PEBBLE BEACH >> Tony Finau was born in Utah to a mother born in Hawaii and a father born in Tonga. Tradition is important in the family, with the veteran PGA Tour golfer finding his profession after first developing fire-knife dancing skills.

Tall and lanky, Finau was also a skilled high school basketball player whose team advanced to the state tournament his junior and senior seasons. But without a likely long-term future as a 6-foot-4 center, Finau dismissed the lure of college scholarship offers for golf.

It’s proven the right choice, with golf a talent his father first recognized in Finau and his older brother Gipper.

With limited finances, the brothers learned the game with used clubs and by hitting as many as 1,000 balls a day into a mattress propped against a wall in the family’s garage.

Finau, 35, a two-time Ryder Cup player with six PGA Tour titles, is tied for fourth after two rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s playing this week after his wife gave birth to the couple’s sixth child last Saturday.

Playing at Spyglass Hill Golf Course, Finau moved toward the top of the leaderboard with five birdies and an opening-nine 31. He bogeyed the 12th and 17th holes but added birdies on the 10th and 16th on the back en route to his 67, and 10-under-par 134 total. He trails leader Sepp Straka by four shots halfway through the tournament’s 84th edition.

“Yeah, I drove it really nicely today,” said Finau. “Not as good as yesterday, but hitting the driver, if you’re hitting the driver good, you can give yourself some looks and I was able to do that. Mostly to me just capitalizing on looks, you know.

“I made a lot of putts from 10 to 20 feet that you want to make when you’re hitting it that close and that’s what I’ve been able to capitalize on the last couple days.”

With his focus on golf, Finau’s skills advanced quickly. He won amateur events in Utah, with his ability to hit long drives with his big hands and lanky frame well-known in the golf community. It changed quickly in 2009. With his older brother Gipper, he was a contestant in the 12th season of Big Break Disney Golf, the long ago defunct, made-for-ESPN golf challenge program.

Tony Finau, who had turned pro at age 17 and made a PGA Tour cut the same year, was age 20 during the program and lost the finale on the 19th to Mike Perez. Gipper, who turned professional at age 16, was eliminated earlier in the series. The brothers, part of a seven-sibling family, became popular via their outgoing personalities as the series developed on courses and on off-course locations in and around Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

The Finaus played in the former Callaway Invitational at Pebble Beach, with Gipper Finau’s career fading, while Tony Finau’s career expanded to the PGA Tour Canada and Web.com Tour. He won his first of six PGA Tour events in 2016 at the Puerto Rico Open.

Five years and 142 starts later, Finau won his second title at the 2021 Northern Trust at Liberty National in New Jersey. His last title was the 2023 Mexico Open, the second of his two titles that season.

Finau is playing in his fourth event of the season. He finished tied for 15th in The Sentry in Hawaii on Jan. 5. But he’s missed the cut in his last two starts at The American Express (Jan. 19) and Farmers Insurance Open (Jan. 25).

“I got off to a really nice start and I just kind of cruised on the front nine and made some putts,” said Finau. “It was just one of those days that it was nice to see some putts fall early and just able to capitalize on them.”

Like the rest of the field, Finau will play during the weekend at Pebble Beach. The weather forecast is for increased winds and as much as a 40 percent chance of rain Saturday and 20 percent chance Sunday.

“It’s going to change Pebble a lot,” said Finau. “It’s unfortunate because Pebble is pure right now, really pure. The ball is bouncing and anytime that’s the case at Pebble I think it’s pretty magical to play.

“We’ll have to adjust, just adapt as we do out here and we’ll just have to do that on the weekend.