Rico Hoey flirts with 59 at Barracuda Championship, settles for re-entry

With three holes remaining in his Friday round of the Barracuda Championship, Rico Hoey reflected on history.

Hoey was 10-under par through the first 15 holes thanks to eight birdies and an eagle. All Hoey had to do to shoot a rare 59 at a PGA Tour event was make two birdies on his last three holes.

Those hopes were dashed with a double-bogey on the seventh — his 16th hole of the day after starting on the back nine — but Hoey still shot an 8-under 63 to score 18 points under the modified Stableford scoring system. That gave him 21 points through the first two rounds at Old Greenwood and a top-15 spot heading into the weekend.

“It was a lot of fun,” Hoey said during a visit to NSN’s mobile office on Friday. “Yesterday was a little bit of a slow round, so I knew I had to get warmed up today. The front nine, I shot 5 under and just kept rolling through it. Just a little hiccup, but I was feeling the heat. I’m not going to lie. A 59 crossed my mind, but it’s all good. I’ll take 8 under any day.”

Hoey, 28, is enjoying his first season on the PGA Tour after finishing fourth on Korn Ferry’s money list last season (the top 30 earn a PGA Tour card). The Manila-born, USC-trained golfer was forced to give up the game at one point due to injuries, but has returned with a vengeance and made his PGA Tour dreams come true.

Last week at the ISCO Championship in Kentucky, Hoey was part of a five-way playoff where he came up just short of his first PGA Tour victory. He’s looking to get back into contention on Sunday in Truckee.

“I was so nervous,” Hoey admitted of competing last week. “Before the round, I said to my caddie, ‘I think I’m going to yak.’ But now, after that week, I feel like I belong here. I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I feel like I’m working my way to the best, and that’s all I want to do.”

Hoey, who turned pro in 2017, has had his share of pinch-me moments during his first year on the PGA Tour. Eighteen of his 20 PGA Tour starts have come this season. He has made the cut in eight of them, including two top 10s and three top 25s. He was cut in his first four events this year and five in a row from late April to mid-June. But he tied for sixth three weeks ago, tied for 26th two weeks ago and finished second last week to move up to 111th in the FedExCup standings.

“It’s super cool,” Hoey said of his time as a rookie on the PGA Tour. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself because I remember warming up at the Valero Open and Rory McIlroy was on the putting green and I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ But I have to remind myself that I earned it here and that’s just super cool. It’s super fun to be here in Lake Tahoe, so I can’t complain.

“This isn’t even a job for me. It’s a dream to be here. I like to say I’m quite young, 28 years old, but the guys I played with this week are a lot younger than me. I felt old. But being 28 and going through what I’ve been through, it’s just a blessing to be here. I can’t take everything for granted that this is what I do every week.”

Hoey’s sisters both played collegiate golf at Long Beach State, where they were All-Big West standouts. He jokes that he took up golf because he’s not very athletic, but he got hooked on the game thanks to his parents and grandparents, who both played it. After being born in the Philippines, Hoey moved to Southern California at age 4, where he starred at USC and was a multiple All-American.

Internationally, Hoey played as an American until 2024, before moving his representation to his native Philippines in a bid to make the Olympic team. He will not be in Paris this year, but hopes to play for the Philippines one day, either at the Olympics or the Presidents Cup.

“It would just be an honor to make it to the Olympics or to make it to the Presidents Cup,” Hoey said. “The Philippines, there’s a lot of great golfers. Just for me to come here and try to represent them the best I can, it means a lot. It would just be a dream come true and hopefully I can inspire other golfers from the Philippines to come here and play and be the best they can be.”

Below you can watch the full NSN Tonight interview with Roci Hoey.