What does a father known for zero tolerance on attitude and club-throwing do when his son five-putts the final green of a state championship in front of everyone? Tony Finau answered the question, sharing an emotional moment.

“Everybody was around the green watching, and I was just totally embarrassed by how I acted and what I did,” Finau recalled on Tony Finau: Staying in the Swing with Dr. Becky. He finished second. “You’re supposed to win this,” he told himself.

Finau was a freshman in the final group, leading the tournament. A five-foot par putt stood between him and a playoff for the state title. He missed it. Then came the sequence: a backhand attempt, missed. A tap-in, missed. Five putts on the last green of the state championship, with an audience. On the way back home from the championship, Finau shared that he was waiting for his father to scold him, but that never came.

“Son, are you okay?” his father asked him. “I’m getting a little emotional just because I still remember that moment,” Finau said. “I was defeated. I defeated myself. And I’m expecting this thrashing, and it was the opposite.”

Finau once shared that his dad was tough on him but always fair. He always emphasized that sports are about winning and that if you don’t outwork the competition, there’s just no way you’re going to be better than them. Finau learned it early in his life.

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“He was a drill sergeant,” Finau said of his father once. No club-throwing. No attitude tolerated, ever. The first correction, always the same: clean up the attitude.

Dr. Becky put a name to it. “Being just there and saying very little is probably one of the most underutilized parenting strategies,” she said. “He didn’t lecture you. He didn’t yell at you. He wasn’t fixing anything. He recognized you were upset.”

Finau took one thing from that car ride. “Your kids need you there as someone who can help them recover, heal, and strengthen them. Just be like an anchor for them—and not someone that’s going to kick them down while they’re already down.”

He applies this philosophy as a father to his six children. In 2023, the week he won the Mexico Open, Finau skipped the celebration circuit and spent the afternoon caddying for his son Jraice on the resort’s par-3 course. Wife Alayna is alongside him at tournaments more often than not.

“I try to hold him accountable,” he said of Jraice in prior remarks. “That’s what my dad did for me.”

None of it came from nowhere. The same man who demanded discipline on the course built the silence in the car.

Tony Finau’s Career: The Father Behind Six PGA Tour Wins

Kelepi Finau had no background in golf when his sons started. No instruction, no course access, nothing. He hung mattresses from the garage roof, put down carpets, and

spray-painted targets at different heights to create shot distances. He built a driving range from scratch in Salt Lake City, teaching a sport he had never played.

Putting his father’s lessons of resilience to the test, Finau turned pro at 17 and began the long grind on developmental circuits like the Gateway Tour and the NGA Hooters Tour. His journey to the top was a testament to the discipline his father instilled, as he spent years honing his craft on smaller tours before a breakthrough win at the 2014 Stonebrae Classic finally earned him his PGA Tour card. Two years later, he won his first Tour event at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open in a three-hole playoff against Steve Marino.

Kelepi’s discipline did not end with one win. Finau won the Northern Trust in 2021. He added three more in 2022: the 3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic, and Cadence Bank Houston Open. He beat Jon Rahm at the Mexico Open in 2023. That makes six titles. His world ranking reached as high as 9th. He finished T3 at the 2024 U.S. Open and has 11 top-10 finishes in majors from 38 starts.

The garage range in Salt Lake City produced all of it.