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NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 11, 2014Tony FinauCOLUMBUS, OHIO Q. Other than the last putt, how was it? TONY FINAU: I hit a pretty good one, and it was dead straight. Q. Put a little too much juice on it maybe? TONY FINAU: Yeah, maybe. Q. Otherwise pretty good today? TONY FINAU: Yeah, it was. I took care of the par‑5s, and that was the biggest thing. I took advantage of my length on those. I think I hit all the fairways on the par‑5s, and that set me up to score. Q. Did the wind come into play on 12? TONY FINAU: Yeah, it was a little off the left, and me hitting the high tape, maybe hit a little jet stream there. I usually don't hit it that far. Q. Your caddie said you hit a 7‑iron? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I hit a little 7 like 195. Hit a little 7 in there. Q. How long was the putt? TONY FINAU: About 10 feet, yeah, made it for eagle. Q. 162, you hit driver, 7 in? TONY FINAU: Yeah. Q. So you see 8‑under out there in the morning, does that change your mentality of the course a little bit. Did you think it was going to play tougher than it did? TONY FINAU: Yeah, definitely. I was very surprised. But I think to take into consideration a little bit of the rain that we received last night, the fairways aren't quite as firm and the greens aren't quite as firm. So you can attack the golf course a little bit more that way. But that's still one heck of a round. I played a really solid round and got the 6, but I don't know that I saw 8 out there. Q. How soft was it when you got out there? Was it getting back to like it was yesterday? TONY FINAU: It was. It was getting a little bit, but later in the afternoon I felt like the greens got a little slower so you could be aggressive on some putts and not roll them by 6, 7, 8 feet like you were yesterday and the day before. Q. Do you see this being another 19, 20‑under week or do you think the course will toughen up as it goes on? TONY FINAU: I hope it's going to toughen up, but I don't know. It's hard to call the way It's been going. I didn't think 20‑under was going to win the last two weeks, and pretty much 20‑under won. Q. It's a pretty tough course. TONY FINAU: Yeah, I mean, I guess like you guys say, these guys are good. Q. They were telling me a little bit about your background, and I saw in the bio where you didn't play golfin college. Turned pro right out of high school, and said it was the Million Dollar Challenge. Give me the background on how that went, when you graduated from high school and when you played in that, how much you won? TONY FINAU: Yeah, well, there was a sponsor in Utah that wanted to sponsor my brother and I and get us into the event. $50,000 just to enter. He had coached us and said I will pay for it and want you guys to have some fun and play. I didn't know all the obligations that were going to go into it. But I was like that sounds good to me. Maybe I have a chance to win a lot of money. So I played. I won my first two matches, and after that, basically, I clocked in $150,000 just for that. Q. Where was this? TONY FINAU: This was in Vegas. Right? Where else is it going to be? So it was in Vegas, and I had an opportunity to make a lot of money there. Six figures, the sponsor that sponsored me in the beginning just asked for his $50,000 back, and Callaway wanted to sign me a deal at the time as well, so I just felt like things were put right in place for me to turn professional and try my luck there, so I ended up doing it. Q. So this was after you graduated from high school? TONY FINAU: The second match I won was the same day I graduated from high school. If I would have lost that match, I would have had to go to a consolation match in the afternoon and miss my graduation. That is a whole other story, but I won. Q. Were you being recruited to play in college? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I had it down to UNLV, USC and BYU. I was just about to make my decision and I had to call the coaches and tell them I'm taking it in a different direction. Q. Why did you decide to go that direction? TONY FINAU: I guess like you said, things were put in place for me to make it happen, and professional golfing is where I wanted to be since I was 12 or 13. I felt like I had the potential to get to the PGA TOUR, so I decided to take that route. Q. And I saw you played Canada last year, Web.com this year. Where were you at before then? The Mini Tour? TONY FINAU: I was playing the Gateway Tour in Arizona. I played some eGolf Tour in 2011 and 2012. I played some Hooters Tour events, just everything. Yeah, I traveled around the circuit just trying to stay afloat financially and sort of see if my game was good enough to get into qualifying school every year, and last year I was able to get through. Q. And the last thing, the other thing I saw how close are you or not close with Jabari? Do you stay in touch? TONY FINAU: We're not. Yeah, we don't keep in touch, but our blood is close. We're second cousins. Our grandfathers are brothers. His mom and my dad are first cousins, and they call themselves siblings because they grew up in the same town, in the same village, in the same house back on the islands. So our blood is very close, but I've only met him a couple times. Q. What islands are those? TONY FINAU: Tonga, yeah. Q. Is there an issue with NCAA eligibility of you playing in that challenge that you found out about? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think there was. Q. Even by signing up for it? TONY FINAU: Yeah, that could be right. I don't remember. At this point looking back, I don't know. That sounds right though. If you even enter and have an opportunity to have that happen‑‑ yeah. Q. So you hadn't made your college decision. TONY FINAU: No, I hadn't made my college decision yet. Q. (Indiscernible)? TONY FINAU: Yeah, it was a meeting, and it wasn't very long. Q. So you won how much in that? TONY FINAU: I won $100,000. I won $150,000, generally speaking. Q. What was the most you could have won? TONY FINAU: $2 million, yeah. And I played well, really respectfully. I was 1‑back of the leader after the first round and a 36th hole finale for $2 million. And coming into my 15th hole I was like two shots back and I dumped it in the water. So I had a top 5 finish, but there were only 12 guys. Q. The name of it? TONY FINAU: It was the Ultimate Game. They don't have it anymore. There were actually guys, Spencer Levin played in it, Kevin Streelman, Scott Piercy won. Q. This was the same year that you did it? TONY FINAU: Yeah, these are the guys I was playing against just to name a few. I'm sure there were more. There are a couple other guys, I think. Q. How many guys total? TONY FINAU: 12 that got to the finals, started with 40. Yeah, it was cool. It was a fun little event. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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