Tony Finau Explains ‘Spur-of-the-Moment’ One-Handed Putting Stroke at Memorial

The six-time PGA Tour winner gave some insight about his viral one-handed putt at the Memorial Tournament.

Tony Finau tested out a one-handed putting stroke at the Memorial Tournament last week. / Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Tony Finau turned heads at the Memorial Tournament. 

In the third round, Finau made a 9-foot birdie putt, but it wasn’t just any routine putting stroke.

He did it one-handed. 

Afterward, the 35-year-old explained why he tested out the unconventional putting method. 

“I noticed throughout the week that I was pulling a lot of right-to-left putts, and so I was faced with one there. It was a putt that broke 8 to 10 inches right-to-left, and I got in there, made a couple strokes with my right hand, and was like, ‘You know what, I feel like I’m going to make it,’ so I just hit it with one hand,” Finau told PGATour.com. “It went in, so I can’t say it’s going to be my last, but it was definitely my first.

“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment situation more than anything else. It wasn’t premeditated. I got over it, felt it, and hit it with one hand.”

Tony Finau made this putt one-handed 😲 pic.twitter.com/lbrd1PgBXv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 31, 2025

It was something that caught attention in an otherwise unforgettable performance. Finau placed T31 and has only one top 10 in 14 starts this season. The world’s 40th-ranked player is currently 98th on Tour in strokes-gained putting, however, that’s on pace to be his best mark since the 2021-22 season. 

Don’t expect the six-time winner to regularly stray from the norm, though. 

“I definitely thought about today, being out there and like, ‘Man, that would be kind of cool, maybe I should just play today with one hand,’” Finau said after his final-round 72 at Muirfield Village. “But getting on the practice green, I threw my left hand back on it and was like, ‘We’ll just run with that.’”