Tony Fīnau who is of Samoan and Tongan decent was the first Tongan to be invited to the Sony Open 2016 in Hawaiʻi on January 15.
This is Finau’s second tour with the official organizer, PGA Tour, in its first full-field event for 2016.
When interviewed about the event Finau said: “It definitely feels like a new season because of the new year and having played a lot competitively for over a month, but I kind of like the way they have it set up with the wrap-around season because if you get deep into the playoffs, you’re still pretty fresh and you have a couple of weeks off and then you restart the season. So I do enjoy that, instead of having a couple of months off before we start a new season. That’s the way I look at it. And I hope they keep it that way”.
Being Polynesian, Finau believed it was different coming to Hawaii to play there as opposed to going to the John Deere Classic or elsewhere.
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like — I have a lot of roots here. My mom is from the North Shore and my wife is from the North Shore. So I definitely have roots planned here in Hawaii. It’s the feeling I get, being Polynesian, there’s a lot of Polynesian people here. And I have a lot of support. It’s one of the reasons why I do like coming back.
“Like you mentioned before, I haven’t had the success that I would have liked, but I do like to play in front of Polynesian people, and I have a great support system here with a lot of relatives and a lot of Polynesian people, so to be able to play in front of them at the Sony Open is really nice”.