Tony Finau wasn’t one of those blue-blood kids with the big college resume or the fancy list of amateur victories when he made his way to the PGA Tour.
He was plain and simple a blue-collar grinder who has become a star the old fashioned way — he has earned it.
Tony put on a dominating performance at Memorial Park outside Houston this past week and added a fifth PGA Tour win to his resume on Sunday. There was never any doubt about this one, although Finau might have had a bit of doubt in his own mind at the start of the day on Sunday.
“Honestly, on the first hole I didn’t know if I had it in me today,” Finau confessed after a great front nine and a shaky final nine. “It was one of those days where I just fought and fought and I made a lot of nice putts on the front nine to kind of calm into things. I’ve never been in this position before, being in that big a lead with nine holes to play, so a lot of new nerves.”
That big lead Tony referred to came courtesy of four front-nine birdies that got him to 19-under par at the turn, wiping out the hopes of any would-be contenders. Three bogeys over the final nine holes without a birdie made it look like less of a rout but it was just a matter of how many shots he’d win by. In the end, his 69 got him to 14-under, four shots clear of runner-up Tyson Alexander.
“Probably the best driving week I’ve had in my career, at least that’s how I felt,” Finau said of his performance. “Yesterday, for the first time in my career, I hit all 13 fairways, 100 percent of fairways in regulation. I’ve never done that in my career, so definitely drove the ball well. And it’s a lethal combo when I feel like this is the best putting week I’ve had as well. So, you combine those two and you can get kind of a runaway win like I had.
“It’s very encouraging for me as I move forward throughout the season.”
Two weeks ago, Finau played his first event since the Presidents Cup and missed the cut in Mayakoba. He stayed on site for a few days and worked on his game and the results spoke for themselves in Houston.
Finau is one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour. He’s considered the “nicest guy out there” by the rest of the players. At times, early in his career, it looked like “the nice guy” didn’t have the complete game to win consistently. After his first win, it took him almost 2,000 days to get the second victory. His putting was one of his weaknesses. He went to work and now he’s made that a strength.
Tony’s put together a run of seven starts that produced three titles. and two other top 10s.
He went through that five-year winless streak and instead of crumbling, he persevered.
“That was the most important stretch of my PGA Tour career,” Finau said of that streak with no wins. “I continued to believe, I didn’t give up on myself, I continued to work hard on my body and on my game and I just knew that – I was always hopeful that I could go on special runs, and I think we’re starting to see that now. I’m starting to put together a full-package game, which is really exciting for me. That’s all you can do is work hard and I’ve worked extremely hard on parts of the game that I know I have to, and I think it’s starting to show.”
And this latest win, should bolster his confidence even more. That weakness with the putter is in his rear-view mirror.
“I’m putting it better than I’ve ever putted it, more consistently and I know that’s the part of my game I’ve always needed to be better at, so that on the technical side, for sure. But the belief’s there because of some of the success I’ve had over the last 16 months of my career, and I put myself in another nice situation this week.”
The next step for Finau is a major championship.
Those usually come about as a result of good driving and putting.
His iron play has always been good.
And the future is even brighter for The Nice Guy.
It’s easy to pull for Tony Finau — he came onto the PGA Tour as an unheralded guy. But that seems like a long time ago.
