The brilliant story of how Tony Finau PRANKED his coach before Presidents Cup
Tony Finau's coach Boyd Summerhays revealed how he was pranked by the PGA Tour star on the GOLF Subpar podcast.
Golf coach Boyd Summerhays has revealed how he was pranked by one of his favourite students Tony Finau before the Presidents Cup in 2019.
Summerhays is not only a phenomenal swing coach, trusted by multiple PGA Tour stars, but he's also a well-known prankster and enjoys playing a few practical jokes on his students.
One of his students decided it was time to give Summerhays a taste of his own medicine.
Speaking to Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, hosts of GOLF's Subpar podcast, Summerhays told the brilliant story of how Finau pranked him in the run-up to the Presidents Cup, where Tiger Woods was the captain.
“Oh gosh, you talked to Tony, didn’t you?” Summerhays said.
“Okay, so, Tony plays some great golf, Tiger Woods is Tony’s childhood idol. He’s playing great, he’s going through the playoffs, his world ranking’s high. It makes all the sense in the world that he’s going to get picked [for the Presidents Cup].”
Summerhays went on to explain how during the time where Finau was meant to hear from Woods on whether he had been selected to play in the event, he started to go quiet.
“We’d been facetiming and doing our normal thing during tournament week,” he said. “All of the sudden, he gets done and he didn’t play good that last event. So, he didn’t text much that night, and I thought, ‘okay, that’s a little weird.'
“Then he had his caddie and his agent start to text me saying, ‘hey, have you talked to Tony yet?'” Summerhays said. “I don’t even know why the heck I started to buy it. So, at the time, his caddie was like, ‘man, have you heard the news?’
“So I text Tony, and I’m like, man, you played good enough, it’s just a decision. My condolences.’ He’s like ‘Hey bro, I get it, but we’ll chat when I land. I’m gutted. Thanks.'”
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Finau then decided the prank was going too well to tell Summerhays the truth immediately, so he let his golf coach and friend sit with the news that he had missed out on a spot for another two days.
“So for like, two days, I’m just feeling it for him, because I feel like he really deserved to be on, and I know he’s gutted hearing it from Tiger,” he said. “He facetimes me and I answer the call and we’re talking and he’s playing it great and he’s sad and his face is sunk a little bit.
“The conversation keeps going on but I’m still not catching on, and all of the sudden he’s like, ‘c’mon Boyd, you know Tiger’s a smart guy, he picked me,” Summerhays said. “His wife’s recording it, and he says, ‘he picked me’ and I’m like three or four seconds where I’m just quiet recording it because for two days I knew he didn’t make the team. So he got me good. And he still laughs about it. That’s the only time he’s ever gotten me.”
