Who dominated in 2018? Hint: It wasn’t Justin Rose
By Bill Felber
6. Tony Finau (6), -0.61
Finau’s sixth place standing precisely replicates his Fed Ex Cup finish. He’s the only player ranked in the same place on both lists.
His standing is largely a product of excelling in the weighted events, the majors, the WGC and Fed Ex Cup series, and the Players. He was top 10 in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, the only player with three such major performances in 2018.
Finau was also steady through the Tour Championship Series grind. He finished second to Bryson DeChambeau at the Northern Trust, tied for fourth at the Dell Technologies, and tied for eighth at the BMW. Those performances put Finau in position to win the FedEx Cup with a strong showing at the Tour Championship at East Lake, but he could manage nothing better than a middling tie for 15th in the 30-player field, eight strokes behind Woods.
Margin of Dominance penalizes Finau for three missed cuts, but all of them occurred in tournaments that carried no weighting penalty, namely the Waste Management, the Valspar and the Memorial. He was also among the most active Tour participants, starting 30 sanctioned individual medal play events. Among members of the Tour Championship field, only Aaron Wise played in more fall swing events than Finau’s four.