Utah’s Tony Finau was absent from the PGA Tour for two weeks, even though two tournaments in mid-October were being played just a few hours down the road from his home, in Las Vegas.
Finau actually spent nearly two weeks in Las Vegas, but it was under quarantine after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, just before he was going to tee it up at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Oct. 8-11.
Finau is back on the Tour this week, playing in the Zozo Championship at Thousand Oaks, California, and doing quite well, shooting a second-round 64 to pull within three strokes of the lead.
After his Friday round, Finau detailed to the media how seriously the coronavirus affected him and the respect it gave him for the seriousness of the pandemic.
“It got me really good,” he said. “For the first five days it got worse. I had massive headaches, body aches and I didn’t feel like doing anything. It knocked me down, no question about it.”
Finau isn’t sure where he picked up the virus, although he wondered about a junior tournament in Utah where he caddied for his oldest son earlier in the month as a possibility.
Finau said he first started feeling lousy on Oct. 3 and drove to Las Vegas two days later for the tournament. He took a test and when he got a phone call soon after he knew what the verdict was.
“When you get the call, you pretty much know,” Finau said. “If you don’t get a call, you just get an email on your phone or the results on the Healthy Roster app that everyone gets.”
So he had to spend 10 days in quarantine without his wife and four children.
“It was not the experience I thought I was going to have. Most guys are asymptomatic. They’re saying if you’re young and healthy, it’s not a big deal. I think I gained a little bit of respect for the virus, and the precautionary measures our country has taken.”
He said he lost his taste and smell around the fourth day, and they still haven’t returned, which he called a tough development for a self-proclaimed “foodie.”
Even though he could have played last week under the PGA Tour’s protocols, Finau didn’t feel up for it and sat the tournament out. He did not return to even hitting balls until last Saturday.
Finau said his sickness from coronavirus was “way worse than the flu” and lasted much longer. He also said he could see how a person could “definitely die from it” although he never felt that way himself.
“But it can take your immune system to a place where I could totally see you being hospitalized from it, and it affecting your life,” he said. “So I think in a way, I just gained respect for the actual virus. Not that I didn’t take it seriously, not that I wasn’t social distancing or anything like that. But just that I understand some of the measures that our country has taken in certain states, whether you agree with it or not, it’s probably the right thing to do.”
Finau is planning to play in next month’s Masters in Augusta, Georgia, where he has finished in the top 10 the past two years.