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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 5, 2018Tony FinauAugusta, Georgia MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are pleased to welcome Tony Finau to the interview room this afternoon. Tony carded a 4‑under 68. This is Tony's first Masters appearance, his first time in the interview room. TONY FINAU: That's right. MODERATOR: He tallied six birdies in his first round on Nos. 2, 4, 8, 9, 13 and 15. Bogeyed No. 1 and 14. Tony, can you tell us about your round today? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I was really happy to be here and play (laughter). I bogeyed 1, and I knew that the hole plays tough, tough golf hole, but bounced back with a birdie on 2 to kind of calm myself. You know, I felt really good out there. I took care of the par 5s, I think was the most important thing, and it's a goal of mine this week to do, with my length. I can get after those holes. So I was able to do that today. I was 4‑under on the par 5s, and played a really solid round of golf. THE MODERATOR: Take a few questions. Q. How much limitation did you have on getting to your left side, and could you take us through the emotions a little bit of the last 24 hours? TONY FINAU: Yeah, it's been pretty crazy. To be in this position I'm at now; when I woke up this morning, nothing short of a miracle if you ask me. I could barely put any pressure on it. I could barely walk. But obviously, after the MRI we had, you know, there was no real damage. So at that point, at about 8:00 this morning, I knew I was going to play. From that time till I teed off was just about getting together with my doc and just having him do some tissue work and just make sure I was good to go. I went to the range quite a bit earlier than I would have, just to see how I was going to feel, and hit some shots. But the emotions have been pretty crazy. I looked forward to this week for a really long time, and to see the possibility of that slipping away; you know, I had the confidence that I would come back, but I wanted to play now and I want to play this week. Waiting for another opportunity to play my first Masters, or whenever that was, whether it was next year or another time, was going to be hard for me to swallow. I was just extremely happy that nothing was seriously wrong with my foot. And, you know, quite honestly, it was pretty‑‑ a pretty cool moment followed by probably one of my most embarrassing moments, and a scary moment at the same time. It was quite crazy, all the emotions that I dealt with overnight, but I was more than ecstatic to just be walking to that first tee and be playing in my first Masters. Q. Having done that, dislocated my ankle, the pain, I can't believe how you put up with that pain, first of all. Second, when you put it back in, I heard you in Butler Cabin when you said you had not had that happen before, but it seems like you knew exactly what to do to put it back in place. TONY FINAU: I've never had it happen before. I've rolled my right ankle before, never my left. But I saw where it was and I knew where it needed to be (laughter). Instinctively, it just‑‑ you know, again‑‑ so I just tried. If it didn't work, then I would have laid there and been even more embarrassed being pulled out on a stretcher celebrating a hole‑in‑one. I was happy that‑‑ again, I just popped it back in place and I got back up and I tried to be as smooth as I could getting up and walking away from it. But it was quite scary all night, just not knowing what was going to happen this morning. Q. Can you tell us sort of how you maybe had to compensate for that ankle today, and are you surprised that you were able to play as well as you did, if you were having to do that? And then maybe in some ways, was it a bit of a blessing, take your mind off the fact that this is your first Masters and you had something else to worry about? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, maybe masks a little bit of the pressure because I had to worry about my foot. I had to compensate a little bit because hitting some shots, I knew I couldn't put the full weight I wanted to on the foot. I hit enough range balls to just‑‑ my coach and I, just to come up with a plan just to say, hey, the one thing we can't do is hurt it more. So the No. 1 thing for me was my health, and trying to take care of the next few days and not just worry about the now. So it definitely‑‑ it definitely hurt at different points of the round. But, you know, I guess your other question, if I'm surprised. Honestly, I'm not really surprised. I like the golf course, and my foot started to feel better the more I played. And, you know, I feel like I‑‑ my story's quite crazy, and I'm sure most of you guys know it by now. But I feel like my back's been up against the wall my whole life, so something like this is just another part of the story, I guess. But, you know, to sit up here and say I'm surprised? Not really. Q. Can you describe what the emotions were that caused you to celebrate like that in the first place? TONY FINAU: Yeah, so the crazy thing about a hole‑in‑one is it's very, very rare. So you just never know. It's just a spur‑of‑the‑moment thing. I have no idea why I just‑‑ I just started sprinting. I saw it disappear. It was my first Par‑3 Contest, my first Masters, I made a hole‑in‑one, so there was a lot that went into that. I just took off. I noticed my family was behind me, turned around. I'm not a great‑‑ probably not a great DB, you know, doing the backpedalling, so I won't be doing that the rest of my career. Q. What did your family say to you when they saw what happened to you? TONY FINAU: My wife immediately said, "Hey, are you okay?" She was worried, and I think like most of my family was, they were very worried about me because they saw exactly what happened. You know, even from a distance, I broke my foot, or it came out of place, and I was able to push it back into place. They were very worried, and so was I. Q. How much tape do you have? TONY FINAU: I have quite a bit of tape on, quite a bit of tape, just to stabilize it. Q. Was this this morning before you went out to hit balls? TONY FINAU: Yeah, before I played, before I went out to hit balls, my doctor taped it to immobilize it. Q. Can you move it at all? TONY FINAU: I can move it, not a lot. Q. I apologize if you've been asked this, but can you describe the whole fire knife dancing thing when you were a kid? And I wonder if ‑‑ I can't imagine that would have been real comfortable if you were a kid and you got burned or got cut. Do you have a higher threshold of pain? Or like you said, your back has always been against the wall. So wondering if all of that has played a role in the last 24 hours. TONY FINAU: Yeah, for sure. I started doing fire knife dancing when I was four. If you catch it on the wrong side of the stick, you burn your hands. It's kind of a hook and a knife at the top of it. So you could also cut yourself, and I did a lot of that as a kid. I think