The Loop
Meet Tony Finau, the PGA Tour's newest long-driving, par-5 destroying star
From "The Big Break" to the big leagues, Tony Finau was bound to be a popular rookie on the PGA Tour this season. The fact that he's also a big hitter (it's not just "chicks" who "dig the long ball," after all) certainly doesn't hurt, either.
In the first two starts of his first PGA Tour campaign, Finau, 25, has already been turning heads with his prodigious length off the tee. He's hit drives of 374 and 373 yards and he has registered five of the 20 longest drives of the young season.
Overall, his driving average of 321.9 puts him second right now behind Daniel Berger (Bubba Watson led the tour with a 314.3 average last season). Unlike Berger, though, a fellow rookie who has missed the first two cuts of the season, Finau's all-around game has been equally as impressive as his performance off the tee.
After a T-12 in the season opener in Napa, Finau finished T-7 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open over the weekend. Not bad for someone who had only three previous tour starts, the last of which was in 2011.
Finau is 24 under through two tournaments and not surprisingly, a lot of those red numbers have come on par 5s. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound bomber is a staggering 20 under on the 28 par 5s he's played thus far.
A former high school basketball star in Utah, Finau and his younger brother, Gipper, turned pro instead of playing in college. After bouncing around on mini-tours (Gipper is currently trying to earn his Web.com Tour card), Finau finally ended up on the Web.com Tour in 2014 and finished 12th on the tour's final priority ranking to earn his PGA Tour card for 2014-15.
After earning nearly as much ($310,833) in two PGA Tour starts as he did in 27 starts on the Web.com Tour last year, Finau is off to a great start in making sure he stays where he wants.