RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 11, 2022

Tony Finau

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. 8-under 62. Obviously a really nice day on moving day. How would you assess your round and what was working well for you today?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, I played nicely. I didn't finish the way I wanted to yesterday and I think all it did was kind of light a fire in my belly to get after it today. That's pretty much what I did. I made some birdies and I just played really clean golf.

Then when I made an eagle on 9 I kind of knew then I was like, oh, wow, we're climbing up that leaderboard. And any time you're at the top of the leaderboard and have a chance to win on a Sunday on the PGA TOUR it's exciting. So I'm happy with the round.

Q. Mentally do you realize that you're going as low as you are when you're in the moment or is it one of those things where you just count them up at the end and realize, hey, this was a nice day?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, I think a little bit of both. You kind of know where you're at, but you're so focused at the task at hand. You never want to get ahead of yourself, you guys probably hear that all the time, at least when guys are playing well. That's kind of how it was. I knew I was playing well, but at any given moment on this golf course you can make a number.

So there's no reason to get ahead of myself, I just tried to stay in the moment as much as I could and put together a nice round all the way to the end.

Q. You're one of the guys that came through PGA TOUR Canada. Any part of this feel like a bit of a home game for you in a way?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, it's nice to be back in Canada. I drove throughout this country in 2013 playing the PGA TOUR Canada and have lot of great fond memories here. I actually played with J.J. Spaun the first couple days, it was a comfortable grouping, we traveled together played in Canada in 2013.

So it does feel almost like a home game. I definitely get a lot of love from the fans, which is pretty amazing. I can tell they have been locked up a little bit over the last couple years.

Q. Now that you're in Toronto do any of Drake's song lyrics make a bit more sense to you being in the Toronto area?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, I know Drake is from the 6. I love Drake, I love a lot of his songs. And he's got a certain flow to his raping style, which is I think which makes him one of the great rappers. I think he's got great rhythm and big Drake fan. So it was pretty cool to be kind of in his hometown.

Q. I just wondered, how does it feel right now to be leading Canada's National Open heading into the last day?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, it always feels good when you're playing well. In golf you start to get emotionally attached to your game a little bit. When you're not playing as well, you might not be feeling as well. When you're playing great, you're feeling great. You try to even that out as much as you can. But it's usually always good vibes when you're playing well and that's definitely the case this week.

Q. I heard a couple fans comment that you're the best-dressed golfer out here this week. I wonder, have you heard those comments and what do you think of that?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, I hear them quite a bit out there. A lot of people like my swag. It's great to hear. It's cool. Again, I appreciate the love out here in Canada. I definitely feel it, I hear it, I feel the energy, so it's nice to be back out here and looking forward to performing in front of them tomorrow.

Q. You mentioned that you're a Drake fan. Curious for tomorrow's round is there a particular Drake song you'll use to warm-up with?

TONY FINAU: There's a lot of Drake songs I think that are good. Controlla is a song that I always go back to. It's just got, again just kind of a slower song, but yeah, I like Drake's style. That's probably the one that might be on repeat tomorrow morning.

Q. I understand you're a big Toronto food scene fan, you're a big fan of the restaurants here. Do you have any favorites, what are the ones you like to go to?

TONY FINAU: I went to Hy's Steakhouse last night. Unbelievable. I got recommended to that from Shane Lowry. So that was nice. Pai.

Q. The Thai restaurant?

TONY FINAU: Downtown. Unbelievable. Then Omai is a place, a Chinese restaurant that I go to at least twice every time I'm here in Toronto and I love that place too.

So the food is amazing here. It's definitely a melting pot and it's nice to have all different kind of cuisines in one town.