Tosti laughs off ‘icy’ exchange with Finau, grabs share of Houston lead

Before Alejandro Tosti headed to Hawaii for his PGA Tour debut as a member at the Sony Open, he grabbed some coffee with his college coach, Florida’s J.C. Deacon, at Mi Apá, a Latin café and Tosti’s favorite spot in Gainesville, Florida.

During their conversation, Deacon offered some guidance to the 27-year-old rookie, an extraordinary talent – the best Deacon’s ever coached, he says – but also a competitor with a reputation of running hot and some disciplinary issues that culminated with Tosti being forced by the Korn Ferry Tour to withdraw from a playoff event last summer. Tosti, Deacon stressed, would need to find a way to get along with his peers on the big tour and not be a distraction, to which Tosti, per Deacon, apparently understood.

But Tosti, according to Deacon in an interview Saturday night on Golf Channel’s Golf Central, then added this retort: “Coach, I’m not out here to make friends. I’m out here to be the best I can be.”

That type of competitiveness has been on full display in Houston, where Tosti is one of five players tied for the Texas Children’s Houston Open lead after 54 holes.

Tosti fired a 2-under 68 Saturday while paired with Thomas Detry and Ryder Cupper Tony Finau, the latter of whom was involved in what was described by NBC on-course reporter John Wood as an “icy” exchange with Tosti on the front nine.

It all started on Memorial Park’s fourth hole, where Tosti and Finay hit their approach shots to 38 feet, 8 inches (ShotLink later updated to add an extra inch to Tosti’s distance from the hole) with their balls about a foot apart. Both players began studying their birdie putts from all angles and taking their time as if the other was away, but after a while, they realized they were in dispute. There wasn’t some huge kerfuffle, but Tosti clearly believed Finau was away and stood up for himself, smiling and appearing to laugh after Detry sided with Finau, meaning Tosti would have to hit first and give his opponent a teach.

Nearly 4 minutes passed before Tosti hit the putt, as he had to call Finau back over to move his ball mark, which was distracting Tosti.

Neither player would make the putt, and both would par.

But things didn’t end there. On the next hole, Tosti hooped a 10-footer for birdie, a make that elicited a couple big fist pumps from the fiery Argentine. Wood implied that Tosti’s reaction was directed at Finau, who was close by, and he said on the broadcast that there was “no love lost” between Tosti and Finau.

“You can cut the tension with a knife between Finau and Tosti right now,” Wood added during the sixth hole, where there was another brief exchange about who was away, though nothing like the fourth hole. “Tony just pointed at him and walked away. Tosti kind of smiled as if to say ‘You’re kidding right?’ It’s just completely icy. It is not comfortable between those two at all. It’s just tension.”

Finau didn’t talk to media after the round while Tosti wasn’t asked about Finau. Cameras showed the pair appearing to be cordially chatting on the eighth tee box. Tosti birdied three holes beginning with No. 8 while Finau posted 72 to drop to 7 under, two shots off the lead.

“Alejandro’s not scared of anyone,” Deacon added on Golf Central. “… It’s a war out there for him, and I think that rubs some people the wrong way, and maybe that came out a little bit today.”

Tosti did talk Saturday evening about a neck injury that popped up earlier that morning. He said he woke up in the middle of the night with a stiff neck, and efforts to fix the issue – even massaging the area with a golf ball – were mostly unsuccessful.

“It’s just really bad deep back there in the neck,” Tosti said. “Just couldn’t do my backswing, couldn’t complete my backswing so I was just trying to get all the power in my hands which created all the misses left, but I found a way to fight the round.”

Tosti later added of his 68: “I’ll take it. I don’t think I played good at all. My best game is yet to come.”