Finau deals with shame, pain, fame
AUGUSTA, GA. » Tony Finau’s last 24 hours included a little bit of everything: Pain. Embarrassment. Concern. Relief. Determination. Excitement.
The 28-year-old American with Samoan roots battled through a severely sprained ankle and shot a 4-under 68 in the opening round at the Masters. How he injured it was somewhat comical, albeit painful to watch. How he overcame it was downright extraordinary.
“You can’t make that up,” he said.
It was one of the best — certainly most unpredictable — story lines of the tournament’s first day.
Finau dislocated his left ankle celebrating a hole-inone during the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday and then popped it back into place. X-rays were negative. Finau had an early morning MRI on Thursday to determine whether he could make his Masters debut.
Doctors cleared him to play, and his ankle was tightly taped as he headed to the practice range. No pain-numbing shots or pills. Just pure grit.
“I was just extremely happy that nothing was seriously wrong with my foot,” he said. “Quite honestly, it was a pretty cool moment followed by probably one of my most embarrassing moments and a scary moment at the same time. It was quite crazy, all the emotions that I dealt with overnight, but I was more than ecstatic to just be walking to that first tee and be playing in my first Masters.”
His swollen ankle didn’t feel quite right, and he found himself compensating on certain shots. Simply put, he couldn’t put his full weight on that foot — a huge concern for a guy known as one of the PGA Tour’s longer hitters.
“The one thing we can’t do is hurt it more,” he said. “So the No. 1 thing for me was my health and trying to take care of the next few days and not just worry about the now. It definitely hurt at different points of the round.”
It felt a whole lot better when he birdied five of 12 holes to get to 4 under. He missed a short par putt at the par-4 No. 14 or else his round could have been even better. Still, he got it right back with a birdie at the par-5 15th.
He finished tied for second with Matt Kuchar, two shots behind leader Jordan Spieth.
No one could have expected it after watching Finau gingerly climbed into a golf cart after his exhibition ended early the day before.