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THE RYDER CUP

September 27, 2018

Tony Finau

Guyancourt, France

BRIONY CARLYON: Tony, thank you for joining us here in the Media Centre this afternoon. It's great to have you here in France for your first Ryder Cup. Can you just give us a sense of what that's been like for you in the team room and the experience so far?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, thank you. It's great to be here. Paris is an incredible place. My second time now being here.

You know, I really enjoyed it. I've really enjoyed these last few days, being with the team, having dinners, spectacular places here in Paris. The country has so much to offer, and to be here and experience that with my teammates and the captains and my wife, it's been incredible already.

It's been a lot of fun to be a part of this team. And yeah, it's been nothing short of spectacular for me already, and the competition hasn't even started.

So the good stuff is yet to come, and I feel like I've already had a great week.

BRIONY CARLYON: Sounds ideal.

Q. I think few golfers have got your kind of backstory. If you could look back and talk about some of the challenges you've overcome and how proud you are to be sitting up there and wearing those colours.
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I'm extremely proud of where I am. Just having a spot on this team, it's been a dream of mine since I started playing the game at eight years old.

You know, basically very humble beginnings. My parents sacrificed a lot for me to be in this position. Golf is an extremely expensive sport, and growing up, I didn't come from a lot, but my parents sacrificed a lot for me to compete, and my goals were their goals. My family is a big part of why I'm here, and they have given up a lot.

It's cool to look back and reflect on where I've come from, and now, part of this Ryder Cup and this team, is pretty special for me and my family.

So I'm soaking it all up. And that's the advice I've got from some of the older guys, is enjoy it, because it does come to an end. This is my first of hopefully a handful, but this experience is pretty cool for me already, and to reflect back on some of the experiences that I've had, this is pretty special for me.

Q. You're one of the bigger hitters out there. Is this a course that takes driver out of your hands?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, it is for the most part. I think I hit four to six drivers I'll hit per round this week, obviously depending on how holes we play, of course. But if I were to play 18, I would hit four to six, and on the PGA TOUR, I'm probably hitting more like 10 to 12. In that aspect it does take driver out of my hands.

It's a golf course that you have to hit the fairway, no matter what club you hit, 3-iron, 4-iron, and it's a great test. It's going to be great.

Q. Firstly, of all the things you've done in life, whether it's getting your Web card, getting your TOUR card, Puerto Rico, whatever, what single moment has given you the greatest boost of confidence?
TONY FINAU: Yeah. Well, in my life, marrying my wife, because she's really beautiful. That gave me a lot of confidence personally. I look at her every morning, and I'm like: I'm pretty lucky.

In my golf career, this is up there, making this team. You look at the guys that are on our team and the guys that are on The European Team, to throw my name in the mix is something that is really cool for me right now.

Getting through the Web.com Tour Q-School was a big deal for me because it took me six tries. When I finally got through, I knew the opportunities and the window for getting to the PGA TOUR and competing at a high level was finally available to me.

Those six years were tough. Mini-tour life isn't a glamorous life, professional golf life. If you're not on the PGA TOUR, it is very tough financially. I was married, and my wife and I had our oldest son already. So those were some tough times.

Getting through Qualifying School and having an established place to play through Qualifying School, that was a huge moment for me, as well.

Those are a couple that I have a lot of confidence -- that built a lot of confidence in me.

Q. And your very first memory of Ryder Cup on TV. Do you remember the first one that really got your attention?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, it was hard to overlook the '99 Ryder Cup. I started playing golf in the summer of '97 and just a couple years later, it's still one of the coolest moments for our American Team is to look back and reflect on that win, the comeback, and it being at Medinah [sic] (Brookline), it was a special thing for us Americans, but for me starting and playing and seeing how excited they were, I started to look at The Ryder Cup as a goal of mine to be on that team and share some of those memories.

Q. Jim said yesterday that because of your personality, you're someone he can put with anyone, and I was wondering if he's conveyed that to you, and what that means to you that he would say that?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think getting to know Jim very well this week has been great for me. He's someone I've enjoyed watching throughout his career and I've had a lot of respect for. It's great to hear him say something like that about me.

I feel like I'm a team player and I grew up playing team sports and I grew up playing a lot of basketball and volleyball, so I know what it's like to be in a team room and locker room and have teammates around each other. I feel like I'm pretty good at that. That's great for him to say, and I definitely feel that way. I feel like I'm a pretty good teammate.

Q. What is it like to be a teammate of Tiger's?
TONY FINAU: Extremely special to be on a team with Tiger and Phil. Those are two guys, two of my golfing idols growing up and I think pretty much the other ten guys on the team can say the same thing. This is a special Ryder Cup for us, and I think this is a very special one for them, as well. To be on a team with Tiger and Phil is a dream come true, and this week I think we have that extra motivation to try and win one for them.

