THE SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SOFTBANK INVESTMENT ADVISERS

February 7, 2021

Tony Finau

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

STEVE TODD: Tony, thanks for joining us. Just give us your reflections on the round after a long trip over here. Thoughts on the week and the round in general.

TONY FINAU: Yeah, thanks. I've enjoyed my time here. A little bittersweet at the moment. I knew I could put some pressure on DJ with going into 16 and made a couple bogeys unfortunately on 16 and 17. But I've enjoyed my week. The golf course is good. Enjoy playing on The European Tour when I have the opportunity and when my schedule allows, and yeah, I'll definitely be back. But I think it was a positive week and one that I'll continue to grow on.

STEVE TODD: Are you encouraged by your game and continuing the top performances so far, give you plenty of optimism for the weeks ahead?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, no question. Really early in the calendar year and a lot of great golf ahead of us. Major championships to look forward to and WGC events. It's nice to have the game in a good place early in the calendar year and get some confidence from that.

But yeah, you know, DJ is obviously a hell of a player. Favourite going into this week. And it was good going toe-to-toe with him there kind of down the stretch and I don't think it will be the last time we're going to run into each other.

Q. I just wonder how you will look back on this. It's been well documented how you've close you've come so often to winning recently. Is this frustrating or encouraging for you?

TONY FINAU: I think more encouraging. I was able to make some putts I feel like were big on the back nine, or early on the back nine that gave me a chance. I was floating three or four back going into 11 and knew I was running out of holes to make something happen. I was happy I was able to make a run there in the middle of the back nine.

Unfortunately a couple bogeys coming in, but I know how well I'm playing and I've got to just keep positive. If I keep playing at a high level and give myself a chance to win, I just know it's bound to happen. I think I've got to keep encouraged and again as I mentioned, it's really, really early in the calendar year. I'm just happy that I've got a few solid rounds under my belt early in 2021.

Q. Was there a part of your game that was particularly good or encouraging this week?

TONY FINAU: Yeah, I drove it really good, and I think from 150 in I was really good. So it took a lot of pressure off my short game and so I think I hit a lot of greens and I actually didn't feel like I putted that well. I did make some putts from range but I didn't putt well enough I feel like from close.

I think at the end of the week, that's what I'm going to look back on as a weakness in my game I need to bet better at to close out some of these tournaments. I have to make some of those putts from a little bit closer.