Patrick Cantlay: A man and FedExCup champ in full

DETROIT — Tony Finau ran away with the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday at Detroit Golf Club to become the first PGA TOUR player in three years to win consecutive regular-season events. RELATED: Leaderboard | Inside the Field: Wyndham Championship Finau closed with a 5-under 67 for a five-shot victory and a tournament-record 26-under 262 total. Taylor Pendrith (72), Patrick Cantlay (66) and rookie of the year front-runner Cameron Young (68) tied for second. Finau coasted to his fourth career victory, a third title in 11-plus months. He was the 3M Open winner last week in Minnesota, where he rallied from five strokes back to win by three. Brendon Todd was the last to win two straight in the regular season, doing it in 2019. Finau, the Salt Lake City native with Tongan-Samoan heritage, began his stretch of success last August at THE NORTHERN TRUST, where he had his first victory in five years and 142 PGA TOUR starts. Finau stopped another drought in Detroit, winning for the first time in six attempts when he had or shared the 54-hole lead in a PGA TOUR event. With his sixth birdie at No. 17 and a closing par, he broke Nate Lashley’s tournament record of 25 under set in 2019 during the inaugural PGA TOUR event. The PGA TOUR will close the regular season at the Wyndham Championship, with the North Carolina event opening Thursday. Players on the bubble will have one last shot to finish in the top 125 of the FedExCup standings to earn a spot in the Playoffs and a full card next season. Finau and Pendrith started Sunday tied and their potential duel in Detroit turned out to be a dud. Pendrith had his first lackluster round of the tournament after he shared the first-round lead with Finau, led him by one shot after the second and matched his 21-under total through three rounds. The 31-year-old PGA TOUR rookie from Canada hit an errant tee shot on the second hole to the right in the rough behind tree branches and later pulled a 9-foot putt to lose the lead for good. Cantlay, the defending FedExCup champion, had his third straight round in the mid-60s after opening with a 70. Young bounced back from a first-round 71 to finish second for the fifth time. Pendrith struggled in the final round just as he did the only other time he had a 54-hole lead. He led the Bermuda Championship last October by three shots before a 76 dropped him into fifth place, which was his best finish before his showing in the Motor City. Pendrith played in his third tournament after missing nearly four months with a broken rib. Finau began to pull away from Pendrith with an 11-foot birdie putt at No. 4 and a tap-in for birdie at No. 7. He made a 21-foot putt for birdie at No. 10 for his third birdie. After his first bogey in the tournament at No. 11, Finau made a 31-foot putt with a break from right to left at No. 12 and Pendrith missed an 11-foot putt on the same hole to fall four shots back. Cantlay surged within three shots of the lead with a 5-foot eagle putt at the par-5 14th. On the same hole, Finau made his fifth birdie of the final round to lead by four shots.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — A year ago at The Honda Classic, Jhonattan Vegas made seven birdies all week. He’s off to a much better start this time. Vegas made six birdies and no bogeys Thursday, shooting a 6-under 64 to open a two-stroke lead after the first round. Lucas Glover bogeyed his finishing hole for a 66, leaving him tied with Zach Johnson, Ernie Els and Ben Silverman — who went to college at nearby Florida Atlantic. “Hit my irons the best I’ve hit them all year and I’ve always liked this golf course,” Vegas said. “It’s kind of one of those courses that I think suits me. You have to hit the ball well and you have to get around really well. And then I made a few putts.” Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia were in a large group at 67, and defending champion Justin Thomas shot 68 after an eventful day that saw him play the last eight holes without a 9-iron after it bent when he hit it against a tree. “To feel like I gave quite a few back today and shoot 2-under par on this golf course, it’s great,” Thomas said. Also at 68 was Sam Saunders, the grandson of golf legend Arnold Palmer. Saunders birdied all three holes in “The Bear Trap” stretch at PGA National, the run of holes 15 through 17 where a par 4 is sandwiched by a pair of par 3s that can be treacherous even without much wind. Vegas made 12 bogeys last year at the Honda, along with three doubles and a triple, wound up beating only one of the 74 finishers and wrapped up the week with a final-round 78. He sprayed irons everywhere, missed half of the fairways, more than half of the greens. But Thursday, he was dialed in — missing only three of 14 fairways and three of the 18 greens, needing only 29 putts to get through the day. “I felt like I was in control pretty much all day long,” Vegas said. The 34-year-old Venezuelan has three PGA TOUR victories, winning the 2011 Bob Hope Classic and the RBC Canadian Open in 2016 and 2017. Vegas took advantage on a day to make noise at PGA National, where the wind was down. And that’s not typical. Forecasters correctly said breezes would be relatively light all day and should stay that way until perhaps the weekend, though Johnson — whose weather apps said breezes were going to be no more than 3 or 4 mph — was among those who felt the wind was still a factor and fluctuated more than expected. “We had a stretch there on the front nine where it was a lot more than that,” Johnson said. “The ball curving with the wind, depending on the direction, easily 10 to 15 to 20 yards. And then we made the turn and it started to be more consistent, not as gusty. … It was not Honda wind. I don’t think we’re going to get Honda wind until Sunday.” Els had no complaints. Els has won more than 70 tournaments worldwide, 19 of them on the PGA TOUR — the last of those coming in 2012 at the British Open. Getting a 20th on TOUR, he said, has been a goal for some time. “Secretly on TOUR among the players, you know when you win No. 20 you get some benefits,” Els said. “It’s late in my career, but I’ll take any win now.” Thomas sizzled at the start with three birdies in his first four holes, and made the turn at 4-under. That’s when his day got eventful. His drive ended up behind a tree on the 10th, and he figured that his 9-iron would snap on the follow-through of his approach shot. It merely bent instead, and the jolt of the impact meant Thomas was going to be spending some time Thursday night with an icepack on his wrist. He doesn’t believe it’ll impact him Friday. “Just more of a shock than anything,” Thomas said. Thomas then found his way into and out of trouble on The Bear Trap — making double-bogey, then having a par putt slide past the hole on 16, and making birdie on 17. He then birdied the last as well. Garcia also finished strong, with three birdies in his last four holes. “It’s a great round, at the end of the day,” Garcia said. DIVOTS: Fowler went into the water twice and wound up making a triple-bogey on the par-4 sixth, his nemesis hole at PGA National. In his last four rounds at the Honda, he’s 7 over on that hole. … Alex Cejka was disqualified for using an improper greens-reading device, officials said. He withdrew from last year’s tournament and missed the cut in 2017. … Cody Gribble had an interesting day — making quadruple bogey on No. 6, triple bogey on the par-4 11th, and then eagle on the par-5 18th. He shot a 77.

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