Q. We always hear a lot about growing the game and trying to expand it out to different groups of people who normally don't have access to it, and you would be an example of that. How much responsibility do you feel to kind of get people involved that don't normally play the game? Can you point to any specific examples that you run across kids that you see later and are playing high school golf or something?
TONY FINAU: It's been cool. I'm really proud, just seeing a lot of the kids that have been inspired by me, just through similar backgrounds. I definitely think the game can grow in those areas, areas in the States, Third World countries.

There's a lot of great athletes all over the world, and some of them don't have the access or opportunity to play the game of golf, and I definitely didn't growing up. Just meaning we really didn't have the funds for me to play, now looking back at how expensive this game is.

Yeah, hopefully, just my story inspires other kids and other families to know if there's a will, there's a way, and this game has a lot to offer. I've been extremely blessed to play this game, and I feel like I'm very early in my career and have already been pretty blessed.

Q. We've seen you play with Brooks each of the last three days of practise, which might not be a combination that a lot of people would have expected entering the week, but is there anything that's drawn the two of you together before this week or before you got to Paris that might lead you to combine forces?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I played with Brooks for the first time in the Playoffs just a few weeks ago, and we got paired a lot. We were paired together in the first two groups for I think the first three Playoff events. So we got to know each other pretty well, and so it was just kind of a late thing, more so than anything else.

You know, the way I look at it, who wouldn't want to play the two-time Major Champion this year? We're going to meet as a team and see what the final decision is. It's always up to the captain, and the captains that we have, and we'll see what type of decision that he makes.

It's been fun getting to know Brooks, and you know, it's going to be a lot of fun if we end up being teamed up together.

Q. Can you talk us through that Par 3 Tournament at the Masters, and have you had any motivational speakers in this week?
TONY FINAU: What was the second question?

Q. Have you had any motivational speakers in the team room this week?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, so just going back to the Masters, basically it was one of the greatest moments of my life, hitting a hole-in-one, in my first Par-3 Contest at the Masters, and with my family there, it's really cool.

Obviously I couldn't contain my emotions. I took off running, and it's one of the coolest moments backed up by one of the moments embarrassing moments of my life, having sprained my ankle in front of everybody and see it and replay it and still talk about it.

I learned a lot about it. I ended up finishing in the Top-10 at Masters, still, and I learned a lot at myself and I can still compete at a high level.

We have some cool celebrities here cheering us on this week. No motivational speakers. I think we understand the magnitude of the event, and most of us play pretty relaxed. But having other celebrities from the U.S. here to support us is pretty cool.

Q. Who?
TONY FINAU: I mean, Michael Jordan, have you guys heard of him? (Laughter) it was cool to see him. I think he'll be around this week. There's some others. You guys saw Samuel L. Jackson. He played in the celebrity deal yesterday. Michael Phelps. Just cool to see them in our team room and hang out with them. It's really cool.

Q. You mentioned playing team sports. Many people in this part of the world would associate people of Samoan heritage with rugby.
TONY FINAU: Rugby is the biggest sport in all of the Polynesian islands. I didn't play any rugby growing up. I played basketball and volleyball.

Yeah, rugby is a huge sport in the Polynesian islands. My dad played and my younger brother plays. Not me, I never played rugby.

Q. Why not?
TONY FINAU: I don't know. I guess I was just so drawn to playing basketball and volleyball, I didn't really play rugby. Rugby was pretty big in Utah, but I never -- I don't know. I never played it.

Q. Has your dad come across to cheer you on this week?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, my dad's here. My sister's here. He's not in here, but --

Q. You talked about the sacrifice that he made. This must be a rewarding moment for him.
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think this is pretty cool for him for sure. It's got to be really cool for him, coming from -- I don't have a golf background. My dad didn't play and my grandpa didn't play. Rugby was kind of their thing.

So this is probably pretty cool for him, no question. I think he's going to enjoy this week.

Q. How much, if at all, do you think playing the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open will be good preparation for the first hole tomorrow?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think it's great preparation. That's about as close, I think, as it gets to a stadium hole, the No. 1 hole here.

This is a whole different deal. It's going to be a lot of fun. That first tee shot is going to be fun. A lot of -- that grandstands is huge. I made sure I look back and check it out today, and it's gigantic. I've only seen grandstands like that at NFL stadiums back home in the US. So it's pretty cool to be able to hit in front of that many people, and whether you give them cheers or boos, it's going to be incredible. The atmosphere is electric here.

Q. What's the first time you got a free set of clubs, and was that a big deal to you?
TONY FINAU: It was a huge deal to me. First time I got a set of clubs, I was nine, for free, from our pro from the par 3 golf course. It was just an iron set. I think it was only about 4-iron or 5-iron down to pitching wedge, Majek. I don't know if you remember the old golf clubs, Majek. They were made by Wilson. I had a set of those and I used those pretty much all the way through high school until some other companies stepped up and helped me out as a junior after I was starting to have some success. It was a big deal.

Before that, my dad was at the pawn shop, garage sales, getting us wedges and all kind of clubs. So that was a big.

Q. Do you have those still?
TONY FINAU: Yeah, I do. My dad has them in his garage. Still have the first set.

BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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