After a tough season on the PGA Tour, Rico Hoey needed a change if he was going to stay on the top circuit in 2026.
As the PGA Tour’s Sean Martin pointed out, when it comes to ball-striking, Hoey lived in the same neighborhoods as the elites in the sport. He ranked first in total driving, first in greens in regulation, second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, third in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green — behind just Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa — and 16th in approach. The problem? He ranked dead last in putting, where he lost more than a stroke per round this season. The putting issues caused Hoey to finish 106th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning he needed a successful fall run to maintain his Tour status.
After losing 10.5 strokes putting over four rounds at the Wyndham Championship, Hoey, who says he has always been a “streaky” putter, opted to make a big change. Hoey started working with his putting coach, Marcus Potter, and his caddie, Bryan Martin, to find a solution. They eventually decided that Hoey should try a broomstick putter to see if it could cure his woes 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 show up to the house and there it is, so I’m like, I didn’t think it was that bad, 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 with it within the first two weeks. I’m like, all right, I think this is it.”
Rico Hoey makes birdie at No. 12 at Bank of Utah Championship
Hoey arrived at the FedEx Fall opening Procore Championship with the long putter and picked up positive strokes on the green in the first two rounds before falling off on the weekend. He finished the week 47th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-0.222). While still in the negative, it was a big boost from where Hoey was during the regular season. He finished T9 in Napa and then missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms after losing over three shots on the greens in the second round.
The change to the broom hasn’t made Hoey an elite putter, but it has taken a clear weakness and made it less of a roadblock to success.
In Japan, Hoey gained over three shots on the field putting during the final round of the Baycurrent Classic to finish in a tie for fourth. He followed that up by gaining 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 runner-up finish behind sponsor invitee Michael Brennan.
“I did not expect this quick of a return, especially finishing second now,” Hoey said on Sunday in Utah. “But, no, it’s been kind of a rough season for me with putting. I’ve always just been a great ball-striker, and I feel like I drive the ball great, but just putting-wise has always been too streaky. This year, I just didn’t make enough putts.
“It’s been great. It’s been good to me. Just going to keep working hard with it. There are some things I need to keep working on, but, yeah, it’s been great.”
The T9-Cut-T4-2 run has boosted Hoey to No. 61 in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings, which means he has almost certainly secured his card for 2026 and is now on the doorstep of playing his way into the first two Signature Events of next season — 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 worst on Tour in putting and in danger of losing his card. One putter change later and the 30-year-old has clarity on his professional future and a desire to make this the start of something, not just a brief, career-extending audible.
“It’s something I just want to keep getting better, giving myself chances to win like this week, and so if it happens and I play well and get into the Signature Events, great,” Hoey said. “If not, I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working hard.”
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