Tony Finau’s first full season on the PGA Tour was in 2015 when he burst onto the scene with 16 top 25 finishes in 31 starts, emerging as one of the Tour’s longest players off the tee. The 6’4 Finau is part of the new wave of professional golfer who’s built like the kind of athlete you’d expect to see playing football, basketball, or baseball, but the 28-year-old has learned it takes more than strength to find consistent success on Tour.
For his first three seasons on Tour, Finau was a below-average putter, finishing each year with negative strokes gained putting, despite being one of the best off the tee. The old adage in golf is “drive for show, putt for dough,” and while that’s not always true — Finau racked up north of $6.5 million over those three years — the majority of your strokes in a round come from the flat stick, and becoming a better putter is often the key for players to unlock their true potential on the course.
In 2018, Finau isn’t lighting the world on fire with his putter, at .033 strokes gained putting, but he has seen improvement, and it’s leading him to his most successful season of his career. In 18 events, he has 11 top 25s (15 made cuts), five top 10s, including a T10 at the Masters, and a pair of second place finishes. Those results and the improvement with the putter have Finau as a dark horse (60-1 odds) entering Thursday’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York.
Last week, Finau spoke with Uproxx Sports on behalf of American Express about how his turnaround on the greens was fueled by a grip change with his putter during the playoffs last year, his Masters experience after famously injuring his ankle after an ace in the Par 3, and where his game is entering the U.S. Open.
You ended last season with a pair of top tens in the final two playoff events, and this season you’re having your most consistent season of your career. Is there anything you can point to that you either found in your game or your mentality that’s carried in to this sustained success from the end of last season through this point of this season?
It’s definitely been my most consistent year, my most solid year. I think the only thing that I can point is my putting. My coach, Boyd Summerhays, and I, we changed my putting grip. I putted cross-handed all the way through last year, right until the playoffs, and the inconsistency was there, and I knew something needed to change, whether that was the putter head, putter grip, grip change. Kind of the whole thing. So we switched putters, and we also switched my grip from putting cross-handed to conventionally, and that was honestly a huge turning point in my performance. I was able to rack two top tens and follow that up with a second place at the Safeway. So I’ve had a consistent year, and a solid year, and I think it just comes down to my putting. And that’s a part of my game that is a lot more consistent and is trending upwards. So I think that’s definitely something that I can point out that has helped this past season.
When you make that change and you see kind of the immediate results in that it can be an important mental edge in believing in that change and believing in that club. How much did that early success lead to the confidence to where you just feel more comfortable with the putter in your hand?
Yeah, it was huge to perform well on a high stage. And doing that under immense pressure is a huge confidence builder, and I definitely felt that early on. When I switched right away, in the middle of the playoffs last year, a lot of guys would say that’s a gutsy move, but I did it because I knew that it was better. We had the week before off and I put a lot of work into it and just committed and trusted that that was gonna be the best for me. So I was able to have early success, under immense pressure, and just that consistency or just that start has helped with my consistency throughout the season. So it’s extremely important to play well, but especially play well on a big stage, and to see my putter perform that way under immense pressure of the finals and the Tour Championship was definitely a plus.
You tied your best major finish year career at the Masters, finishing 10th, and famously had the ankle injury at the Par 3. What do you take away from that entire week, both how you performed and kind of the mental grind of having to get over that injury and play a course like Augusta to that level of success that you can take with you now into the second major of the year and try to carry some of that momentum with you?
I think I learned a lot about myself. I think perseverance is a big part of my story and who I am, and just that never giving up attitude. And I definitely had to persevere through some adversity that week with my ankle. But I think I just continue to prove to myself that I can play against the best players in the world on some of the best golf courses we play. So I look forward to the challenge for the rest of the majors throughout this year and throughout my career. I’ve just proven more so to myself than anybody else that I can compete at a high level and play against the best players in the world.
You’re entering your third US Open and you, like a lot of guys, have had kind of a mixed bag in your first two. You had the T-14 and a missed cut. The USGA always tries to set up a difficult test. What can you look back at from those two experiences on a U.S. Open track? What can you lean on from those experiences as you have the Shinnecock, understanding kind of the challenge that the USGA always tries to lay out for you guys?
You know, I have to be up to stay patient. It’s one thing I learned, especially playing in majors and especially US Open. I think you gotta be very patient with yourself. You’re gonna make mistakes. There’s gonna be times when the golf course gets you, and that’s how they want it to be. They have the title of toughest test in golf for a reason.
And I think mentally you just have to be prepared to know it’s gonna be a tough week and just put on that hat. Put on your best mental attitude and fortitude throughout the week. You know, perseverance again is gonna play a huge part. You know, just that not giving up attitude. You just never know what’s gonna happen at a venue like Shinnecock and when you’re playing the U.S. Open. There’s so many crazy things that have happened coming down to the end. You never know what the score’s gonna be. You never know what guys are gonna do when the golf course plays that stuff. So I’m definitely gonna expect a tough test at Shinnecock, and I look forward to the challenge of playing some good golf. My game’s in the best shape of my career so I look forward to the challenge in playing next week.
As you’re growing in your career as a young golfer, how difficult is it to understand the differences in major golf where you’re going to have tough holes, you’re going to make mistakes. A lot of guys talk about you have to learn to make the bogey instead of the double bogey, and kind of mitigate those mistakes. How difficult is that to learn, and have you felt like you’ve had those experiences, and is that something you kind of will focus on?
Yeah, no doubt. Both the missed cuts I have at Baltusrol and Oakmont, the two majors where I’ve missed the cuts, were both by, I think, one and two, something that I was very close to making the cut on both of those, and I can just point back to being a little more disciplined to save some shots. I think you have to be very disciplined when you’re playing in major golf, major championships. You definitely want your best stuff, but when you’re out of position on a hole or whatever the case, bogey’s not gonna kill ya, but making a big number is. Something that I’ve learned, discipline is just a huge part of our game.
I think golf in general takes a lot of self-discipline. You know, we don’t have teammates to lean on. We don’t have coaches inside the ropes that can tell us what to do. It takes a lot of self-discipline. We train on our own. There’s so many things that we have to learn to do on our own, but especially when we’re on the golf course, just having that mentality of staying the course and being disciplined. I’ve learned, especially in major championship golf, you know, again, big numbers are gonna kill you, but guys are gonna make bogeys in major championships. I don’t know anybody that plays 72 holes in a major championship that hasn’t made a bogey. It’s gonna happen. Just try to avoid the big number and stay disciplined.
Have you gotten the chance to look at Shinnecock prior to tournament week?
No, I haven’t. I haven’t had the chance. There’s some opportunities that I’ve had since I’ve been out here to head up there, but with my experience, I’m treating it like another event. I have an opportunity every week to change the course of my career and my resume. Every week’s a big week. And I’ve seen a lot of guys that have taken that route, you know, going out early and checking out the golf course and things. But this time around I decided not to do that, and you know, I’ll be ready to go when the tournament comes. I’ve definitely heard some great things about it.
I’m really looking forward to the week. It’s gonna be a great week for me. Excited to announce that I’m gonna be partnering with American Express next week as an ambassador. It’s something that I’m very proud of, and to be listed as an athlete that is an ambassador for them is something that’s extremely cool. So I look forward to that next week as well, not only playing the event, but getting to meet the fans, meet the cardholders, and to jump on board with them is gonna be something that’s pretty special next week as well.
