Finau shoots 68 despite ailing ankle

Tony Finau didn’t appear the least bit hampered by his ailing ankle while carding a 4-under 68 in Thursday’s opening round of the Masters.

The 28-year-old Finau collected six birdies and two bogeys during his stellar round. He was the clubhouse leader when his round ended, though Jordan Spieth used a stretch of five straight birdies to hold a two-shot lead at 6 under when Thursday’s action was complete.

“There’s no way I thought I was going to be in this position,” Finau said on ESPN after his round.

Finau was cleared to play after receiving an MRI exam on his dislocated left ankle Thursday morning. He was on the driving range Thursday morning and appeared to be walking gingerly.

Finau said after his round that on a scale of 1-10, his pain rated “a 10 for sure” when the injury happened, but it bothered him less and less as Thursday unfolded.

“I stopped thinking about it,” he said. “I was able to stay in the moment because of my foot. Every shot that I hit, I had to think about it a little bit. So it was easy for me to stay in the moment. (The ankle) kind of masked the pressure.”

Finau was injured celebrating a hole-in-one during the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday. After making the ace, Finau, whose wife and four children served as his caddy, ran toward the green in celebration. He turned around to run backward and slipped while backpedaling, turning his ankle in the process and dropping to a knee.

He appeared to pop the ankle back into place before limping back to the tee box. He received X-rays, which were negative, but did not finish the event.

Finau teed off at 12:43 p.m. ET with Bernhard Langer and Yuta Ikeda in his pairing.

He got off to a shaky start with a bogey before notching four birdies on the front nine. Finau added two more birdies on the back nine as well as one bogey, and saved par at 18 by sinking a 13-foot putt.

Finau, ranked No. 32 in the world, is playing in his first Masters. At the end of the first round, he sits tied with Matt Kuchar for second behind Spieth. He is scheduled to tee off at 9:36 a.m. on Friday for Round 2.

–Field Level Media