Tony Finau
Ever since Tiger in the 1997 Masters, it’s been all about
the road to Augusta
Tony Finau is one of the most fascinating players in world golf and he is one to watch in the majors
in 2019. Whether his fortunes rise or fall, just don’t expect him to jump up and down about it, seriously. Finau spoke to Robin Barwick about a golf career that has so far been much defined by
the Masters, right from the start
For two and half days last April, Tony Finau was soaking up the treasured atmosphere of Masters week at Augusta National; that sunny tranquility juxtaposed with the buzz of anticipation for the first major of the year. It was Finau’s first Masters and the realization of a long-held dream.
“I played practice rounds with Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Vijay Singh,” starts Finau, now 29, who earned his first Masters invitation by qualifying for the 2017 seasonclosing Tour Championship. “Walking around that place, knowing I would be teeing up in my first Masters, it was extremely cool. The Masters is the best sporting event to watch in my opinion and I was on cloud nine.”
The week got even better for Finau at the 7th hole of the Wednesday Par 3 Contest, when his tee shot spun back from the edge of the green and into the cup for an ace, but then in an incredibly cruel twist, Finau’s Masters debut suddenly crashed when he partially dislocated his left ankle while celebrating.
You have almost certainly seen the footage of the incident at some point, as hard to watch as it is. It seemed an innocuous jig down the grassy slope until Finau’s left foot gave way and was turned inside by a near right angle, before the golfer calmly reached down and eased the joint back into place.
“I had so much adrenaline when I hit the hole-in-one that when my ankle went I was not in much pain, to be honest,” recalls Finau, who appeared to walk it off. “I played the last two holes of the Par 3 Contest because I was anxious to see how it felt.”
He may have walked off the course but Finau’s Masters preparations had been dispatched into nearby Ike’s Pond. Out of horrible misfortune a glimmer of hope came from Finau’s first-round tee time of 12:43 the next day— eight three-balls from the bottom of the start sheet—which granted around 20 hours to see if he could play. An early slot on the Thursday morning would have almost certainly forced Finau to withdraw.
“The pain was 10 out of 10 on the Thursday morning and I thought my chances of playing were pretty much gone”
“The worst pain was that night and the following morning,” admits Finau. “I don’t know if I slept that night because I was going on and off with an ice wrap and a heat wrap. I struggled to sleep, not just because of the pain and the treatment but mentally; man, I figured my chances of playing in the Masters for the first time had just slipped. When it was time to get up in the morning to get an MRI and an x-ray I couldn’t walk or put any weight on my left foot. My manager had to help me down the stairs and into the car. The pain was 10 out of 10 on the Thursday morning and I really thought my chances of playing were pretty much gone.”
Finau was lifted from the nadir of the trauma when the x-ray and MRI came up clear.
“I was told it was up to my pain threshold whether I could play and at that point I knew I wanted to give it a go. Once I knew I wouldn’t hinder the healing process I had some pretty intense massage treatment, trying to increase the blood flow and movement. That was excruciating pain but I understood the process.”
And Finau was also advised his ankle would recover better without any pain-killing shots, so ibuprofen pills were all he took, along with a lot of soft tissue massage work and strapping with Stamina Pro adhesive patches, that help to reduce inflammation. The mobility in Finau’s ankle started to return, so instead of heading home to sit back and keep his foot raised like any normal person, Finau headed to Augusta’s practice ground to work out with coach Boyd Sumnmerhays how he could keep the golf ball straight without transferring weight through his left side, all before his 12:43 tee time in the first round of majors golf of the year.
“I could not apply much pressure on my left foot so I started my swing with my weight back, kind of like Henrik Stenson,” explains Finau. “When I took the club back I really had to press into that right foot and then when I hit the shot I had to stay back there and not transfer my weight. My launch angle became much higher on every club. That was something I had to deal with through the Masters.”
It was some kind of miracle that Finau even made it to the first tee that day. He bogeyed his first ever Masters hole—as do many of the world’s finest healthy players— before pulling the shot back at the par-five second hole and settling down to shoot 68, four under par. It was one of the more remarkable 68s in Masters history. Having made it to the weekend, Finau closed his debut with six straight birdies on the back nine on Sunday afternoon to finish tied for 10th, thereby securing his invitation to the 2019 Masters.
“I look back at how I played and it was a pretty cool feat,” he says. “When I walked off the 72nd hole I will never forget the feeling: it felt as if I had won the tournament. Ultimately it was a dream week, the way it happened. I feel like it was meant to be and it goes to show that our minds are stronger than we sometimes realize. If you can have the attitude to never give up then good things can happen.”