After a tough season on the PGA Tour, Rico Hoey was ready for a change if he wanted to stay on the top circuit in 2026.
Like the PGA Tour’s Sean Martin notedWhen it comes to ball striking, Hoey lived in the same neighborhoods as the sport’s elites. He ranked first in overall driving, first in greens in regulation, second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, third in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green – behind only Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa – and 16th in approach. The problem? He ranked last in putting, where he lost more than a stroke per round this season. The putting problems left Hoey finishing 106th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning he needed a successful fall run to maintain his Tour status.
After losing 10.5 strokes in four rounds at the Wyndham Championship, Hoey, who says he has always been a streaky putter, opted for a big change. Hoey began working with his putting coach, Marcus Potter, and his caddy, Bryan Martin, to find a solution. They ultimately decided that Hoey should try a broomstick putter to see if it could cure his problems on the green and help him stay on the PGA Tour.
“We asked like Titleist and all these other companies to send broomsticks and I came to the house and there it is, so I thought, I didn’t mind it that much, but I tried it out during that month off,” Hoey said Sunday at the Bank of Utah Championship. “I ended up breaking two course records within the first two weeks. I think: this is it.”
Rico Hoey birdies No. 12 at the Bank of Utah Championship
Hoey arrived at the FedEx Fall-opening Procore Championship with the long putter and took positive strokes on the green in the first two rounds before falling off over the weekend. He finished the week ranked 47th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-0.222). While it was still negative, it was a big boost over Hoey during the regular season. He finished T9 at Napa and then missed the cut at Sanderson Farms after losing more than three shots to the green in the second round.
The switch to the broom hasn’t made Hoey an elite putter, but it has eliminated an obvious weakness and made it less of a roadblock to success.
In Japan, Hoey gained more than three shots on the field during the final round of the Baycurrent Classic to finish in a tie for fourth place. He followed that up with strokes in two of his final three rounds at the Bank of Utah Championship, including 2.359 in the third round, en route to a second-place finish behind sponsor invitee Michael Brennan.
“I didn’t expect a return so quickly, especially not that I now finished second,” Hoey said on Sunday in Utah. “But no, it’s been a pretty tough season for me with putting. I’ve always been a great ball striker and I feel like I can drive the ball great, but just on the putting side, it’s always been too streaky. This year I just haven’t made enough putts.”
“It was great. It was good for me. I’m going to keep working hard on it. There’s some things I need to keep working on, but yeah, it was great.”
The T9-Cut-T4-2 run has lifted Hoey to No. 61 in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings, meaning he has almost certainly secured his 2026 card and is now on the cusp of pushing his way into next season’s first two Signature Events – the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational – via the AON Next 10.
In four tournaments everything has changed for Rico Hoey. Two months ago he was the worst at putting on the Tour and was in danger of losing his card. One putter change later and the 30-year-old has clarity about his professional future and a desire to make this the start of something, not just a short, career-extending noise.
“It’s something that I just want to get better, give myself opportunities to win like this week, and so if it happens and I play well and compete in the Signature Events, great,” Hoey said. “If not, I’ll keep my head down and keep working hard.”
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