Tony Finau carded a 64 on Friday to take a one-shot lead in the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
“I played really nicely over the last couple days, was able to capitalize with the putter on shots that I hit pretty close.”
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His score of 13-under 129 sets a new 36-hole tournament record. He hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation for the second consecutive day to rank No. 1 in Greens in Regulation.
“I did some great putting work with my coach last week I think and I always feel like I’m a good putter, just sometimes you’ve got to ride the waves with your putter throughout a season. I haven’t putted it great statistically over the last couple months, but things change fast.
“This was a place where a lot of things changed for me last season. I was able to post a second-place finish and just have a nice final round, make some putts that were very important and then it carried me into a very nice finish to last season. Hopefully, I continue the good putting into this weekend and into the rest of this season.”
South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen shot a 66 for a share of second place at 12-under alongside American Brandon Wu (64).
“I’ve always been a good mid to long iron player and there’s a lot of that out here,” said van Rooyen. “The par 5s are relatively scorable if you can keep it in the right spaces. You can get up and down like I did on 6. So all of this, it just fits my eye. I love hitting driver, there’s a lot of drivers out there, and then when you roll the putter like I’ve been rolling it, good things happen.”
Overnight leader Austin Smotherman closed with a 70 and is tied in fourth place at 9-under with fellow Americans Andrew Putnam (66), Will Gordon (66), Eric Cole (68) and Akshay Bhatia (65).
Making his PGA Tour debut as a sponsor exemption, Mexico’s Raul Pereda (T12/-7) bogeyed his final two holes en route to a 70. He holed out from 249 yards at the 16th (his seventh hole) for eagle, the longest hole-out by any player on Tour this season.
Two of the seven players from Mexico advance to the weekend, Pereda (T12/-7) and Sebastian Vazquez (T62/-2).
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