maybe a little bit of all what you just mentioned kind of plays into maybe what you guys saw out there today. I look at myself as a pretty mentally tough person, and I think I showed that today in my round, just able to put my head down and just play. I felt like, again, it was a tough morning to deal with, but when I knew I was going to play, I was pretty ecstatic and really pleased with the way I played out there today. Q. You noted the word ecstatic. How would you describe the range of emotions over the past 24 hours? TONY FINAU: I don't know if I could sum it up in one word. But, you know, to me, it's nothing short of a miracle sitting here right now, just because, you know, when it happened, I felt like there probably could be something seriously wrong. And after the X‑ray, there wasn't and after the MRI, there wasn't. To me, it's a miracle; my foot was out of place 24 hours ago, and I sit here in second place at the Masters possibly after round one. It's nothing short of a miracle for me. Just blessed. Q. How close were you to having to withdraw? What would have been the break point this morning to force to you withdraw? TONY FINAU: The MRI test, if I was going to do further damage by playing, and the doctors recommended that, look, I know you want to play this week, but you're going to do some damage and there could be some further damage where you're going to have to take more time off, then that would have happened and I probably would have withdrawn because of that. But, you know, when the MRI test came back and they told me, look, a couple torn ligaments but nothing major, you have pretty much a high ankle sprain, then I knew I could still play. Q. Did you think you would have to fight with the doctor or stand up to the doctor's orders? TONY FINAU: Yeah, it would have been my decision to make, but I try my best to listen to people that know what they are talking about. Q. Two questions. How many lifetime holes‑in‑one? TONY FINAU: I have 12. That was No. 12 yesterday. Q. And have you ever celebrated one like that? TONY FINAU: No, never, and I've never been so excited to hit one. I mean, in front of my wife and my kids, and in front of a lot of the golfing world, in my first Masters, it was really special. But unfortunately kind of masked by my incident that happened. But it was quite incredible, still. Q. You've had the bomber label for a long time. You've got to be more than a bomber here. What parts of your game do you think have improved over the last few years that can make you a contender here? TONY FINAU: Yeah, chipping and putting is extremely important here because you're not always going to be on the right levels where they put these pins, so you're going to have to have touch and make some‑‑ and hole some of those par putts that are just crucial in a round. I was able to do that today. But I do feel‑‑ I don't mind being labeled as a bomber. It's a good thing to be known and have a strong part of your game, and length helps me everywhere I play, especially here at Augusta. But you have to have touch and you have to have good putting skills, and I feel like those are things that I've been able to sharpen throughout my career and feel good about those things this week. Q. Do you feel like you've worked on those harder? It's obviously easier sometimes just‑‑ TONY FINAU: Yeah, exactly. Q. ‑‑ just to bomb it all the time? TONY FINAU: Yeah, worked on it and understanding more, more about why different things‑‑ why people putt different than other people. Everybody does it a different way, and how is it going to be effective for me, how am I going to do it, what's going to work for me, what am I most comfortable with, all those things, can I putt like that under pressure. I've been able to find out quite a bit about myself playing tournament golf, and that's the great thing about playing on a weekly basis. You can tally up where your game is at and what works and what doesn't on a weekly basis. Q. You talked about getting some tissue work done. Did you ever have to do any shots or take medication or anything like that? TONY FINAU: No. No shots, no medication. Just some work and tape. Q. You're known as one of the most athletic players on the PGA TOUR. After you got over the initial cause for concern, is part of you embarrassed? TONY FINAU: Yeah, no question. No question. That's what I kept telling my family. It was a pretty embarrassing moment. I feel like I'm a good athlete, and to see myself kind of roll an ankle on an easy little backpedal wasn't really athletic. It is what it is. You know, I know it's kind of blown up on social media, and I've seen the video replay over in my head millions of times overnight. It is what it is. Embarrassing moment but scary moment at the same time. But I'm happy where I stand, and it's going to be something that I can just laugh at later in life, no question. Q. And did anything about today, did you want to prove anything to anyone? TONY FINAU: Yeah, you know, it seems like as my career unfolds, it becomes more about proving the people around me right than proving people wrong. I feel like I have a lot of great people on my side, a lot of great support and people that believe in me. I think it's just more about proving that they are right than proving anybody wrong. You know, I tried to play that card early in my career, and you're never going to win. Doing your best and just trying to impress the people that believe in you, I think that's more important than anybody else. I've had people believe in me my whole life, the close people around me, and just continue to try and impress them and just do my thing. Q. So you said you've seen the video. What's going through your mind when you watch the video? TONY FINAU: Yeah, a lot of different things. The funny thing is if it didn't happen to me, I'd probably laugh first, and then I'd be worried after. So I kind of chuckled at myself, and I try not to take myself too seriously, and that's the hard part. That's why I was embarrassed. It's quite funny, I just rolled my ankle celebrating a hole‑in‑one. That's pretty‑‑ you can't make that‑‑ you can't make that up (laughter). I recognize what happened (chuckling), and again, it's still a little embarrassing, but I'm just happy I'm feeling better, my foot's feeling better now, and hopefully, you know, most of that as far as my foot is concerned, is in the rear‑view mirror this week. Q. How much sleep did you get and what time did you get up? TONY FINAU: Yeah, I got up at 6:00 this morning. I did the MRI at 7:00. I was in bed about 9:30, but probably more like 10:00, but I didn't get a lot of great sleep, elevating my foot, icing my foot for a couple hours. And trying to sleep with your foot like that is tough. I didn't sleep great. Hopefully I can get some better rest tonight and elevate, ice, have fluid and hopefully feel better tomorrow. MODERATOR: Thanks, Tony, and good luck the rest of the week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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