With only two professional wins in his name, Tony Finau could not quite reach the list of top 10 golfers in today’s game. One list, however, where he ranks at the top of the list are the top 30 Nice Guys on the PGA Tour, where he finished second behind Jordan Speith. Finau owes this to his open-minded attitude on the course and his humanitarian commitment through the Tony Finau Foundation, which helps underprivileged children.
Tony Finau Biography
Tony Finau was born Milton Pouha Finau, son of Kelepi and Ravena Finau, on September 14, 1989, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He trained at a very young age to become a professional golfer, although his parents could not quite afford to give him the conventional training that the sport required.
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Regardless of the circumstances, Finau was able to learn the game properly to earn a place in tournaments, the very first being at a junior event on the Jordan River course in August 1997. The Finau brothers (Tony and his brother Gipper) soon became the talk of the Utah junior golf scene as they led their high school to the first state golf championship in 114 years.
Tony Finau then won the Utah State Amateur Championship in 2006 before deciding to turn pro on the day he graduated high school. He chose to do so despite receiving scholarships to play basketball and golf at schools such as Utah State and Stanford College. He first started with tournaments such as the lower leagues of golf, the Gateway Tour, the eGolf Tour, the Canadian Tour, the NGA Hooters Tour, and the National Pro Tour, as he failed to make it to the demanding qualifying school on the PGA Tour.
However, by 2013, Finau made the leap to the Web.com Tour to become a full-time participant. The following year, he won the Stonebrae Classic to qualify for the major leagues, which allowed him to compete on the 2014-15 PGA Tour.
Tony Finau Wife (Alayna)
Tony Finau is married to his beautiful Hawaiian princess Alayna Finau. Alayna Finau was born on August 10, 1990, in Laie, Hawaii, as one of five children of Tipa Galei and Taliilagi Moana Galeai as Alayna Sulesa Galeai. She is a former volleyball player who attended and graduated from Kahuku High & Intermediate School. After graduating she visited Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, California, where she continued to practice her favorite sport.
Almost nothing is known about how the couple met and when they got married, but they seem to have been together for a very long time and have four children to prove it. They are Jraice, born sometime in 2012, Leilene Aiaga, born in 2013, Tony, born sometime in 2015, and the youngest, Sage, whom they welcomed into the world in 2017.
Parents
Tony Finau owes it to his parents that he made a professional golf career. His father, Kelepi Finau, who grew up on the island of Tonga before emigrating to the United States at the age of 12, taught him the game. Most importantly, he worked double shifts in his job as a baggage handler at the airport to earn enough money to buy his sons used golf equipment so they could learn in the family’s garage, which had been converted into a makeshift golf course.
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Although Kelepi Finau taught the game, it was his wife, Ravena Finau, who came up with the idea of learning golf instead of the usual football or basketball, which, to tell the truth, had the genes to excel in. It was reported that although Kelepi had to work as many shifts as possible to make ends meet, it was Ravena who took Tony to PGA Junior Series events around the country, where they sometimes had to sleep in the car because they couldn’t afford a hotel room.
Unfortunately, Tony Finau’s mother was not there to enjoy her son’s high spirits when she died in a car accident in November 2011.
Height And Other Facts About Tony Finau
Tony Finau is 6 feet (4 inches) tall and weighs 91 kg (200 pounds).
He is the first person of Tongan and Samoan descent to play on the PGA Tour. His brother, Gipper Finau, would have been the second, but he did not manage to enter the sport as a professional. Nevertheless, Tony is still not the only professional athlete in his family, as his second cousin is Jabari Parker, a two-time Illinois Mr. Basketball Award winner who was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the second overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft.
Tony Finau and his wife are devotees of the Christian faith who attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For this reason, Tony Finau abstains from alcohol.
