ManchesterUk
Fat Bloke
Hope you cash all 3 GL
2014 Golf
- Thread starter TheLaw4
- Start date
TheLaw4
Pretty much a regular
I think you could argue either way. Both are in good form and both are good links players.
And no, haven't read anything special, other than him saying it was like the greatest week of his life and he never wants to miss one. I just think coming off a big, emotional week like that, it will be hard for him to focus here. Kind of like Paul Lawrie in 2012. He played this event the week after the Ryder Cup, missed the cut.
And no, haven't read anything special, other than him saying it was like the greatest week of his life and he never wants to miss one. I just think coming off a big, emotional week like that, it will be hard for him to focus here. Kind of like Paul Lawrie in 2012. He played this event the week after the Ryder Cup, missed the cut.
TheLaw4
Pretty much a regular
This didn't happen. Need some help on the weekend.
crawdads
Fairway to Heaven
Really like Fleetwoods swing. He was pounding driver. Nice call. GOod week.
crawdads
Fairway to Heaven
Anything for the pga tour?
crawdads
Fairway to Heaven
At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Tony Finau might have made a speedy wide receiver or pocket quarterback. Growing up in Salt Lake City of Tongan and American Samoan descent, Finau was expected to excel at football, which is near a religion for many Polynesian boys.
[+] Enlarge
<cite>Chris Condon/Getty Images</cite>The towering Tony Finau turned pro at 17. Now he's 25 and getting his first real shot at playing on the PGA Tour, making his season debut as a full-time member this week at the Frys.com Open.
Yet from a very early age, Finau and his younger brother, Gipper, were drawn to golf.
"It's really rare that my brother and I even play golf," said Tony, who has had cousins Haloti Ngata (Baltimore Ravens) and Sione Pouha (New York Jets) play in the National Football League. "Football is in our genes. That's what our people do."
When Tony opens his 2014-15 PGA Tour season Thursday in the Frys.com Open at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California, he will be the first player of Tongan or American Samoan descent to play regularly on the PGA Tour.
Michael Campbell, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, and Phil Tataurangi, also a former tour winner, are Maorian, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Vijay Singh grew up in Fiji, a Polynesian nation, but he is Indian.
Finau's cousin, Jabari Parker, a small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, is one of the first Tongans to play in the NBA. Parker's mother, Lola Finau-Parker, is a first cousin of Tony's father, Kelepi.
"I guess there is a little bit of pride that goes with being the first [Tongan-Samoan] to hold a PGA Tour card," Tony said.
Tony, a 25-year-old husband and father of two small children, didn't take the traditional path to the tour like so many of his American peers. In 2007, he turned pro at 17 to compete for the $2 million first prize at the Ultimate Game, an individual match-play competition held in Las Vegas.
He was headed to either UNLV or BYU on a full golf scholarship until a private sponsor offered to provide the $50,000 initiation fee for him and Gipper to compete in the tournament.
Tony made the 12-man finals, and after paying back the entry fee to his sponsor, he took $100,000 to launch his career as an aspiring tour pro. Gipper, who is just 11 months younger than Tony, is currently entered in the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-school, which began Tuesday.
"I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have turned pro at 17," Tony said. "At the time, I had been playing golf for only nine years."
Finau said that many people questioned this choice at the time, because they didn't fully understand all the variables that went into his decision.
[h=4]<center>Frys.com Open</center>[/h]
<center>
</center> • Defending champion: Jimmy Walker
• Tee times, leaderboard | Experts' picks
• FOREcaster
• Photos from Frys.com Open, golf tours
• Venue: Silverado Resort & Spa (North Course); par-72, 7,203 yards
• Location: Napa, Calif.
• TV coverage: Thursday-Sunday, 5-8 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
• Monday qualifiers: Mathew Goggin, Jarrod Lyle, Eric Axley, T.J. Vogel
• Field changes: David Toms (WD); Patrick Reed (WD)
• Payout: A 144-man field with winner taking $1,080,000 of an $6 million purse
• Money leaders | Schedule | Rankings
• Follow @ESPNGolf on Twitter
"I had a chance to win $2 million, a week after high school graduation, and if I turned pro, the sponsor was going to financially support me," Tony said. "And Lee Trevino, who was a commentator at the event, helped me land a three-year deal with Callaway at a time when I was unproven.
"On the flip side, I didn't have really much of a social life in high school, and I'm not really a partyer, so college wasn't super appealing to me at the time."
Tony's good fortune was just beginning. A couple of years later during a mini-tour event in Arizona, he and Gipper were spotted by a producer from "The Big Break" who asked them to audition for the reality television show on Golf Channel.
The brothers were an instant hit.
