On a day when Phil Mickelson made history, fellow golfer Tony Finau made his usual strong showing in a major championship.
As the 50-year-old Mickelson was becoming the oldest player to ever win a major, shooting 6-under to win the PGA Championship on Sunday at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course in South Carolina, Finau tied for eighth at 1-under.
Finau, who grew up in Salt Lake City, graduated from West High, bought a home in Lehi and now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, recorded his ninth top-10 finish in his last 13 majors.
He placed fourth at last year’s PGA Championship and tied for 10th in last month’s Masters.
While Mickelson was winning his sixth major, Finau was completing a remarkable climb up the leaderboard. At one point Sunday, Finau was tied for 31st and his chances of another top-10 finish in a major appeared remote. He started the day tied for 13th.
But after a double-bogey on the Par-5 second hole, Finau made just one bogey the rest of the way — on the Par-3 eighth hole.
He birdied holes 6 and 7 on the front nine, then added birds on 14 and 16 to keep the momentum going. Pars on the difficult 17th and 18th holes moved him into the top 10.
He made a 27-foot putt on 14 for a 2 and a 3-footer on 16 for a 4.
Abraham Ancer, Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler and Kevin Streelman also finished tied for eighth at 1-under 287.
Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen tied for second at 4-under, two strokes behind Mickelson.
The next major for Finau is the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in the San Diego area, which is Mickelson’s home town, June 17-20.