Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka were paired together in the opening match of the 2018 Ryder Cup.
FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
Throughout his career, Brooks Koepka has hit the big time. As a winner of five major championships, since 2017, he has been the most accomplished player in golf's major events over the past decade.
He also performed well in his four Ryder Cup appearances. In addition to sporting a winning record of 7-6-2, he never lost a single game, going 2-0-2 despite playing in the US three losing efforts.
That means, he won't be able to get away with hitting the first shot in the hostile environment of the Away Ryder Cup.
But, as Tony Finau recently revealed in a YouTube video with content creator Grant Horvat and reposted by the popular Instagram account @ziregolf, Koepka gave up that honor once and for all.
Finau, who is making his third Presidents Cup appearance this week for Team USA, is asked to recall his favorite Ryder Cup memory, which ultimately revolved around his decision to hit the tee shot for the 2018 games in France.
“[Captain] Jim Furyk asked me when I wanted to go and Brooks and I would be paired together and we were like, 'Yeah, we'd like to go first,'” Finau said. “Brooks comes to me and it's like 'You want to hit the first shot?'”
Finau, then 29, playing in his first Ryder Cup as captain, didn't want to steal the honor from his teammate.
“No, I will give you that honor,” said Finau.
But Koepka persisted.
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“No, let me rephrase that,” was Koepka's response. “He's going to hit the first shot.”
That meant Finau would not only get the honors when he and Koepka played their match, but since it was the first game of the opening day, he would be leading the entire event.
The 2018 Ryder Cup also saw Tiger Woods recently become a part of it, as he was re-appointed as captain and subsequently broke a five-year winless drought at the Tour Championship last week.
Woods had some tough love for Finau when he learned in a team meeting that night the rookie would be hitting the first shot of the entire game.
“The tiger looks at me, and says, 'Don't apologize, kid,'” Finau recalled. “That's what he said.
The next day it was time, and the atmosphere, said Finau, was like nothing he had ever seen before.
“I get to the first place, 10,000 people around. [Michael Jordan] it is there. Michael Phelps. All these boys are watching,” he said. “There's a lot of power and all of a sudden, as soon as I lifted the ball, it was like you could hear a pin drop.”
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And luckily for him, Woods, and the rest of their team, Finau rose to the occasion.
“I finally took it off,” said Finau proudly. “I had too much adrenaline. It was 45 degrees at 7:30 in the morning and I ended up hitting this 3 iron like 290. It was smoked in the center. He almost went into the water, however, at 300 yards. But I just got angry.”
Finau and Koepka won their first four-ball match against Justin Rose and Jon Rahm and the US took the morning session 3-1. But the Europeans swept the afternoon session and ended up recapturing the Cup in a 17.5-10.5 romp over the Americans.
Koepka had the worst Ryder Cup game of his career, going 1-2-1 while Finau was one of the few bright spots for Americans going 2-1-0 in his first games. But Finau held onto that memory of Koepka's close relationship example.
“Brooks will always be someone who likes that,” said Finau. “You will always be in my good graces. Not only that, but as our wives are best friends, it's like you're home to that.”
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