Tony Finau pulling a Willis Reed is quickly becoming one of the best stories of the 2018 Masters Tournament.
Finau, who suffered a cringeworthy ankle injury celebrating a hole-in-one in Wednesday’s Par 3 Contest, bounced back on Thursday to shoot a 4-under 68 in the first round of the Masters. Afterwards, he opened up about the injury.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Finau, per Golf Channel’s Randall Mell. “When it happened, it felt like there could be something seriously wrong.”
Finau also said he awoke at 6 AM Thursday morning and could barely put any weight on the ankle. That made him go in for an MRI, which came back clean.
“Basically, a high-ankle sprain,” Finau added.
Additionally, the 28-year-old revealed that doctors said he could not hurt the ankle any further by playing on it but that he would have to manage the pain.
“Hitting some shots, I knew I couldn’t put the full weight on the foot that I wanted,” Finau said. “It definitely hurt at different points of the round.”
The Salt Lake City native did add that his foot felt better as he played but that it was “scary” not knowing what was going to happen the previous night.
Finau, who is playing in his first Masters, ultimately finished the day tied for second, two strokes off the leader Jordan Spieth. That is definitely impressive after he suffered one of the sport’s nastiest ankle injuries since Rory McIlroy.