"It was huge marketing us as brothers chasing after a dream to play the PGA Tour," said Tony, who finished second in the competition. "It was great exposure that kind of sprung our careers forward."
Since those first couple of glimpses of notoriety, the brothers have spent most of the last seven years on mini-tours from California to the Carolinas.
"It was tough and sometimes you had to find some sponsors for a percentage of your winnings," Tony said. "There are a lot of variables to playing mini-tour golf because of the finances. If you don't play well, you're often losing a lot of your own money.
"It doesn't make sense sometimes financially to do it traveling around the country, but you have to do something to stay competitively sharp."
Tony never considered giving up on his dream.
"There was never anything I doubted," he said. "I knew I was still pretty young going through the mini-tours. I had a lot of success winning some events out there, which allowed me to stay financially afloat.
"I don't think that I would be the person or the player that I am without the experiences that I have had."
After playing PGA Tour Canada in 2013, Tony broke through at the Web.com Tour Q-School with a tie for third to earn full status for the first time on the developmental tour. He missed three out of his first four cuts to start the 2014 season, but he began to find good form in the spring with a tie for fourth in May at the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, North Carolina.
By the summer, he was working with Boyd Summerhays, a former tour player-turned-instructor, who has helped the long-hitting (310.3 yard average) Finau become more effective with his favorite shot, a fade.
In August, Finau won the Stonebrae Classic in Hayward, California, with a final-round 66 for a 22-under total, the second-lowest 72-hole score in Web.com Tour history. That victory helped him secure his PGA Tour card.
"A lot of things have come around this year for me," Finau said. "My short game has improved, and I have started to understand my swing a little bit more.
"I have also used my experience on the mini-tours of grinding out, and I was able to apply that when I was in contention."
[h=4]FOLLOW GOLF ON ESPN[/h]
Stay up to date with the latest news, stories and analysis.
Follow ESPNGolf on Twitter
Finau expects to get into five wraparound season events this fall. Yet he knows that unless he plays well early in the schedule, it could be very difficult to get into fields on the west coast at the beginning of 2015.
"A realistic goal for me this year is to keep my card," he said. "But more importantly is getting comfortable with the surroundings and atmosphere of the regular tour.
"I want to see how my game holds up under this bigger spotlight. If I can do those things this year, I think I can have a successful career going forward."
[+] Enlarge
<cite>Chris Condon/Getty Images</cite>The towering Tony Finau turned pro at 17. Now he's 25 and getting his first real shot at playing on the PGA Tour, making his season debut as a full-time member this week at the Frys.com Open.Yet from a very early age, Finau and his younger brother, Gipper, were drawn to golf.
"It's really rare that my brother and I even play golf," said Tony, who has had cousins Haloti Ngata (Baltimore Ravens) and Sione Pouha (New York Jets) play in the National Football League. "Football is in our genes. That's what our people do."
When Tony opens his 2014-15 PGA Tour season Thursday in the Frys.com Open at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California, he will be the first player of Tongan or American Samoan descent to play regularly on the PGA Tour.
Michael Campbell, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, and Phil Tataurangi, also a former tour winner, are Maorian, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Vijay Singh grew up in Fiji, a Polynesian nation, but he is Indian.
Finau's cousin, Jabari Parker, a small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, is one of the first Tongans to play in the NBA. Parker's mother, Lola Finau-Parker, is a first cousin of Tony's father, Kelepi.
"I guess there is a little bit of pride that goes with being the first [Tongan-Samoan] to hold a PGA Tour card," Tony said.
Tony, a 25-year-old husband and father of two small children, didn't take the traditional path to the tour like so many of his American peers. In 2007, he turned pro at 17 to compete for the $2 million first prize at the Ultimate Game, an individual match-play competition held in Las Vegas.
He was headed to either UNLV or BYU on a full golf scholarship until a private sponsor offered to provide the $50,000 initiation fee for him and Gipper to compete in the tournament.
Tony made the 12-man finals, and after paying back the entry fee to his sponsor, he took $100,000 to launch his career as an aspiring tour pro. Gipper, who is just 11 months younger than Tony, is currently entered in the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-school, which began Tuesday.
"I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have turned pro at 17," Tony said. "At the time, I had been playing golf for only nine years."
Finau said that many people questioned this choice at the time, because they didn't fully understand all the variables that went into his decision.
[h=4]<center>Frys.com Open</center>[/h]
<center>
• Tee times, leaderboard | Experts' picks
• FOREcaster
• Photos from Frys.com Open, golf tours
• Venue: Silverado Resort & Spa (North Course); par-72, 7,203 yards
• Location: Napa, Calif.
