TGL PRESENTED BY SOFI: LOS ANGELES GOLF CLUB VS NEW YORK GOLF CLUB

February 24, 2025

Collin Morikawa

Sahith Theegala

Tony Finau

SoFi Center

Los Angeles Golf Club

Press Conference

Los Angeles Golf Club 5, New York Golf Club 4

THE MODERATOR: I want to start out with a stat that on the 12th hole you had a 2 percent chance of winning, so there was a chance, and you did complete the comeback. Can you talk about your first experience, Tony?

TONY FINAU: "So you're telling me there's a chance," right? Famous Jim Carrey line.

It was so much fun. I really couldn't have had more fun. We were playing fine in the beginning, even though we were in a deep hole. They made some huge putts. I think they made more consecutive feet of putts -- it's kind of the record out here on TGL. We knew we just kind of had to be patient. But we started to run out of holes at the end, but we all stepped up to the plate when it was our turn to get a point.

Sahith led us off by getting the first point. We were able to throw the hammer and I was able to hit a good shot and make a good putt, and then Collin tied it up, and it was fair game after that.

So fun to be a part of matches like this. Momentum is a crazy thing in sports, and happy we ended up on top.

Q. Collin, you heard you guys had quite a night last night with Good Good here and you were actually practicing that playoff shot. Can you talk about how that helped you going into today's playoff?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yes, kind of had to show Tony how everything works. We were going through that. The overtime has been huge. You only get three shots. We each hit one, and it doesn't matter if you're closer by an inch or 50 feet. It's like, you've just got to hit the shot.

We worked on it a lot. We had a couple competitions with Good Good, but we honestly were going back and forth on how to hit it, and once we got to overtime we kind of knew what we were going to do, so it was nice to be able to execute those shots. It felt like momentum was on our side, and we had to close that out with all the prep we did, and it paid off.

Q. Tony, this was kind of the equivalent of like the 10-day contract in the NBA. I'm curious your thoughts on all this, kind of competing for the first time?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, it's incredible. I didn't expect it to be this big and kind of grand. I was watching some of the past events. But it kind of exceeded my expectations being here, being a part of it, and just to be able to have a comeback like we did today and help these guys get to the Playoffs, it was kind of a dream couple days for me, honestly. I stepped up when I needed to for the team.

But it couldn't have been a cooler experience. I had two great guys to lean on to kind of talk through. Yesterday during practice they helped me around the greens, kind of gave me some advice when it came to hitting into a screen. These guys made it real easy for me to just step up and try to do my thing.

I couldn't have had more fun over the last two days.

Q. I know all of you guys are fans of major sports, major leagues. How does it feel to be in a playoff hunt, a playoff practice?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, it's why we do it, to get into playoff moments. I know for me, I don't even follow every sport closely, but every time it gets to playoff times, all of a sudden I'm a big super fan. I feel like I watch every playoff game.

We're all competitors, and I said it out there, we hate losing. Probably hate losing more than winning, at least for me, and I think these guys might say the same thing.

Just to know we've clinched that spot and we have a chance at the title -- playoff sports is a whole different beast, so we're ready for it. Super excited. It comes fast. These matches go fast. That's what makes it more intense and exciting is how important each and every shot, each and every point, each and every hole is. Just the combination of that all, this is a sweet victory for sure.

Q. I'm curious, the greens, you guys have been here a couple times now. I know Tony, it was your first, but when you guys, Collin or Sahith, when you are putting out there, I know it's artificial, but what would you compare it to, West Coast poa, Bermudagrass, bent? There's certain fans out there that are very interested in this answer.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Someone's backyard that has turf. Putting on turf is so different.

I think when you putt on real grass, it stays on the ground a lot more, and when you putt on turf, not that it skids, this rolls amazing, but if you miss it a little bit, it can kind of -- with all the subtle breaks, you see some putts that kind of drift off. It's just being able to adjust. It's something else, but you can figure it out for sure.

Q. Tony, what was the advice they gave you about hitting balls into a screen that you put in play tonight? Also just curious how you guys decided on hitting the shot the way you did in the playoff today. What specifically were you trying to do there?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, so the advice they gave me, a lot of it was around the greens. I trusted them a lot with the reads, more than kind of what I was feeling and seeing just because I hadn't played on the greens. Out of the sand and around the greens, they were both like, never decelerate. Make sure you accelerate through the shot. Every chip shot you've probably got to hit a little bit harder than you're thinking.

When you're hitting off turf you think it's going to bounce, but it comes off pretty clean. It's not really going to bounce so you can go ahead and give it some speed, so that helped a lot when I had chip shots or putts. I had a crucial putt to make, and I trusted that they had the read down, and I made it.

When it came to hitting into the screen, I noticed for my fade it's easy to hit it up the left side of the screen, and I felt like it wasn't coming back, so I started to aim a little bit more to the right, and I kind of watched Collin and Sahith hitting, and it wasn't anything they told me, but just watching them (audio interruption).

Q. It was stated this was a one-match contract, but it was a pretty emotional win. Three American guys up there; any chance you're going to come back for LA in the Playoffs or something special?

TONY FINAU: Rosey and Tommy Fleetwood will be back. I was happy to step in just to help, and I'm just happy I didn't ruin the party for them getting to the playoffs.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Time out, time out. You never know, but I'm just saying I want to thank Tony. You guys all put that out there. The entire team, Sahith, we all want to thank Tony because you see something and you never know if players buy into it. It was all a question of whether we want -- the players, the 24 already playing, want to buy in, and we've all bought in, and I think you guys have seen that. But for someone like Tony to come out and say, yeah, I'm going to try it out and love it over the past few days, it's been a lot of fun.

That's what you want to see. You want to see that for the league. You want to see that for everyone. We just want to say thank you, Tony. It was awesome. No matter what happens, it's always fun to do something new. But that was competition right there.

Q. Tony, could you talk about your little dance routine before your first shot, where it came from, and did you know there was one second left when you actually hit the shot?

TONY FINAU: That's what I really enjoyed I felt like about this experience. The shot clock was incredible.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Was it? You went down to one a few times.

TONY FINAU: But I like hearing the heartbeat, all of that. It adds to the intensity, the excitement of it.

It was getting close at the end, but I had to show my moves off. I've got a few dance tricks in the bag, and I'm like, this is the perfect time. This is the perfect setting that you've got to show your bag off a little bit with your dance moves. So I kind of pointed at Serena. Hopefully she liked the dance move, and then I looked at the clock and it was like 11 seconds. I'm like, I'd better get into the shot and hit it. I was happy I hit it in the fairway and we were on our way.