As one of the most popular golfers on the PGA Tour, Utah’s Tony Finau draws large crowds almost every time he plays.
The number of people following the 37-year-old father of six could break records this week, however, as Finau plays in the PGA Tour’s Bank of Utah Championship in the St. George area for the first time in the event’s three-year existence.
“It is nice to have a home game,” Finau said Wednesday morning at the Black Desert Resort in Ivins. “I live up in Lehi, grew up in Salt Lake, and we never had a PGA Tour event. … To have a PGA Tour event in Utah and now to be participating in it on this stage for a home crowd, I am really excited about it.”
As detailed by the Deseret News Tuesday, Finau is one of 10 products of Utah high schools in the 120-player field, having graduated from Salt Lake City’s West High in 2007. Finau will tee off at 1:14 p.m. MDT Thursday with Aldrich Potgieter and Eric Cole.
The two other PGA Tour regulars from Utah in the event, former Fremont High and BYU teammates Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn, will start off the No. 10 tee at 8:30 a.m. and 8:52 a.m., respectively.
Finau said he played the par-71 Black Desert layout for the first time ever Tuesday, having been invited to play a practice round with current BYU star Kihei Akina (Lone Peak) and Arizona State golfers Bowen Mauss (Corner Canyon) and Boston Bracken (Crimson Cliffs).
“It was fantastic,” Finau said. “… All these young kids that have been watching me play on the Tour since they were 10, 11, 12 years old, and now they’re playing some of their first and second starts on the PGA Tour.
“It’s pretty humbling,” he continued. “They all asked me if I wanted to play with them and do a practice round just the night before. … So foursomes aren’t looked at on Tour as things that you should do in a practice round, but I hope it was an exception yesterday.”
Finau said that although he has played a lot of golf in southern Utah, Tuesday was the first time that he has stepped on the property, which opened in May 2023.
“Most people are surprised by that. … Unbelievable property. The resort is really cool. The golf course is really cool, really different than anything I have ever seen on Tour,” he said. “Obviously the black lava stands out. The views are unbelievable. If you dropped me here, I would think I might be on a different planet. It is incredibly cool.
“I obviously love Utah. I think we have maybe the most beautiful state in all of America,” he continued. “So we get to display that this week here in St. George. It’s going to be a fun week.”
It will be Finau’s second fall start, as he missed the cut at the Biltmore Championship in Asheville, North Carolina, two weeks ago, shooting 78-71. Obviously, it was a rough year for the six-time winner on the PGA Tour, who is No. 100 in the FedExCup standings and missed all the majors and the playoffs for the first time in years.
“I feel like my game is coming together,” he said. “I didn’t have the PGA Tour season that I wanted throughout the ’26 season, but the great thing about this game with the experience that I have is any time you’re playing well, it is a good time to play well. It doesn’t matter if it is in the fall, in the spring, in the summer. We have golf all year round on Tour. … Hopefully I start playing better at this tournament this week.”
Finau said he will play in one more event on the FedExCup Fall Schedule, the VidantaWorld Mexico Open in late October. He won there in April 2023, which was his last PGA Tour win.
“I feel like my game is coming together. I didn’t have the PGA Tour season that I wanted throughout the ’26 season, but the great thing about this game with the experience that I have is any time you’re playing well, it is a good time to play well.”
— Tony Finau
“I am always extremely motivated (to win),” he said. “That’s what continues to drive me. Sports is all about winning, and I feel like on my résumé six (wins) doesn’t sound like nearly enough. We’re continuing to work towards more. That’s a daily process-type situation. Why not No. 7 this week?”
Although he’s exempt through the 2027 season because of his PGA Tour wins, Finau said he wants to finish in the top 100 after the fall season “just to kind of secure my status and my spot. This is a tournament that stood out to me as one that I haven’t played in the past, and obviously it is a home game, so it is one that made sense for me to play this year.”
How will Tony Finau play Black Desert?
Whoever wins at Black Desert this week will have to go low. In 2024, Matt McCarty shot -23 to win by three shots, and in 2025 Michael Brennan shot -22 to win by four shots. Both golfers are in the field this week.
Finau said he will play it “more conservatively than I would have liked,” which means he won’t hit driver all that much.
“It is a golf course unlike anything I’ve ever seen on Tour before,” he said. “The lava is basically out of bounds. It is not like a hazard. … I would have liked to be playing a golf course where I can hit more drivers and have that kind of luxury to use my distance. But it is a golf course where, if you just play in the right way, I think you’re going to score it better through 72 holes. That’s how I see it.”
Finau said he’s “really good” with his driving iron, and will use it a lot this week.
“So keeping the ball in front of me is going to be a huge thing for me this week,” he said. “Again, I’ve only seen the golf course once, but that’s the way I see it to play that best fits my game.”
Why Utah has ‘a rich golf culture’
Other Utahns in the field are former BYU golfers Tyson Shelley, Rhett Rasmussen and Carson Lundell and Utah Section PGA champion Zach Johnson, who prepped at Cottonwood High in the Salt Lake Valley.
“We have a rich culture in golf (in Utah),” Finau said. “I think it is a super underrated culture in golf. We have not only amazing players, but so many amazing pros and just great programs. The junior golf programs in Utah have continued to grow.
“To see that flourish now with my kids being involved in those programs is an incredible thing,” Finau continued, referencing his son Jraice, who starts as a freshman on the golf team at Lehi’s Skyridge High. “The PGA of America has always been a huge benefit to the state. The PGA Tour now being in the state of Utah, I think, is an incredible thing. The culture here is rich. To add a PGA Tour event to that rich culture and the history of this state, I think is super meaningful. I think we deserve it, no question.”
With St. George being less than a four-hour drive from Lehi, Finau expects to have dozens, if not hundreds, of family members and supporters in the gallery this week.
“I will have quite a bit of family support out here, for sure,” he said.
Tony Finau of the United States acknowledges the crowd on the 5th green during the third round of the British Open at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Saturday, July 19, 2025. | AP