• TV coverage: Thursday-Sunday, 5-8 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
• Monday qualifiers: Mathew Goggin, Jarrod Lyle, Eric Axley, T.J. Vogel
• Field changes: David Toms (WD); Patrick Reed (WD)
• Payout: A 144-man field with winner taking $1,080,000 of an $6 million purse
• Money leaders | Schedule | Rankings
• Follow @ESPNGolf on Twitter
"I had a chance to win $2 million, a week after high school graduation, and if I turned pro, the sponsor was going to financially support me," Tony said. "And Lee Trevino, who was a commentator at the event, helped me land a three-year deal with Callaway at a time when I was unproven.
"On the flip side, I didn't have really much of a social life in high school, and I'm not really a partyer, so college wasn't super appealing to me at the time."
Tony's good fortune was just beginning. A couple of years later during a mini-tour event in Arizona, he and Gipper were spotted by a producer from "The Big Break" who asked them to audition for the reality television show on Golf Channel.
The brothers were an instant hit.
"It was huge marketing us as brothers chasing after a dream to play the PGA Tour," said Tony, who finished second in the competition. "It was great exposure that kind of sprung our careers forward."
Since those first couple of glimpses of notoriety, the brothers have spent most of the last seven years on mini-tours from California to the Carolinas.
"It was tough and sometimes you had to find some sponsors for a percentage of your winnings," Tony said. "There are a lot of variables to playing mini-tour golf because of the finances. If you don't play well, you're often losing a lot of your own money.
"It doesn't make sense sometimes financially to do it traveling around the country, but you have to do something to stay competitively sharp."
Tony never considered giving up on his dream.
"There was never anything I doubted," he said. "I knew I was still pretty young going through the mini-tours. I had a lot of success winning some events out there, which allowed me to stay financially afloat.
"I don't think that I would be the person or the player that I am without the experiences that I have had."
After playing PGA Tour Canada in 2013, Tony broke through at the Web.com Tour Q-School with a tie for third to earn full status for the first time on the developmental tour. He missed three out of his first four cuts to start the 2014 season, but he began to find good form in the spring with a tie for fourth in May at the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, North Carolina.
By the summer, he was working with Boyd Summerhays, a former tour player-turned-instructor, who has helped the long-hitting (310.3 yard average) Finau become more effective with his favorite shot, a fade.
In August, Finau won the Stonebrae Classic in Hayward, California, with a final-round 66 for a 22-under total, the second-lowest 72-hole score in Web.com Tour history. That victory helped him secure his PGA Tour card.
"A lot of things have come around this year for me," Finau said. "My short game has improved, and I have started to understand my swing a little bit more.
"I have also used my experience on the mini-tours of grinding out, and I was able to apply that when I was in contention."
[h=4]FOLLOW GOLF ON ESPN[/h]
Follow ESPNGolf on Twitter
Finau expects to get into five wraparound season events this fall. Yet he knows that unless he plays well early in the schedule, it could be very difficult to get into fields on the west coast at the beginning of 2015.
"A realistic goal for me this year is to keep my card," he said. "But more importantly is getting comfortable with the surroundings and atmosphere of the regular tour.
"I want to see how my game holds up under this bigger spotlight. If I can do those things this year, I think I can have a successful career going forward."
TheLaw4
Pretty much a regular
1-1-1 for -7.50 last week. +1167.25 on the year. Bummer because I was leading in the no actioned match.
Throwing a bunch out there this week. Hopefully some stick.
Koepka EV over Webb 50/50
Ishikawa -115 over Hadley 57.50/50
Levin +130 over McNeill 50/65
Tim Clark +105 over McGirt (mini injury fade) 50/52.50
And one in Hong Kong.
Bourdy -120 over Lipsky 60/50
Good luck all this week.
Throwing a bunch out there this week. Hopefully some stick.
Koepka EV over Webb 50/50
Ishikawa -115 over Hadley 57.50/50
Levin +130 over McNeill 50/65
Tim Clark +105 over McGirt (mini injury fade) 50/52.50
And one in Hong Kong.
Bourdy -120 over Lipsky 60/50
Good luck all this week.
TheLaw4
Pretty much a regular
+839.75
Been a bad end to 2014. I was content to be done until they matched my guy up with Tiger. It's a home game for him but have to imagine he will be rusty after this long lay off.
Jason Day -125 over Tiger 125/100
I will also be looking to fade Tiger on Friday.
Been a bad end to 2014. I was content to be done until they matched my guy up with Tiger. It's a home game for him but have to imagine he will be rusty after this long lay off.
Jason Day -125 over Tiger 125/100
I will also be looking to fade Tiger on Friday.
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