Tony Finau & Lilia Vu

December 11, 2025

MODERATOR:  Very pleased to be joined by Lilia and Tony here in the media center at the Grant Thornton Invitational. We’ll go ahead and start off with not new to this tournament, this format, but new partnership. Just talk about how it kind of came to be.

LILIA VU:  Yeah, I think our teams came together and thought that we would have a good PIP. I mean, we both have a lot of experience on team golf and we just want to support the game and push the game forward.

MODERATOR:  Was it someone asked someone else? Lilia, did you ask Tony? Tony, did you ask  how did that come together?

TONY FINAU:  Yeah, we’re both Grant Thornton ambassadors so I think it was pretty authentic to just pair us together. Again, I’m looking forward to being with Lilia this week. We had a good couple days together. We had an opportunity to practice together on I think it was Tuesday.

LILIA VU:  Yeah, we played a couple holes.

TONY FINAU:  It was just really, just authentic through the sponsorship. Grant Thornton has been an incredible ambassador  we’ve been incredible ambassadors for Grant Thornton but they’ve been an incredible ambassador for the game with the Grant Thornton Invitational, so it’s just cool to be a part of.

MODERATOR:  How do you guys complement each other on the course, gamewise, maybe banterwise, anything like that?

LILIA VU:  I think obviously Tony off the tee, he’s so good off the tee. Hopefully I’ll be able to drop some putts here and there. I think with his demeanor, he’s very chill and laid back and that’s kind of my same wavelength. So hopefully we can showcase some good golf for the fans.

Q.  You all had a really cool opportunity to I think film some contents with The Lads golf channel. Can you just talk us through that and how that went? I saw that on social media.

LILIA VU:  I was so nervous. At one point we had switched carts and I was riding with Jason and I had a really big fan girl moment. Hopefully it doesn’t make the video but I turned to him and I said, “I’m just the biggest fan ever,” and then I went on and rambled for like 20 minutes and talked his ear off.

It was so great to play with all three great players. So cool that we have a tournament where we’re able to have like the best golfers from each tour come and play.

Q.  Tony, same question, how was it?

TONY FINAU:  Yeah, it was great. You have to tune in to see what happened in the match. We’ve got to wait for the drop, but we had a great time and I enjoy  I think Jason does a great job with his Lads golf. He puts a lot of his content out there, he puts a lot of his thoughts into his game out there, which I just think is an incredible thing for someone like him, World No. 1 player in the world, or ex No. 1 player in the world, a major champion. For him to share his kind of secrets, whether it be chipping, putting, he’s such an incredible player, to have a channel like that I think for sports fans and golf fans you should be eating it up. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to shoot with them and hopefully the fans enjoy our content we shot out there.

Q.  This is always a fun way to wrap up the season here at Tiburon. Can you both just assess your 2025 seasons as a whole and do you hope that this will kind of propel you into 2026 on a positive note?

LILIA VU:  I’ll be pretty honest, I’ve had a pretty bad year, but I think it’s, you know, around the holiday season, I think I’m in a better head space now, and now with Tony on my team, ready to play good golf again.

TONY FINAU:  Yeah, I think  I don’t think either one of us probably had the seasons we anticipated. It was a pretty rough season for me as well.

The cool thing is we’ve got the opportunity now to end the season on a high note. No matter how the week goes, this is such a great event to be a part of.

At the end of the day, I think we’re all extreme competitors. You don’t win two majors championships and accomplish some of the things I’ve accomplished without being extremely competitive.

So of course we’re going to have our eyes on playing well and winning, but at the end of the day we can’t lose sight of just what this golf tournament’s about and how much it does for the game of golf. You’ve got great players from both tours competing together in this format as a team. We talked about this before, but I wish there was a tournament like this 20 years ago that I could watch and kind of look to as just growing the game. I think this tournament does a great job of that and we’re going to enjoy this week together no matter what.

Q.  Have you two started thinking about a team name yet?

LILIA VU:  I think we just finalized it.

TONY FINAU:  It’s VuNau, what I do now. Who now, VuNau, what I do now. It doesn’t quite have  it doesn’t roll off the tongue perfect, but just keep saying it, it will roll out.

Q.  You’ve each played in this event with other teammates. What’s the challenge of getting to know a new teammate and their game in such a short period of time?

LILIA VU:  I think we all have so much experience in golf, I don’t think it’s that hard. I think we’re able to talk before the golf shot like what the other player wants, what number the other player wants in and different stuff like that. I’ve played here a little bit more so hopefully me and my caddie are able to kind of give more insight of where to leave the ball. I think we’re all very experienced and it should be pretty easy talking through it.

TONY FINAU:  Yeah, I agree. We both have a lot of experience playing the game. We both know that we’re going to give it our best shot, give it our best effort. We both have done some great preparation work.

This tournament, you’ve got two proams to play the 18 holes so we’ve learned a lot about the golf course, what kind of shape it’s in. So the prep work’s been done. We’re going to put forth our best effort and wherever the chips fall, we’ll accept the result, and just hoping for a good one.

Q.  Lilia, you mentioned some of the challenges this past season. How are you feeling physically coming into this week?

LILIA VU:  Yeah, I’m feeling good. I’ve had an extra week off since I wasn’t able to play here for the Tour championship, but I feel in a good place, better than how I ended the season.

Q.  Obviously I know, Tony, you just spit some major facts about Lilia right there, but are you two, do you watch each other compete when you’re at home and follow along on Golf Channel, NBC wherever you guys are playing?

LILIA VU:  Yeah, 100 percent. I watch the PGA TOUR almost every weekend. I’m able to see all of the great things that Tony’s achieved.

Q.  Tony, same question.

TONY FINAU:  Thanks. Yeah, I was able to watch her win both major championships, which is extremely impressive. Those are things that I’m chasing. To tee it up alongside a multiple major winner, there’s so much for me to be learned I feel like at this point in my career. So I’ll be watching her closely and just seeing what I can learn to hopefully one day become a major champion myself.

Q.  I think as professional golfers we get so locked into what we’re doing on the golf course. How much are you paying attention to styles of play and different shot shapes when you’re out there in a format like this?

LILIA VU:  I love to watch all different types of players. Not only that, we’re also paired with another team. Even seeing a different team every single day is super cool to me, just seeing different ball flights and different club selections and how teams choose who’s teeing off on what hole for alternate shot is pretty cool, too.

TONY FINAU:  Yeah, this tournament’s unique in so many different ways. For me, it’s the one tournament I probably do find myself watching a lot more than I would in really any other tournament, but it’s because we have the opportunity to learn from other great PGA TOUR players and have a partner. I’m really cheering on another partner. We don’t really have that opportunity to play team golf that often. We’ve been lucky enough to play on some international teams, but you don’t really have a partner to cheer on. This is the one week I would say really out of any week we play all year where I am observing a lot more intently and closely than I say I would in any other tournament.

MODERATOR:  Any other questions from media? Perfect. Thank you for your time.

Corporate partners