Fine season for Finau
PGA Tour golfer has 12 top-25 finishes
Start with Tony Finau’s leap of joy after he made a hole in one in the Masters Par 3 contest that resulted in a dislocated left ankle.
Fast-forward to the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open where a double-bogey 6 cost him more than $200,000. And consider he hasn’t won this year.
Still, Finau will be the first to tell you he’s had a great campaign.
“My best season thus far,” he said ahead of Thursday’s start of the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Finau is among the headliners along with Bubba Watson, the only three-time winner in the 2017-18 season, Players Champion Webb Simpson and Phil Mickelson.
“I’ve played some really nice golf and I’ve learned a lot about myself both mentally and physically,” Finau said. “I’ve been working really hard on my game, and I think it’s starting to show this year.”
It’s what many people in the game have been touting. He could be the next big breakout star on the PGA Tour because, well, he’s a wiry 6-5 who hits the ball as far as anyone and has a high ceiling with all his talent. This season, he has 12 top-25 finishes in 19 starts, including seconds in the Safeway Open and Genesis Open.
He’s ranked a career-high 31st in the world golf rankings. And he’s in the mix to make the U.S. squad for the Ryder Cup, standing in 13th place on the points list with the top eight automatically making the team and Jim Furyk making four captain’s picks.
Finau is most proud of two finishes — a tie for 10th in the Masters after he popped his ankle back into place right there on the par-3 course, got the goahead from doctors after an MRI and heavily taped his ankle, and winding up fifth in the U.S. Open at rugged Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, New York, after his Sunday charge left him four shots shy of winner Brooks Koepka.
“That was a lot of fun for me, to be in the mix,” said Finau, 28, whose lone PGA Tour title came in the Puerto Rican Open in 2016. “You always dream to be in a position like that coming down the stretch in a big tournament. Coming off that experience, I feel ready to compete, not only this week, but for the rest of the season. It’s going to give me some good confidence going into the rest of our season.”
So, no, he’s not thinking about the $214,372 he lost with his final-hole 6 in the U.S. Open. Instead, he’s looking at the sunny side of things as he always has, usually with a big smile. Growing up in Utah, he and his brother, Gipper, would go into the garage during the winter months no matter how cold it was and hit balls into an old mattress until their hands were nearly frozen. The two would then go back into the house until their hands thawed and return to hit more balls in the garage.
He’s talked about how much he appreciated the courtesy cars, food, variety of range balls on the driving range and the course conditions when he hit the big leagues of the PGA Tour after toiling on the mini-tours.
Thus, when his coach, Boyd Summerhays, suggested Finau go from putting cross-handed like he had for six years to using the conventional grip, he took the advice without hesitation and improved his putting.
Now he knows he’s trending in the right direction. In his first start in The Greenbrier Classic, he finished in a tie for 13th in 2015. In his second start, he tied for seventh last year. He’s broken par in every round he’s played on the Old White TPC.
“It’s got a great vibe to it, kind of like an old school vibe,” Finau said of the tournament. “I feel good about this week. I like the golf course a lot. Coming off a couple weeks off, I feel fresh mentally and physically.”