When it comes to playing in high-pressure environments, Tony Finau has seen just about everything—from teeing it up at majors for over a decade to playing in front of thousands of roaring fans at the Ryder Cup. But even for a six-time PGA Tour winner, few moments compare to what happened in 2018, when Brooks Koepka casually handed him one of the most nerve-wracking honors of his career.

Joining Trey Wingo on his podcast this week, Finau opened up about his rookie Ryder Cup experience at Le Golf National in Paris. At the time, Finau was the captain’s pick (Jim Furyk) after an impressive 2018 season with 11 top-10 finishes, and he was to be paired with Brooks Koepka, who had just come off winning a couple of major championships. “I was extremely nervous as I prepared for it, you know, and just trying to make sure that I was ready,” Finau said on the podcast. With practice rounds underway, Captain Furyk started sorting out pairings, and Finau and Koepka agreed that they wanted to play in the morning best-ball session. “We want to go first,” they told Furyk. But then Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas said they wanted to go first. Ultimately, they changed their mind.

And then came the moment. “That night, Brooks announces to everyone, ‘Hey, Tony’s going to be hitting the first tee shot.’ And I looked at him like, ‘No, you’re going to hit the first tee shot,’ and he’s like, ‘No, I want you to hit the first tee shot.’ So, that was really cool of Brooks to give me that opportunity, but I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is going to be wild.'” Finau recalled. It was his Ryder Cup debut that year, and for him to be leading off the Ryder Cup was nerve-racking. “I couldn’t sleep all night,” Finau quipped. And then came the cherry on top — Tiger Woods.

“And so, we end up finishing this meeting. Everybody kind of, you know, chuckles at me as they walk out. Tiger taps me on the shoulder, and I look over, and he looks at me, and he’s like, ‘Don’t f it up, buddy.’ And then just walks away. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, boy!'” Finau continued. He was already nervous with his debut and the pressure of the opening tee-shot. But Tiger Woods’ words just “took it to a whole another level.” Woods was Finau’s idol while growing up, and those words coming from his childhood “hero” made him “extremely nervous.”

But Tony Finau brushed the nervousness aside quite quickly the next morning. “You know, I was ready to rock and ready to go. I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I imagined I would be over this tee shot. Um, and I ended up just hitting a 300-yard three iron at 7 in the morning, 50°, uh, you know, right down the middle of the fairway. Um, so that was pretty wild,” he recalled the moment.

What followed was one of those moments every golfer dreams of, and few ever forget. “But, uh, everything I remember from that was just that, uh, I’ve never seen this amount of people and felt this amount of energy on a tee shot,” Finau said, reliving the electricity of the moment rarely felt on stages other than the Ryder Cup. “And so, once I teed that ball off and hit that first tee shot, I actually was able to settle in. But there is no feeling like that first tee shot of the Ryder Cup,” Finau added. Unfortunately, that feeling is something he will be missing out on for the second time in a row.

Tony Finau will miss his second consecutive Ryder Cup

Tony Finau will miss his second consecutive Ryder Cup, as Captain Keegan Bradley left the six-time PGA Tour winner off the 2025 U.S. squad. A two-time Ryder Cup veteran with a 3–3–0 record, including a key win in Team USA’s dominant 19–9 victory at Whistling Straits in 2021, Finau couldn’t secure an automatic spot or a captain’s pick this time. His 2025 season fell short of expectations, with just one top-10 finish at the Genesis Invitational and a 66th-place FedEx Cup standing after five missed cuts in 20 starts.

This marks a continued slide for Finau, who was also omitted from the 2023 team despite winning the Mexico Open. His last Ryder Cup appearance saw him team up with Harris English to defeat Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry in four-ball play, showcasing his ability to rise to the occasion. However, in 2025, his best major finish was only a tie for 19th at the PGA Championship, leaving him unable to outshine a stacked field. Adding to the surprise, Brooks Koepka, a five-time major champion and Ryder Cup mainstay, also won’t be teeing it up for Team USA.

As Team USA moves forward without some of its biggest names, fans will still experience every moment through world-class coverage. The 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black features a stellar lineup of commentators, bringing both expertise and excitement to the broadcast.