Tony Finau beats Jon Rahm at Northern Trust and signs hat for his son
Jon Rahm and his wife Kelley Cahill had their first child in the lead up to The Masters in April.
Tony Finau is now a two-time PGA Tour winner after he beat Cameron Smith in a one-hole playoff to win the Northern Trust at Liberty National.
Finau had a decisive three-hole stretch of birdie-eagle-birdie on the back nine to launch himself into contention on Monday afternoon, while Smith also made important birdies at the 16th and 17th holes to finish level with Finau on 20-under-par.
Although Jon Rahm led the way by two shots after nine holes, he made damaging bogeys at the 15th and 18th holes which meant he dropped back to 18-under-par.
When Finau posted his clubhouse lead of 20-under-par, he came off the 18th green in New Jersey and spoke to Kelley Cahill, Jon Rahm's wife, who was stood with their son Kepa.
As the big American said in his post-round interview, he and Rahm are good friends and it was great to see him chatting with Kelley, despite her husband being in the thick of battle out on the course.
Finau beating Rahm today and then signing a hat for his son is a hell of a flex. pic.twitter.com/kgR0ikOXxU
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) August 23, 2021
Finau is known to be one of the nicest and most polite players on the PGA Tour, so we were not surprised when the 31-year-old signed a hat for young Kepa.
It proved to be an emotional afternoon for Finau. In the playoff against Smith, he was gifted the victory as the Australian hit his tee shot on the 18th hole out of bounds.
"It means everything at this point in my career. A lot of work since my last win, I'm a totally different player and I wanted to prove this to myself more than anything else," said Finau.
"I can win a big golf tournament, we've got the best players in the world here and I was up against the best player in the world today and I got him.
"Jon's a good friend, I knew he was going to be really hard to beat. He and Cam were playing great and I gave it everything I had and fortunately, I ended up on top."
