2023 Wells Fargo Championship: Top 10 Power Rankings at Quail Hollow
You would think Quail Hollow would be a place where Tony Finau would feast, but that hasn’t quite been the case.
I anticipate the momentum from last week’s triumph at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, his second win of the season, will allow him to put the pieces together in Charlotte.
The big hitter has teed it up here and made five of six cuts. That’s a good sign.
So are three top-30s, including T-16th in his 2015 debut, but you’d expect a top-five or top-10 in there somewhere.
His best showing at Quail Hollow came at last year’s Presidents Cup. Finau and Max Homa teamed up for a pair of foursomes wins. Finau was saddled with the weak link of the team in Kevin Kisner for an alternate shot session they lost.
Finau won his Sunday singles match over Taylor Pendrith.
Finau was impressive on Sunday in Mexico. He entered the final round with a two-shot lead over the man many thought would come back to win, world No. 1 Jon Rahm.
Rahm was coming off a course record 10-under 61 on Saturday, after all. He followed it up with a 67, but Finau didn’t budge.
He led by two or more pretty much all day with no one else making a true charge. Finau shot 66 to carve out a three-shot win. He was five clear of third place and six of fourth place.
"“Yeah, it feels great. Anytime you can battle with a guy like Jon Rahm who’s in the form that he was and come out on top, it makes me feel good,” Finau was transcribed by Tee Scripts. “Rahm is a good friend of mine, we practice quite a bit together so having Rahmbo as like a sparring partner for me has only made me better and I hope he can say the same.”"
Finau’s other win this season came at the Cadence Bank Houston Open in the fall. That event began a current streak of 10 made cuts in stroke play events.
The 33-year-old is leading the PGA Tour in strokes gained per round approaching-the-green (1.148) and is third in total SG (2.258). Finau’s been underrated on the greens, sitting 25th in SG (.446).
If he’s hitting fairways at a consistent clip like last week, watch out. Finau is 15th in approach proximity from the short grass (31’1”).