The story of how Tony Finau defied the odds to become a six-time PGA Tour winner could be golf’s version of the Hollywood blockbuster “Blindside,” in which Michael Oher turned a love of football into a college scholarship and eventually NFL success.
On Sunday, Finau carded a 5-under 66 at Vidanta Vallarta Golf Club near the Banderas Bay in Mexico’s Pacific to win the Mexico Open at Vidanta by three strokes over world No. 1 Jon Rahm.
“He’s the best and he’s on top of the world right now and I knew I was going to have my hands full with him all the way to the end,” Finau said. “It’s crazy how this game is, you never think you have a tournament won until it’s over.”
Finau 33, became the fourth multiple winner this season joining Rahm, Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler.
Finau finished second to Rahm at this event a year ago, but this time the finishes were reversed. Finau, who opened with rounds of 65-64-65, held a two-stroke lead heading into the final round.
Rahm signed for a third-round bogey-free 10-under 61 — a tournament record — and was bidding for his fifth win of the season and his first title defense on the PGA Tour. But he couldn’t go low enough again, posting a 4-under 67 in the final round. The Spaniard did succeed in breaking the single-season record for prize money — $14,462,840 — before the calendar flipped to May.
Finau, who is of Tongan descent, is the third-oldest of eight children. It was his younger brother, Gipper, then 5, who became enthralled by seeing Tiger Woods win the 1997 Masters on TV. That motivated their mother, Ravena, to ask her husband to teach the boys the game. This despite the fact that Finau’s father, Gary, never had swung a golf club.
Lessons and buckets of balls were beyond the family’s means, so Gary, who worked in cargo at Delta Air Lines, checked out instructional books and videotapes at the library. “Golf My Way” by Jack Nicklaus became his bible, and he plastered frame-by-frame images of the Golden Bear’s swing to their garage walls. The brothers shared a discarded 6-iron. Sets of clubs were purchased at Salvation Army. The boys blasted balls off carpet into a mattress in the family garage in Utah. When the brothers became good enough to play a regulation course near their home, Gary picked them up after school and drove them to the football field first.
“We’d stop there so they could see all their friends practicing Pop Warner football,” Gary recalled. “There…
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