Tony Finau talks with Garrett Johnston on fatherhood, tips for our game, & more.
all right Garrett Johnson here with Tony F now Tony I think about fatherhood I mean this is something that you’ve been uh really working on these last few years with the kiddos like how how do you view it in terms of how it’s changed you over these last few years yeah it’s just giv me a greater perspective I think on life um and I guess a little bit of the circle of life but um you’re responsible for taking care of them um so many aspects of their life you affect so I think that that needs to be taken seriously but also you know we have a lot of fun with them you know I think they’ve just been so great for me uh and maturing and to the person that I am learning how to love learning how to forgive because they’re they are so loving and forgiving it seems like intuitively so um but anyways there’s nothing greater than I think the calling of being a parent um whether that’s a mother or a father and for me being a father and a dad to my children is the greatest calling I can ask for yeah how much do you look in in terms of your time during off weeks you know what are you guys doing in the evenings what are you guys doing what you how how are you planning things together as a family yeah I mean we we’re together all the time you know my kids travel with me about 90% of the time on the road so I’m with them a lot you know I’m a huge believer and and spending you know love is spelled t you have to spell you have to be with them and spend time with them you know you have to be with them um often enough for them to know that you were there and and just make an impact in their life so um that’s the most important thing to me in my life is is being there for them and and so so but yeah we have a lot of fun like I said you know we play games together they love board games card games um really anything they we love doing things together and um who knows how long that’s going to last hopefully you know for a long time but as of right now my kids just love being around me and I just love that do you get any any trash talk at all with dce or any of the other guys what are we talking about yeah 100% you know D is a big trash talker and you know Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree there um you know growing up playing basketball trash talk is just part of it and uh we love we love teasing poking fun at each other at the end of the day we know it’s all love and um he’s my biggest fan I’m his biggest fan and at the end of the day you know I I love the kid and always wants want what’s best for him definitely yeah as a father you really want to you know promise that with time like you said we said off off my gear a second ago that uh before kids are 8 years old it’s that’s that critical time that that we see with them right that’s right it’s the most important time if you’re not with your kid from the time they’re born until they’re 8 years old you know the the research has been done after that um their their time is um you’ve kind of missed the window of opportunity to really get to know them and for them to have them trust you so um I’m a huge advocate for that and that’s why I love spending so much time with my kids while they’re the ages that they are yeah formative years right now same for mine six and under um I think about your game though right now and obviously the strengths of your game you’ve always been a pretty good driver of the ball distance what is kind of the Hallmark of your driving that you feel yeah I I’ve definitely grown into learning how to hit it straight you know I’ve always had speed I haven’t always been a a consistent um driver of the golf ball like I haven’t always hit it in play so learning how to do that over the years has been definitely my strength um and then iron play you know I feel like I’ve learned how to you know have distance control which is something that highspeed guys struggle with so um just being able to hone in on that I think has definitely been my strengths and then the weeks where you know we’re getting up and down and and making crucial par putts and things like that you know I’m able to contend and hopefully win golf tournament when you talk about high speed and when we think about fans at home uh golfers at home weekend golfers what are some good practical ways to work on speed and bring it up oh well speed I mean the most important factor when it comes to speed is the how fast you can swing the club you know and that’s it’s a lot of different factors everybody has their own Anatomy on how they’re built and can you know there’s a lot of different ways to create the speed but uh I think starting starting in the gym being healthy is a huge part you know you got to be flexible enough to move the club fast enough the golf swing is on Arc you know everybody knows that it’s a huge Arc and the wider and the bigger you can make that Arc the longer the golf ball is going to go so um that comes with a lot of stretching that comes with a lot of um I guess athleticism but at the end of the day the wider you can make that Arc um you know the longer the golf ball can go and the faster you can swing the club the further it will go I mean the technical part of it is you got to hit the center of the you know center of the the club face um but you have to have speed at the end of the day and so a lot of times for me when my son we’ll do speed training where I’m like I’m not really I don’t really care how you know where you hit it on the face I want you to swing as hard as you can and um if you instill that in someone for long enough they’ll figure out how to hit it hit it in the center and swing fast to allow yourself to be athletic right just kind of open up yeah 100% allow yourself to be athletic and uh and don’t be scared to swing the club you know especially when on the driving range you know I think when we watch a golf ball and it’s curving too much we’re too worried about hitting it straight that we feel like oh it’s smooth smooth smooth but at the end of the day it’s like if you want speed you got to swing with speed and so training for that is only one way you got to swing as fast as you can you know and see where are you creating that speed right right on well and I think about you being such a positive guy though too and think about stats like bounceback right when we we all make mistakes out there in in amer game but also in your game how do you really have the right attitude to bounce back yeah I feel like I just I was trained since I was young to get over bad shots you know and I think that’s definitely one of my strengths is um I know I’m going to hit a lot of bad shots during a course of a round a course of a tournament um moving on has always been a strength of mine just you know I guess that expectation that I don’t put too much pressure on myself that every shot needs to be perfect you know I know I’m going to miss some Fairways I’m going to miss some putts um just keep rolling with the punches and and I feel like things will go your way eventually when you say missing the putts like um if you have a bad read on a hole and you’re when you are there times when you start questioning your reads or like is there a reset button you have when you’re playing some of these tougher greens out there and tough tournaments yeah as long as you’re learning you know I think a lot of times it’s okay to it’s okay to miss a putt but knowing is huge in our game especially um adapting while you’re playing you know and I think that’s another strength that you have to have to play golf at a high level is it’s okay to miss a six-footer but if you can identify the reason why then it’ll help you move on with a clear mind that oh well it was just a misread or okay I know exactly what I’m doing I hit it on the toe and different things like that and knowing how to kind of redirect yourself and um overcome those things I think are just huge part of being a good golfer for sure lastly chipping I know that it’s so important to have different types of chips right like you know it’s easy to have it as a crutch for some players out there to not really have the shots what’s the best way to to get the shots is it just a matter of time put putting in the time in yeah that’s a great thing about chipping you know chipping and putting is you know it doesn’t take a lot of energy you’re you’re right next to the right next to the practice screen and you can spend hours and hours there you know if you’re an amateur I would spend hours and hours chipping and putting more than I would on the driving range uh I feel like the motion’s easier just from hip to hip and learn how to hit shots playing around with the face a little bit but I think you know it takes a lot of creativity to chip um I I’m a huge fan of seeing the shot and trying to create the shot in my mind before I actually before I actually hit it um but yeah using creativity I think is a huge way um to improve your short game always appreciate the time Tony thanks my friend appreciate it good to see you thanks man thanks again see you again
