Winding road brings Finau to the doorstep
The SHEBOYGAN, WIS.— family business, at least on the athletic side of the Finau family, was pro football or basketball.
Tony Finau, all 6-foot4 and 200 pounds of him, was determined to play golf.
So if nothing else, his play Saturday was further validation of a story that begins with two poor kids learning to play the game by banging balls against a mattress in their garage and one of them winding up with a shot at a major title on the final day of the PGA Championship.
“It was a tough finish, I’ve got to be sharper,” Finau (FEE-now) said after bogeying the final two holes at Whistling Straits for a 69 that left him at 10 under, five strokes off the pace set by leader Jason Day. “But I also learned a lot.
“I learned I can play in this kind of environment, that I can control my emotions in contention at a major. ... I’m five shots back and a lot of really good guys ahead of me. But at least,” he added, brightening, “I’m still in the conversation for tomorrow.”
Growing up in Salt Lake City of mixed Tongan and American Samoan descent, Finau looked more like a candidate to follow second cousin Jabari Parker into hoops and maybe someday, the NBA. And he had more than one Division I suitor tossing scholarship offers his way.
The other option was to pack more pounds onto that lean frame and try to catch the same express train that another cousin, longtime Pro Bowler Haloti Ngata of the Detroit Lions, rode all the way to the NFL.
The story of how the 25-year-old wound up on PGA Tour instead is a beauty.
“We lived in a tough neighborhood and we didn’t know a thing about golf,” said his father, Kelepi, one of seven family members at the course this week. “The idea was to find something that would keep Tony and Gipper (11 months younger) out of trouble. They’re the middle two of our seven kids and we already had a few others playing team sports. But they were passionate about it right away.
“And,” he added, “they were both pretty good right away.”
It was Kelepi, who worked in the cargo depot at the Salt Lake City airport, who went to the library and picked up a copy of Jack Nicklaus’ book, “Golf MyWay” and taped pictures of the Golden Bear’s swing sequence to the walls of the garage. Because the family couldn’t afford too many buckets of balls at the local driving range, he propped up mattresses against the door and put down strips of carpet to hit off so his sons could practice as long as they wanted.
“It was all they wanted to do,” Kelepi laughed. “I don’t think it was until Tonywas 15 or 16, when he made it out of state qualifying in the junior PGA events, that I started to believe ‘Hey, maybe he really does have the ability.’”
But there were tough times, too: Turning pro at 17 (Gipper did so at 16) in hopes of making some badly needed cash quickly. A handful of tries and misses at Q-school. A car crash that took his mother’s life and left Finau with an ulcer, but only deepened his resolve. Seven years of beating the bushes on a variety of minor-league golf circuits, with a growing family back home to feed.
Finau finally made it to the big leagues this year and he’s made plenty of every opportunity: four top-10 finishes, highlighted by a pair of seventh-place ties and a tie for eighth at the Memorial.