That included clubs from garage sales and scrounging for balls. “But when he goes after it, he can hit it forever.”. The question Finau is asked most often, since he first blasted 300-yard drives as a 13-year-old, is this: How do you hit it so far? "I feel like mothers and wives are smart when it comes to this kind of thing. (Scott Piercy, now a three-time Tour winner, took home the $2 million prize.) The next year, Finau flew to Florida and tweaked his swing at the David Leadbetter Academy. Four events later, competing in the 10-and-under division, he won. “When Tony hits a ball, he hits it solid,” Summerhays said. Kelepi’s job with Delta allowed the family to fly free on standby, but money was still tight, especially with seven kids. Copyright © 1996 - Whitepages people search is the most trusted directory. Additional information is available in this. And so he is content to slip into the background, to observe and to enjoy the realization of an improbable dream – the reason he kneels and touches the grass at every event he attends. "I knew there'd be a lot of Polynesian kids here and I wanted to come and connect with them," said Tony, father of two young children with his wife, Alayna, of Laie. His story remains a bit of a mystery, if not a cautionary tale. Soon after he began working with Summerhays, Finau picked up a couple of top-10s before his victory at the Stonebrae Classic in August clinched his PGA Tour card for the first time. He was learning, too.

Golf Channel, All Rights Reserved. “You always hoped somebody could get ahold of him and control his ball,” Brockbank said. “The ball-striking was so consistent,” Kelepi said, “because they didn’t focus on where the ball went; they were focusing on the strike. But during this recent two-hour conversation, there also are a few tears that stream down his face as he recounts the improbable journey to the PGA Tour. Maybe Tony and Gipper would've been pro football stars, like their cousin, Haloti Ngata. “To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what it meant at the time,” he said, “but it was a chance to win a lot of money, so I said, ‘why not?’”. Tony did well enough at West High School to earn a scholarship to BYU. With only enough cash to buy Tony a few McDonald’s hamburgers, Ravena didn’t eat for three days. “I was more relieved than anything,” he said. He laughs easily and often, shaking hands with equipment reps, players and caddies. Tony is Tongan and Samoan, the first to play on the PGA Tour, and his father Kelepi “Gary” Finau grew … But he still offered them a place to play, as well as equipment, clothes and old driving range mats. Kelepi, now 53 and remarried, watched every session in the garage, listened to every lesson at Thanksgiving Point, walked every match for West High and drove across the country for every important tournament. Message. "I'm not different from them and there's no reason they can't someday do what I'm doing.". Tony and his brother Gripper had an interest in Golf.

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