Few players are more universally popular among golf fans than Tony Finau. Yet as Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall reveals, there are several people who say they have a legal claim to the golfer's career earnings and have not been paid.

The Golf Digest special report, our most popular story of October, examines the uncommon route Finau took to the top of his sport, the people who helped him along the way, and the complicated question of whether these relationships were about goodwill, financial return, or something in between.