Long-hitting Finau ready to test his game against world's best

Editor's note: Tony Finau won the Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach on March 27, 2016 to earn his first PGA TOUR victory. Here's a look at our feature on Finau from 2014.

Tony Finau knew he had plenty of talent to play golf at the highest level. Yet, he fell short at the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament on five separate occasions.

Last year, things changed. Finau switched to a cross-handed putting style in September, which immediately paid dividends in consistency on short putts. The newfound confidence on the greens infused the rest of his game, and he made it through second stage of Q school for the first time. Once he made it to final stage, he breezed through, finishing T3 to earn full Web.com Tour status for 2014.

Finau, the 25-year-old native of Salt Lake City, Utah, finally had his chance, and he took advantage of it, placing eighth on this year’s Web.com Tour Regular Season money list to secure PGA TOUR status for 2014-15.

Finau dreams big – he has stated that he hopes to become one of the greatest golfers of all time – and starting at this week’s Frys.com Open in Napa, California, he gets to test his goals against the strongest competition that professional golf has to offer.

“I think you’ve got to have thick skin on the PGA TOUR,” said Finau, who won the Web.com Tour’s Stonebrae Classic in early August. “I think I proved that to myself this year – that those five or six years on the mini-tours did pay off. I feel like I have thick skin and persevered, and I feel like those are all things that I can take with me to the TOUR.”

Finau turned professional in 2007 at age 17, just before graduating from high school. His prodigious length brought him a lot of hype, particularly as he Monday-qualified his way into the TOUR’s U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, where he made the cut.

The hype went away relatively quickly, however, and Finau didn’t play more than one PGA TOUR or Web.com Tour event in a season between 2007 and 2013.

He spent several seasons on the mini-tours, learning more about himself as a golfer and a man. How he carries himself on the course, interacts with juniors in clinics, deals with the media, plays with his two young children – it all illustrates a man who is wise beyond his years.

“Tony’s only 25, but you won’t find a more mature guy out here,” said Finau’s caddie, Marcus (Bobby) Burbank, an assistant professional at The Ranches GC outside Salt Lake City, Utah, who thought so highly of Finau and his potential that he decided to hit the road with him.

High expectations might have understandably been a lot for a 17-year-old, newly minted professional golfer to handle. Looking back now, though, Finau sees it all as part of the process.

“A lot of people were placing expectations on me that maybe I wouldn’t have even put on myself,” Finau said. “Being so young, you never know … at that time, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. But at 25 years now, having my chance to play on the big TOUR, who knows where I would’ve been if I didn’t take that step.”

The most severe challenge had nothing to do with golf, however. In late November of 2011, Finau’s mother, Ravena, was killed in an automobile accident near Elko, Nevada.

The loss understandably took a toll on Finau and his close-knit family.

Finau thinks about his mom all the time – Ravena went by the nickname 'Vena,' and Tony often circles the 'V' on his Callaway golf balls during competition, in memory. After his breakthrough victory this season at the Stonebrae Classic, his mom was at the forefront of his mind.

His father Kelepi was in attendance all week long at the Web.com Tour Championship in late September, where Tony received his PGA TOUR card at tournament’s end.

"I don’t remember a big event that I played in where he wasn’t there, and this moment wouldn’t have been what it is without my dad being here,” Tony said.

Upon completing his final round at TPC Sawgrass (Dye’s Valley Course), Finau took some time to reflect on his seven-year-long odyssey, and how he could finally turn his attention to the big TOUR.

Most importantly, he reflected on how much his parents have meant throughout the journey.

“My parents have always been there,” Finau said. “My mom passed away a few years ago; that took a toll on me in my personal life, and obviously a little bit in my career. But they’ve always been there supporting me, no matter what. From the beginning, turning professional and going through the struggle … people doubting me, asking if I was going to get there or not.

“My parents were pushing me and telling me that I was good enough, and I found out that maybe I am.”

While following from outside the ropes on Saturday afternoon at Dye’s Valley Course, Kelepi said that he never doubted Tony’s ability to rise to the highest level. Now he hopes to see Gipper, Tony's younger brother who is also a professional golfer, following suit.

“We want to see him out here next year,” Kelepi said. Gipper advanced through Web.com Tour pre-qualifying and is competing at first stage of Q school this week in Arizona.

It was fitting to seeFinau play the first two rounds of the Web.com Tour Championship with fellow Utah native Scott Pinckney, who secured TOUR status for 2014-15 via strong play in the Web.com Tour Finals.

Finau and Pinckney played a lot of junior golf together growing up, but they hadn’t been paired together on the Web.com Tour all season up until the last event. They learned of their pairing for Thursday and Friday while eating lunch together on Tuesday afternoon -- an exciting moment all around.

After completing his opening round at the Valley Course, Pinckney was more than eager to sing the praises of his good friend – particularly the way he hits the ball off the tee.

“Tony hits it so solid; he hits it so far,” Pinckney said. “The sound off the face, it’s a lot of compression; it’s loud. It’s awesome to watch him hit off the tee. It’s pretty sweet.”

Finau indeed hits it far – he eagled a 562-yard, par-5 hole at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship after hitting the green in two shots with a drive and a "little 7-iron," and he averaged sixth on the 2014 Web.com Tour in driving distance.

He's always had plenty of length, but it took him a while to figure out how to manage his distance most effectively. His good friend and manager Matt Cullen has known him since he turned pro (Cullen formerly worked for Callaway Golf as an equipment representative), and Cullen credits two areas as most indicative of Finau’s on-course development: a willingness to sacrifice length off the tee when appropriate, and a more precise wedge game from varying distances.

“Sometimes hitting a cut shot 315 yards is better than hitting it as far as you can,” Cullen said. “And he knows that.”

He’s excited to tackle some of the TOUR’s longer courses such as Torrey Pines and Bay Hill, though, where he hopes to "make some noise" with his length.

"I think the golf courses they play on the PGA TOUR are a little bit bigger,” Finau said. "I'm looking forward to that, using my length to my advantage. A lot of the courses we played this year, they took driver out of my hand, so my length wasn’t as big of an advantage as I thought it was going to be. On the PGA TOUR, the courses that we play, I should be able to use my length a little bit more.”

Still, Finau would not have progressed to this point without an improved, well-rounded game: he ranked 14th in putting average this season and 21st in greens in regulation, helping lead to a ninth-place finish in all-around ranking.

The summer he turned professional, Finau competed in a big-money Las Vegas golf challenge called “The Ultimate Game,” winning $150,000. (Scott Piercy won the event, earning $2 million.) The money wasn’t the same on tours like the Gateway Tour, eGolf Tour and NGA Pro Golf Tour, but all the years of professional competition helped Finau’s game more forward, to the point where he’s now ready to take on the best players in the world.

And with his mother’s memory guiding him, everything is in place for Finau to have a long and successful career.

“I feel her presence all the time when I’m out there,” Finau said. “Hopefully she’s kicking some of the balls out of the rough, and kicking them into the hole. I’ll have some time to look back and say, 'Hey, we made it,' but I think she’s proud of me.

“That’s all I could ask.”