Leaderboard: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

Nearly every player who has made the Ryder Cup will insist that first tee shot is just different. But what do they mean? In their words, they tell you.

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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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Last time we saw Jordan Spieth, he was keeping his sense of humor despite some mild frustrations with his game. He joked with the gallery about always being able to find playing partner Phil Mickelson’s ball but not his own, but in the next moment, after an unsatisfactory approach shot at the 10th hole, chided himself: “Come on! Give yourself some looks!” Spieth ultimately missed the cut by two at THE PLAYERS Championship, but he was hardly alone among the game’s bold-faced names who had an off-week. Seventh in the FedExCup standings, Spieth will be back in action at this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas. So will FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson, defending champion Sergio Garcia (13), and Jason Day, who is fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking. All of them finished outside the top 10 at THE PLAYERS, some well outside, but all have enjoyed way-above-average histories at Las Colinas, which is in its last year hosting the tournament before it moves to nearby Trinity Forest, a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw design.  “This is my seventh time [playing the Byron],” Spieth said at his press conference Tuesday. “It’s bizarre. Just feels like somewhat of another Byron to me. I know this week being last time being here, that will strike some feels, but it’s still a really fun week that I’ve learned to enjoy more than put that pressure on myself. And even when I’ve been in contention, I’ve learned to enjoy having that with everybody around, and it’s helped me just have a better time this week.” For Spieth, the good times in Dallas roll both on and off the course. He made his PGA TOUR debut at age 16 at the 2010 Byron—and finished T16. Since that auspicious beginning, he has made the cut in all five subsequent starts in this, his hometown event, where he is aiming to pick off his 10th TOUR victory this week at the age of 23. Off the course, Spieth is boarding three other contestants at his Dallas pad this week: Monday qualifier Alex Moon, Spieth’s roommate, who shot a 7-under 65 at Lantana Golf Club; former Texas Longhorn and sponsor’s exemption Kramer Hickok; and Smylie Kaufman. “We had a little pool basketball yesterday,” Spieth said, “but that’s probably done after Monday. We’re just on to tournament week schedule, and everybody is so different.” Spieth isn’t the only star who relishes coming to Las Colinas. So does Dustin Johnson, who is coming off a final-round 68 at THE PLAYERS for a T12 finish—his career best. His play at the Byron has been remarkably consistent, with four top-10 and six top-25 finishes in seven starts. Johnson also boasts the tournament’s best scoring average (67.88) of anyone since 2009. Oh, and don’t forget Day, who won the 2010 AT&T Byron Nelson, and who was fifth in 2011, and who tied for ninth in 2012. (Deep breath.) And Garcia, who is a two-time champion at TPC Four Seasons, most recently last year. Think they’re not thrilled to touch down in Dallas? “I did some really good things last week,” Garcia, who shot rounds of 73-71-67-78 at THE PLAYERS, said Tuesday. “But I also did some things that weren’t that great. I need to make sure I clean that up and, you know, have a solid, solid stretch here in Texas.” No one is more solid in Texas than AT&T ambassador Spieth, who at a kids’ clinic earlier this week drove golf balls into full Coke cans, which exploded in fountains of frothy fizz. Last year, you might recall, he hit a marshmallow into the air and caught it in his mouth. For Spieth, there is something especially sweet about playing a TOUR event at a place where he used to come with his father to watch his boyhood idols. And a victory this week would carry more than sentimental value. It would give him two rare doubles: the AT&T double (Spieth already won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this season) and the DFW double (he won last year’s DEAN & DELUCA Invitational at Colonial in nearby Ft. Worth). “This one is definitely more home for me being in Dallas versus Ft. Worth,” Spieth said. “But winning both is something that is a lifelong goal for me and I have this one yet to accomplish.” To win, he added, he’ll have to play better on Thursday and Friday. “The problem this year so far has been my opening rounds,” he said. “I just haven’t had it. I’ve been behind the 8 ball too many times.” By his lofty standards, Spieth’s play has been up and down. He tied for 12th at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, but didn’t make it out of his pod at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and missed the cut at the Shell Houston Open. He was in contention at the Masters (before a final-round 75), and with partner Ryan Palmer finished fourth at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but shot 73-75 at THE PLAYERS at revamped TPC Sawgrass. What’s odd, Spieth added, is that tee-to-green he’s playing his best golf—2015 included. “My game was in great condition last week,” he said. “I hit the ball phenomenal and putting was great leading in. I just—my one bad day of the week was Thursday, striking the ball, and I recognized what it was. I couldn’t fix it in time for the round, and then I fixed that on Friday but then I just didn’t get any of the putts to go. “… I’m striking the ball as well as I’ve struck it this entire year, which is as good as I’ve struck the ball on Tour, is how I feel. My wedge play and putting are yet to kick into gear and it just takes a bit of momentum on course. I can do all the practice I want, it’s just seeing some go in on course, whether it’s one round or through a streak of two tournaments, just to feel like it’s all the way back to top notch. So, it’s close.” For Spieth, there could be no better week to turn “close” into “close the deal,” no better way to pay tribute to the consummate winner Byron Nelson himself. The DFW double awaits. 

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