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You may have heard that golf legend Jack Nicklaus began to wear a yellow golf shirt on the final round of every PGA Tour event beginning in 1969 as a tribute to a young boy named Craig Smith who developed bone cancer at the age of eleven.
Nicklaus and his wife, Barbara, were friends with the boy’s family and were heartbroken to hear the news about this young man.
When Jack came over to visit and ask how he was feeling, he asked Craig what his favorite color was. The youngster said, “Yellow”. Nicklaus then leaned over and told him, “Every Sunday, when I’m playing and you can watch it on television, I will wear a yellow shirt, and that’s my ‘Hello, Craig!’ “
From that day on, Jack Nicklaus wore a yellow shirt in the final round every Sunday for the remainder of his career – including his final major championship at The Masters at the age of 46.
In subsequent years, we would watch Tiger Woods don his trademark red shirt for the final round of every golf tournament he has played in.
On Monday at the final round of the FedEx Playoff Northern Trust event in the New York City area, PGA professional golfer Tony Finau wore his usual final round color, too.
Tony’s green golf shirt is his final round choice. He wears a green shirt in every Sunday final round, because it reminds him of his mother, who died in an automobile accident at the young age of 47 in November, 2011. He struggled to play golf for months after her death.
Tony Finau said that his mother’s favorite color was green. So, he now wears a green golf shirt in remembrance of his Mom in the final round of every PGA golf tournament.
“I know she’s there, I know she’s following me,” he said in an interview several years ago.
Tony Finau is part of a family which has roots in the Polynesian country of Tonga. Yes, ladies, that is the same Tonga which is now famous for the famously buff “Tonga Man” who has carried the country’s national flag into the stadium as part of the Opening Ceremonies of the past few Summer Olympic Games.
The Finau family settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tony’s clan was definitely not part of the typical country club set where most PGA golfers seem to get their start.
After young Tony Finau watched a relatively young Tiger Woods win the 1997 Masters golf tournament on television, Tony begged his father to let him learn to play golf, too.
His Dad, Kelepi Finau, took 7-year old Tony and his 6-year old brother, Gipper, to a local thrift store and purchased the boys their first set of golf clubs – for seventy-five cents apiece. Pop then went to a local library and checked out a golf book he wanted the boys to read. It was called, “Golf, My Way” by a pretty good golfer by the name of Jack Nicklaus.
From there, Tony and younger brother, Gipper, went to the local municipal golf course to learn how to chip and putt (for free, of course) on the putting green. When Dad saw how much the kids loved to play golf, he would back the car out of the garage and put up a mattress to allow the boys to swing away and hit full practice shots off strips of carpet which Dad had strategically placed on the concrete floor of the garage.
The boys became so serious about the game that the local par-3 golf course (located just a few blocks from the Finau house) would allow the two young boys to play for free. Both of the two Finau kids would become exceptional golfers by the time they reached high school.
In fact, their high school didn’t even have a golf team when Tony and brother Gipper came to the school. That quickly changed. The high school golf team, led by the Finau brothers and a golf coach who had never played golf himself, would win the first state golf title in the school’s 114 year history.
At a lanky 6’4”, Tony was also an accomplished high school basketball player who was offered several athletic scholarships for both of his sports skills. Despite the lure of college, Tony Finau opted to become a professional golfer upon graduating high school at the tender age 17.
Tony Finau toiled at the lowest levels of professional golf for his first four years. He played on several different professional golf tours and, nearly every year, would come-up short during the PGA’s annual qualifying tournament in the fall. He never gave up his dream of becoming a regular PGA Tour member, though.
By 2013, Tony Finau finally broke through at the PGA qualifying tournament. The following year, he added his first win on the Web.com Tour. This propelled him to earn his regular PGA Tour playing card beginning with the 2014-2015 season.
In his first year on the PGA Tour, young Tony Finau found the top ten five times and earned a whopping $2.1 million. In his second year, Finau claimed his first PGA victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and qualified for the season-ending FedEx Cup finals. The money was now pouring in, and Tony Finau appeared to be on his way to a highly successful PGA career.
That victory in 2016 marked the last win for Tony Finau for more than five years.
He was still cashing some lucrative paychecks for finishing in the top tier of players nearly every week. It’s just that he seemed to be unable to finish-off golf tournaments in the final round. Annually voted one of the most popular players in the PGA Tour locker room, Tony remained patient and positive that his time to win would eventually come again.
As this year’s 2021 FedEx Playoff series began at the Northern Trust last weekend, Tony Finau had worked his way up to the #22 ranked golfer in the World despite having just one victory on the big stage. Despite eight heart-breaking runner-up finishes over the past five seasons, Tony Finau never gave up on himself or his golf game.
As the final round was starting on Monday (Sunday’s final round had been washed-out by Tropical Storm Henri), Tony Finau found himself in a very familiar position. He was two shots behind leaders Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith with 18 holes to go.
A big payday was already assured. This time, Tony Finau wanted to bring an end to his 143-tournament losing streak over a very long five years.
He also made sure to wear his final round green shirt, too, as he wanted his Mom to be watching from her heavenly viewing position. After rallying down the stretch on the final nine holes, Finau found himself tied for first place with Australia’s Cameron Smith and facing a playoff for the trophy.
On the first playoff hole, Smith hit his drive out of bounds on the par 4 18th hole. Finau calmly found the fairway with his drive, nailed his second shot into the center of the green, and two-putted to grab his second career win. He also moved-up to #9 in the World Golf rankings.
After claiming his second PGA Tour win since entering professional golf at the age of 17, the now 31-year old Tony Finau told the press, “I haven’t had the wins to maybe have that type of confidence and belief, but you just have to. I have to believe I can go out there and beat Justin Thomas today, and I can beat Jon Rahm. I have to believe that, and I did, and I continue to do that, and that’s the only reason why I’m sitting here today as the champion.’’
I would expect that we will be a lot more of Tony Finau and his final round green golf shirts for many years to come.