy tumbled out of the lead down the stretch at windy TPC Twin Cities. RELATED: What’s in Finau’s bag? Piercy followed his tournament-record 54-hole score with a wince-inducing 76 to tie for fourth, four strokes back. Finau finished at 17-under 267. Sungjae Im (68) and Emiliano Grillo (71) tied for second place. James Hahn surged up the board with a 65 to match Piercy and Tom Hoge (70) at 13 under. Piercy bogeyed four of six holes before a triple-bogey implosion on No. 14, allowing Finau — playing in the preceding trio — to take over for good on his way to his third career tour victory. Finau made a 31-foot putt for birdie on the 15th green to strengthen his grip on the lead, as the 6-foot-4 Utah player calmly and confidently walked the TPC Twin Cities course in his white hat and aqua-striped polo. The surest sign this was Finau’s day came on No. 17. His tee shot clanged off the side of the grandstand, ricocheted back onto the green and rolled into the rough — just a few feet from the water. He landed the perfect chip within a foot of the hole to make the par 3, then smiled slightly as he playfully clamped his hand on his chest as if to pretend the sequence gave him heart trouble. On the daunting par-5 18th, Finau found the water off the tee to face one final challenge. After the penalty stroke, his recovery shots were spot on. With Piercy looking on from the fairway, Finau made a 3-footer for bogey to seal it. He pumped his fist several times, took off his cap and walked off to embrace his family. Finau, who tied for third at the 3M Open in 2020, jumped from 30th to 17th in the FedExCup race. He entered the week ranked 17th in the world. Piercy shared the first-round lead with Im on Thursday after a 65 and pulled away from the pack Friday with a 64 to take a three-shot edge into the weekend. The 43-year-old from Las Vegas, who still makes his native city his home base, stretched his lead to four strokes after enduring the 6 1/2-hour delay Saturday to let the rain and lightning play through. His foot bothered him so much he started taking his right shoe off after each swing and walking in his sock to the the next lie. That was nothing compared to the grind he found himself in Sunday. He was at 20-under after six holes. Less than an hour later, Piercy was in trouble. After posting only three bogeys on his first 61 holes, he went over par on seven of his last 11. That included the 7 he turned in on No. 14. Piercy’s tee shot landed in the fairway bunker, and his sand wedge didn’t get him out of the sand. With a risky, last-ditch approach to get back on track, his next try from the bunker splashed in the water short and left of the green — instead of a safer play to the right. After the drop, Piercy hit into the rough. Then his next attempt stopped 3 inches short of the cup. Grillo, the Argentine who tied for second at the John Deere Classic three weeks ago, also had a triple bogey that loomed large in the end, a 7 on No. 7.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Fred Funk returned to TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course this weekend, site of his signature PGA TOUR win at THE PLAYERS Championship in 2005. There was plenty to reminisce about. After a string of weather delays on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, this year’s PLAYERS will finish on Monday for the first time since Funk’s triumph, where he completed 32 holes on a marathon final day, becoming the oldest PLAYERS champion at age 48. This year’s field will face a similar challenge, with the third round’s final grouping of Sam Burns, Tom Hoge and Harold Varner III completing nine holes as play was halted Sunday due to darkness. The plethora of contenders – 17 players within four shots of leader Anirban Lahiri – will aim to channel their inner Funk, who weathered gusts up to 42 mph with 2-under play across those 32 holes. Monday’s conditions at TPC Sawgrass aren’t slated to be quite as severe, but winds of 14-16 mph will pose a demanding test on the water-infused Pete Dye layout. As he returned to the scene of his iconic triumph – punctuated with an up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker at the 72nd hole and a hat spike – Funk offered some words of advice to the field. “You’ve just got to stay super focused,” said Funk of the best way to handle a marathon Monday finish. “The biggest thing in these kind of conditions is hitting it solid. If you’re not hitting the ball solid, you have no control, none at all. “It’s not only a big-time tournament, and it’s got the prestige of being the fifth major, but it’s also on a really, really hard golf course. It’s a very visually intimidating golf course in normal conditions, and then when you’ve got conditions like this, you’ve just got to stay super focused.” Monday finishes at THE PLAYERS haven’t just produced the oldest winner in tournament history, but also some of its most memorable finishes. Hal Sutton’s famous “Be the right club today” shot clinched his win on a Monday in 2000, and Tiger Woods won his first PLAYERS on a Monday a year later after a duel with Vijay Singh that saw Singh make a triple bogey and an eagle in the final five holes. It was Woods at the height of his powers, as he won the Masters a few weeks later to complete the Tiger Slam. He held the five largest titles in golf concurrently. Funk, who was men’s golf coach at the University of Maryland before earning his TOUR card, spent the majority of his TOUR career as a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach. The home-field advantage came in handy during the myriad weather delays throughout the week. That Saturday, competition was delayed after Funk completed three holes. He went home for lunch and a nap. “My caddie comes running in; he says, ‘Wake up, wake up. We’re in position on the 10th tee in 20 minutes,’” remembered Funk. “I go, ‘Wow, if I weren’t so close, I would’ve missed my tee time.’ “I just threw on my pants and I went to the 10th tee, and then we play three or four more holes, and back off the course again. So it was that kind of week.” Funk’s defining stretch came midway through the fourth round, as he rattled off four birdies in a seven-hole stretch, punctuated with an aggressive line into the par-3 13th and subsequent 6-foot birdie. “The pin was really tucked left, right by the water, right by the bulkhead,” remembered Funk. “There were like four paces onto the green, and I was left of the hole, closer to the water than it was to the pin. It could’ve gone in the water and it didn’t, and I made birdie there.” After three-putt bogeys on 14 and 15, Funk faced another critical moment with his second shot into the par-5 16th. One of the most historically accurate drivers of the golf ball, Funk split the fairway, leaving 234 yards into the hole. The wind whipped. Funk pulled 3-iron and played boldly. “A little bit of a hook lie, side of the mound, and the wind is howling, and I aimed 10 yards out into water on purpose,” recalled Funk. “I started it dead on line, 10 yards out into the water, and I hit it so solid that the wind didn’t hit it at first. So I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s going in the water,’ and finally the wind slammed it and I got it up on the green, 20 feet for eagle. “A shot you’re normally not going to try in that big of a tournament, but the conditions were so difficult, and the guys I saw later when I saw some replays, they aimed at the middle or left side of the green and played it safe, they got it blown over into the left side of these mounds, and you’re dead over there. “Taking on the pin and taking on shots, I did that all day. I got away with it on some, that probably shouldn’t have.” Funk three-putted for bogey on 17, a result he didn’t mind as much, considering the alternatives – “I’m watching everybody hit it in the water.” With par on 18, he posted 9-under total, then watched as Luke Donald and Scott Verplank failed to make closing birdie to match. Who will follow in Funk’s footsteps and raise THE PLAYERS trophy on a marathon Monday? Time will tell. “I was ecstatic,” said Funk, who recorded eight PGA TOUR victories in addition to nine on PGA TOUR Champions. “It was my signature win.”

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