Pádraig Harrington’s escape act only gets him so far as Finau makes move in Houston

Whatever feats of escapology Pádraig Harrington brought to the public Memorial Park course in downtown Houston still weren’t sufficient to enable him to progress to the weekend of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, after a second round 74 for a four-over-par 144 halfway total saw the Dubliner miss the cut by a wide margin.

A week after winning the Hoag Classic on the Champions Tour, the 52-year-old three-time Major champion returned to the PGA Tour but – apart from his Lazarus-like shot using a 3-wood on bended knees to hit his ball from under tree branches for a widely circulated social media cameo – Harrington’s tournament proved a short-lived one with a missed cut.

Instead, defending champion Tony Finau – winner in 2022, with the event not played last year – propelled his way up the leaderboard to assume the clubhouse lead after a scintillating second round 62 for a 36-holes total of nine-under-par 131.

Finau had an eagle, seven birdies and a lone bogey on his scorecard as he leapfrogged his way to the summit of the leaderboard.

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Having started on the 10th, Finau – bouncing back from a missed cut in the Valspar last week – reserved the fireworks until late in his round as he followed birdies on the sixth and seventh with a chip-in eagle from off the edge of the green on the par-five eighth hole.

Finau was in tied-35th place after an opening round 69 and spent time working with his short game coach Boyd Summerhays in the search for a fix. He got it, but also credited a pre-tournament change of driver for an improved performance following his poor Valspar performance as the 62 equalled his career-best low score on tour.

“Driving is one of the strengths of my game, maybe the strength of my game and I just haven’t been hitting the driver as good as I wanted. Spin numbers have been really high and it’s been enough time to where after last week I was just kind of fed up.

“I was like ‘all right, it’s time to make a change with the driver’. We looked at shafts and I threw this one in and I’d say it was a nice change,” said Finau, who has managed just one top-10 in eight tournaments so far this year.

Seeking his first win on tour since the Mexico Open last April, Finau remarked of his approach going into the weekend: “I’ve played some nice golf the first couple days and the game’s in a good place. [So] just don’t overthink it, just get some rest, be properly prepared, properly rested for the weekend.”