Tony Finau posts solid round during Day 1 of The Open Championship

Tony Finau was sailing along just fine until he stumbled with a bogey on the par-4 17th in the first round of the British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on Thursday. He is tied for 20th with a round of 1-under-par 70.

Finau got within two shots of the leaders, all bunched up at 4-under when he hit a beautiful approach to five feet on the treacherous par-3 No. 16 hole. He made the birdie putt to get to 2-under par.

But his tee shot on the 17th ended up in a gnarly uphill lie in deep rough left and short of the green. His attempt to pop up a soft-landing approach shot from a bad lie ended up looking like a topped shot and only went 10 yards right next to a crowd control barrier. With a free drop, he made the green in three, but missed his long par putt and had to settle for bogey.

“I played really solid. Kept the ball in front of me, hit enough fairways. When I didn’t, sometimes you have to get fortunate out here to miss the bunkers,” Finau told reporters afterwards. “A couple of tee shots that I thought could be in bunkers weren’t. I thought I capitalised where I needed to, and I played pretty nicely. I made a mistake on 17, and it cost me a bogey. Overall, pretty solid round.”

Finau is tied with three Americans, including Zach Johnson, Justin Leonard and Sam Burns.

Also in at 1-under is 2019 British Open champion (also at Royal Portrush) Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy — both favorites and local heroes to the home crowd at the famed course located just outside Belfast.

Five players are tied for the lead at 4-under entering Friday’s second round. They include Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, Harris English of the USA, Britain’s Matt Fitzpatrick, Haotong Li, China, and Jacob Skov Olesen of Denmark.

Finau said Royal Portrush presents huge challenges for everyone. 

“You have to try and execute the shot that you see. There’s so many cross-wind shots on this golf course that make it hard to hit the fairway, but you have to commit to your shot and try to hit the best shot you can and just accept the result.

“You make a good swing and it happens to be in a bad spot — I made one of the toughest tee shots on the course was on 11 today. Couldn’t hit a better tee shot, and I get there, and I’m right in the middle of a sand divot.

“Things like that just happen. You roll with the punches and just move on. Overall, I feel like I did a pretty good job of that today.”