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Why Tony Finau and Manti Te’o are hanging out in Hawaii

Kelsey Dallas
·2 min read
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Tony Finau smiles on the ninth green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
Tony Finau smiles on the ninth green during the pro-am round of The Sentry golf event on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. | Matt York, Associated Press

Ahead of the PGA Tour’s first tournament of the year, Tony Finau had a chance to catch up with an old friend.

He and Manti Te’o, a former college football star for the University of Notre Dame, shared a hug and some small talk Wednesday as Finau prepared to compete in The Sentry.

“You’re looking good, man. Looking strong,” Finau says to Te’o in a video shared on Instagram by the PGA Tour.

Finau and Te’o each reposted the PGA Tour’s photo of them together on their personal Instagram accounts with kind words about the meet-up.

“Keep leading the way uso,” Te’o wrote to Finau, using a Samoan word that means “brother.”

In addition to spending time with Te’o, Finau started the new year by hosting a charity tournament benefitting Hawaiians affected by the recent Maui wildfires, among other causes.

He’s one of many PGA Tour players working this week to raise awareness of the impact of the fires, according to The Associated Press.

Collin Morikawa, for example, volunteered at a farm that’s been providing food to fire victims, while Xander Schauffele hosted a clinic for young golfers in the area.

The organizers of The Sentry are lending their support to these efforts by having “a special Hawaiian blessing on the first tee” Thursday when the tournament officially begins, The Associated Press reported, noting that the drive to the golf course — the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui — takes golfers and guests alike past the “charred remains of Lahaina.”

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Morikawa, who has lots of family in the area, was selected to hit the first shot of the tournament, according to the PGA Tour.

“I just want to give back to a community that — going back in my history, my family history, and that lineage where they kind of grew up and then where we kind of settled for a little bit and where my grandparents were born, where my dad hung out, where we came for summers,” he said in the article.

Morikawa’s group will tee off Thursday at 10:45 a.m. MST.

Finau, meanwhile, will start at 12:21 p.m. MST. He’s playing alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay.

The Sentry is airing on ESPN+ for the first part of the day Thursday and will then appear on the Golf Channel and Peacock beginning at 4 p.m. MST.