Finau to play for $2 million Vegas prize

LAS VEGAS — Ever since he began playing golf a decade ago, Tony Finau has dreamed of becoming a professional golfer and playing on the PGA Tour.

He has a ways to go to play on the PGA Tour, but he's off to a pretty good start as a professional golfer, having won $100,000 in last week's preliminaries for The Ultimate Game at Wynn Las Vegas.

Over the next two days, the teenager who grew up in Rose Park has a chance to win $2 million. All he has to do is defeat 11 other professionals in a 36-hole winner-take-all event at the Wynn Las Vegas Golf Club.

The 17-year-old Finau and his younger brother, Gipper, have been legends in Utah junior golf for years while beating up on golfers much older than them. Last summer, Tony became the second-youngest champion of the State Amateur when he defeated two-time champion Daniel Summerhays.

Since then, Finau has expressed interest in playing at BYU with Summerhays and also considered UNLV and some Pac-10 schools. However, he shocked a lot of folks two weeks ago when he gave up his amateur status and entered the Wynn tournament.

"I think I made the right choice to turn pro this early," Finau said. "People think otherwise, but I try to prove them wrong and so far I have. Now I can just go out there and have a good time and not worry about people saying I don't belong here."

While Finau only has to defeat 11 other golfers, each of them is older and much more experienced. It could all come down to who is the most calm under pressure of the winner-take-all event for the largest prize in golf history.

"I don't care if you have (Jack) Nicklaus or Tiger Woods out there, the pressure is going to be enormous with every putt — especially if they're jammed up on the last nine holes," said Lee Trevino, who is one of the commentators for the broadcast of the event.

"Nothing would be better than to have about five guys within two shots of each other at the end, and I am going to tell you something, you are going to see putters jumping everywhere," Trevino said in a news conference earlier this week. "It wouldn't surprise me if the guy that wins it faints right on the 18th green. We are going need an ambulance and a doctor up there, for him and me."

OK, the Merry Mex is obviously trying to promote the event, but the fact that it is a winner-take-all format — no $500,000 for the runner-up or anything — makes it more nerve-wracking than your average tournament.