Tony Finau Bracing For Carnage At Kiawah Island As Tee Times & Pairings Are Announced

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Tony Finau is anxious as he awaits the carnage that will inevitably ensue this week at the PGA Championship. His comments came following a practice round on Monday, May 17, in which he played from as far back as possible on every tee box to give himself the most challenging round possible at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.

Carnage Awaits

“I just know that yesterday was quite a test,” Finau told the media during his press conference on Tuesday, May 18. “That’s why I referred to it as maybe a U.S. Open setup, again, I do not see them setting it up that way and maxing it out on every single hole but I wanted to do that to play the golf course at its max length.”

Finau admitted that during Monday’s practice round he played the golf course from the furthest possible tee placement on every hole and mentioned that the famous closing five holes at Kiawah Island were all into the wind. Making the closing holes incredibly difficult, even for somebody like Finau who prides himself as one of the longest hitters off the tee.

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— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2021

“14 is a par 3 and I hit a 3 iron which is more of a driving iron which I hit around 255 yards,” Finau said. “15 I hit 4 iron into [the green] which is a par 4, 15 is a par 5 and I hit driver, 3-wood and still had about 80-yards into the green. 17 is a par 3 and we played up [on the tee box] it was the only hole we played up on the tee box and I still hit a 4-iron and then driver, 3-iron into the green on 18.”

Range Finder?

Funnily enough, Finau missed the memo and had no idea that he and his caddie were allowed to use Range Finders this week while in competition. Historically, PGA Tour professionals rely solely on yardage books to judge distance and club selection.

But this week, players at the PGA Championship are welcome to use modern technology to judge distance while competing. The only catch is that they are not allowed to use the slope option on the range finder which assists in judging distance from an up or downhill lie.

“We can use our range finders during competition?” Finau asked the press. “Yea I did not know that, I have not had time to think about it but I am sure I will just refer to what I am used to which is refer to the yardage book, walk it off with my caddie, there are a lot more numbers than just the flagstick for us. But that is interesting, I didn’t know that. I will tell my caddie and maybe we will do some work with it.”

Tee Times, Pairings

Finau will be playing alongside Mathew Fitzpatrick and Corey Conners through the first two days of play. His round 1 tee time is scheduled for 11:03 a.m. off the 1st tee while on Friday he will begin his round off the 10th tee at 5:38 a.m.

🚨TEE TIMES

Round 1: 1:03 pm ET(1st tee)
Round 2: 7:38 am ET(10th tee)

Playing with Matthew Fitzpatrick and Corey Conners ⛳️⛳️⛳️ @TrackingFitz @ConnersTracker

— Tony Finau Tracker (@tracker_tony) May 18, 2021

The broadcast will be available to watch via ESPN+ and ESPN on Thursday and Friday. Then CBS takes over for the weekend.