ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – This wasn’t what Archie Finnie had dreamt of.
Making his first start of the season, just an hour from home, on Monday at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate, the Northwestern sophomore from Edinburgh stumbled out of the gates on St. Andrews’ Jubilee Course. From the middle of the second fairway, Finnie tugged his approach into the thick stuff, barely advanced his chip and eventually two-putted for double bogey. Making matters worse, he bogeyed the next hole and was a deflating 3 over through four holes.
The Finnie of last year would’ve derailed in this scenario.
But now? Finnie sank a 50-footer for birdie at the par-3 fifth, sparking a bogey-free, 4-under finish to card 1-under 69, which slots him in a tie for third, two shots behind co-leaders Zach Pollo and Filip Jakubcik of Arizona.
“I had two options, give up or stay with it,” Finnie said. “It was a good fight-back.”
That fortitude wasn’t built overnight. As a freshman, Finnie, a former Scottish Boys champ, broke into the lineup last fall on the heels of a 66-68 finish at the Wildcats’ home event, the Windon Memorial. But he’d play just three events as a starter, failing to finish better than T-32 in any of them. His solo 56th last March at the Wake Forest Invitational, where he beat just seven players, was the last time Finnie had cracked the starting five until this week. Heck, he’s only played two college since his last start.
“That first year, you know, it was tough,” Northwestern head coach David Ingles said.
There was the poor iron play, which didn’t mix well with Finnie’s aggressiveness.
There were the stress fractures that developed in Finnie’s ribs during the spring.
There was the frustrating summer, capped by a T-118 at the Scottish Amateur, that left Finnie’s enthusiasm mostly sapped as he arrived back on campus for the fall semester ranked outside the top 2,000 in the world amateur rankings.
“I wasn’t playing well, I was struggling mentally with golf, expecting too much,” Finnie said. “Ingles will tell you; I’ve had many tense conversations with him about how I’m not happy on the golf course. I’m just trying to see it from a new outlook right now, a more positive outlook.”
Two qualifiers into the fall, and Finnie hadn’t come close to traveling. He got an individual nod at the Windon earlier this month and promptly turned in the worst performance of his young college career, a solo 76th. Qualifying for St. Andrews, as bad as Finnie wanted to, seemed unlikely.
“Obviously, this one was circled for me,” Finnie said. “I really wanted to play this one, and not qualifying would’ve been pretty heartbreaking for me, watching all the guys playing a golf course that I know so well and my parents not getting to watch me.”
But Finnie dug in, firing rounds of 72-70 over 36 difficult holes at Skokie Country Club and Shoreacres. He tied Akshay Anand for first, punching his ticket to the Home of Golf as part of Northwestern’s six-man team.
“He was on the outside looking in,” Ingles said, “and sometimes when you’re put in that position and there’s really only one acceptable thing that you want, it helps you get you past yourself and get to that new level.”
The gradual progression that Finnie has made since beginning school? It was on full display on Monday as Finnie, in front of his mom and dad, produced deft shots and kept a strong mind.
“I’m just so proud of the way he played today,” Ingles said.
Finnie called it a “big deal” just to qualify for this tournament.
Winning it would be a dream.
