MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2021

Tony Finau

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you just talk about the FaceTime call [with Tom Brady], please?

TONY FINAU: Oh, yeah. That was a cool call. I talked to Tom Brady during the break. Yeah, it was a surprise for sure.

Q. What did he say?

TONY FINAU: Well, Jimmy Dunne had his phone, and of course in the only area you can have your phone here, but he was FaceTiming with Tom Brady, and he said somebody wants to talk to you. So I grabbed his phone and picked it up, and it was Tom.

That was a pleasant surprise. He said great playing, and he's following. He said he's surprised we stopped. He said, in the NFL, when it rains, we don't stop. I said, maybe we're not as tough as you guys, and he said, no, that's not the case. We had a good laugh about that. He was giving me some crap about the weather and why we stopped. He was obviously watching, and that was cool he was following.

Q. Have you ever talked to him before?

TONY FINAU: That was only my second time. I met him once before that. We have a mutual friend. His trainer, which is one of his best friends, Alex, is one of my good friends and someone I've known for a little bit. That's kind of how we met in Boston when he was playing for the Patriots, and this is only the second time we've had a conversation.

Q. What was the year of the first time? Do you remember?

TONY FINAU: I think it was '17, 2017. So it's been a few years, I think. He's obviously a fan of golf, and I'm a big sports fan. So following his career has been fun.

Q. Who's your NFL team?

TONY FINAU: I grew up a Cowboys fan. I've always been a Cowboys fan. I've kind of turned into a players guy, just knowing some guys in the NFL. That's kind of where I've turned.

Q. Where did you spend the break?

TONY FINAU: Just in the caddie house, caddie shack. I think most of the guys were there waiting for the news on when we were going to get back out and play.

Q. You've played this, and you know how Sunday can change fortunes around here. What would be your expectations for tomorrow, as far as wherever Hideki is versus the rest of the field?

TONY FINAU: A lot of us in the single digits, we have to race to try to get to double digits as fast as we can, I think. Hideki has experience. He has a world-class game. He's won out here many times. I don't think any of us expect him to lose ground, but things can happen here at Augusta pretty fast, and if we put some pressure on him, you never know what can happen tomorrow.

I'm quite a ways back after today, unfortunately, and I'm going to have to put together something pretty special tomorrow. I've shot some low rounds out here on this golf course, so I'm going to need one of those tomorrow.

Q. When you see someone getting hot like that, putting up those numbers, do you still pay attention to the leaderboard or just kind of put it out of your head?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, for sure you pay attention to it. I knew I was right in the thick of it pretty much all day. We went back out, all of a sudden, I get to 12 and look at the leaderboard on 11, and Hideki is at 9. Next thing you know, he's at 10. By the time I teed up on 14, he was at 11. The conditions allowed for a little bit better scoring after all the rain. The course definitely got softer.

J.T. and I just never adjusted. We talked about it pretty much every hole coming in, just how much different it's playing, slower, more receptive. It was hard to adjust, but everybody has to do it. Unfortunately, J.T. and I didn't do a very good job of that.

Q. Tony, just to make sure, did [Tom] Brady try to recruit you to play for the Bucs next year since he recruited everybody else?

TONY FINAU: He didn't try to recruit me, but he's got plenty of weapons over there in Tampa. They're not going to need me.