Tony Finau: 'Crazy' feeling to defend back at Detroit GC

Tony Finau is the author of six wins on the PGA Tour, but this week marks his first time defending on the same course on which he already has won.

And that, Finau said Tuesday, is "actually crazy."

Finau ran away with the Rocket Mortgage Classic last July, winning by five strokes to pocket the $1.512 million first-place prize at Detroit Golf Club. Now he gets a chance to defend the same 18 holes.

"This is actually crazy, this is the first time I'm defending on the same golf course that I won on," Finau said Tuesday. "It's different than anything I've -- I'm kind of experiencing new, I don't know if you call it nerves or excitement, but it's new.

"It is really nice to be back."

A win would give Finau three on the season (Houston Open, Mexico Open). His march begins on the 10th hole Thursday morning in a threesome with Rickie Fowler and Joel Dahmen at 7:40 a.m.

FInau could become the fourth golfer this season to defend, joining Max Homa, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

"Any win is great, but when you go back-to-back at a golf tournament, especially on a tournament that means so much to me," Finau said. "This is my first back-to-back in my career last year, you know, winning back-to-back weeks. To be able to go back-to-back at this event in back-to-back years I think would mean a lot to myself and my career."

Finau was, of course, asked about the proposed PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger. And he echoed what many golfers have said - not much new.

"As a Tour member as a whole, we had a meeting last week," Finau said. "Any questions that we had were answered there, but not a lot of new information has been given to us as a whole. So we'll just continue to move down this path with the Tour and see where it takes us."