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Finau: I'm recovering from knee surgery, not jumping to LIV

Sam Hodde / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Tony Finau is again dismissing rumors that he's jumping to LIV and, this time, he has a pretty good reason.

The 35-year-old had surgery to fix a torn meniscus and remove cartilage from his left knee on Oct. 15, he told Golfweek's Adam Schupak.

"From what my doctor told me, it was pretty standard clean up," he explained Wednesday. "He said it would be helpful, and so I did it."

Finau withdrew from the Hero World Challenge, which begins Thursday in The Bahamas. He also hasn't registered for The Sentry, the PGA season opener scheduled for Jan. 2-5 in Hawaii. Those two factors led to speculation that he's leaving for the rival league, but he shot that down Wednesday.

"They're not true," he said of the rumors, while calling those claiming he's on the move "random people" and "not credible."

"I'm more than happy where I'm at on the PGA TOUR and looking forward to 2025," he continued. "When I tee it up in Maui, it will all go away, so, I don't worry about it one bit."

Finau believes his knee will be healed in time for that tournament. He spoke to Tiger Woods, who runs the event, and said the latter was sympathetic.

"I called Tiger and made sure he knew," Finau said. "He said, 'I would've told you to do the same thing.'"

Finau said the knee injury has nagged him all season, but he waited until after the Presidents Cup to undergo surgery. His U.S. side won for the 10th consecutive time at the tourney with its victory in Montreal in late September.

This isn't the first time Finau has dealt with talk that he's heading to LIV. He put similar chatter to bed last December when he committed to PGA events amid Jon Rahm's defection to the Saudi-backed league.

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