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Tony Finau on his recent run of success: ‘It all started at the 3M Open’

dane mizutani, pioneer press
·3 min read

Never mind that nearly a year has passed since Tony Finau won the PGA Tour’s 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine. He still vividly remembers the adrenaline coursing through his veins last July as he stood on the tee box at No. 17 late in the final round.

In a span of a few holes, Finau somehow went from trailing Scott Piercy by three strokes to leading the tournament by four strokes.

His mindset throughout the weekend had been, “Let’s try and catch this guy.” Suddenly it had shifted to, “You better not blow it.”

“I ended up hitting a 6-iron about 225 yards in the air into the wind,” Finau said. “That gives an idea of how much adrenaline I had going through my body.”

Maybe the story would have ended differently had Finau not caught a lucky break on the penultimate hole. He overcooked his tee shot at the worst possible time and the ball mercifully stayed out of the water despite caroming off the grandstand behind the green with speed.

After getting up and down for par on No. 17, Finau kissed the ball as he walked toward the par-5 18th tee. He cemented himself as a champion shortly after that and he’s been a rocket ship ever since. Since winning the 3M Open last July, Finau has won the Rocket Mortgage Classic, the Houston Open and the Mexico Open.

It’s the best stretch of his career and moved his ranking up to No. 14 in the world.

“Mentally, I’ve changed a little bit,” Finau said of his recent run of success. “I’ve made putts when the counted. You have to make putts to win golf tournaments, and I made some really crucial putts at the 3M Open last year that led me into the nice stretch that I’ve been on. It all started at the 3M Open.”

This week Finau has a chance to defend his title at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

“This is the first time I’m going to be defending on a golf course that I won on,” said Finau, who never got to do that after winning the Puerto Rico Open and the Northern Trust earlier in his career. “Then I’m looking forward to defending at the 3M Open.”

As much as Finau has reached a new level of stardom over the past year, so too has his wife Alayna and his son Jraice. The family was featured prominently on the Netflix smash hit, Full Swing, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at life on the PGA Tour.

Though he was the focus of a full episode, and the cameras were rolling when Finau won the 3M Open, even he would admit that his wife and his son most definitely stole the show.

“I think they’re handling it well and they’re not letting it get to their head,” Finau said with a smile while beaming with pride. “It’s been quite something. It’s been a cool thing. It’s been a great thing for them to step out of the background a little it and into the spotlight.”

All thanks to a lucky break at the 3M Open last year.

“That bounce was a big moment for me,” Finau said. “It led me to a lot more confidence and a lot more wins after that.”

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