Second-round takeaways from 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open

Last week in Mexico, Tony Finau missed the cut. This week in Houston, everyone is chasing him.

And he’s making it clear early: good luck trying to catch me.

Finau shot a career-tying-best 8-under 62 on Friday, carding 10 birdies en route to a four-shot lead after the morning wave. He had six birdies on the front nine and led by as many as five shots at one point. He finished with three consecutive birdies, as well.

During an 18-hole stretch that started on his 11th hole Thursday (No. 2) and concluded on No. 10 Friday, Finau made 12 birdies.

“I finished 5 under on my last nine yesterday, and I just rolled that momentum right into today,” Finau said. “I made a huge putt for par on No. 1, and then I was off to the races. I almost made a hole-in-one on No. 2 and just kind of cruising from there. It was a really nice round of golf.”

Dialed in early 🎯 @TonyFinauGolf almost reeled this in @HouOpenGolf. pic.twitter.com/gUsHB7DrVc

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 11, 2022

Finau chalked his missed cut last week up to being rusty, coming off what he said was the longest break of his career. He hasn’t played since the Presidents Cup, but he has shown no signs of rust in Houston.

He’s making a difficult golf course look really easy, and he got the advantage of a good wave. Finau says he prefers the late-early tee times on Thursday and Friday, and that may help him out this week, as there’s storms and a wind shift in the forecast for Friday afternoon that could make conditions more difficult.

Nevertheless, he’s off to a great start in Houston and has a big advantage heading into the weekend.

“I was not very sharp last week,” Finau said. “I played some good stretches of golf mixed with a lot of bad stretches of golf, so I just wanted to be a little sharper and play some better golf and within myself. I’ve been able to do that these first couple days.”