For Rico Hoey, the switch likely saved his job.
Hoey, the 30-year-old, second-year PGA Tour pro out of USC, ended the Wyndham Championship ranked No. 106 in the FedExCup standings. While he was one of the best ball-strikers on the planet, Hoey was, at the time, losing an average of 1.122 strokes per round with the putter.
And so, desperate times called for desperate measures.
As Hoey told Golfweek‘s Adam Schupak earlier this fall: “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. I ended up breaking two course records with it within the first two weeks. I’m like, all right, I think this is it. It’s been great. It’s been good to me. Just going to keep working hard with it.”
Armed with a broomstick for the first time, Hoey posted four top-10s this fall, including a runner-up in Utah, as he vaulted to No. 54 on the final points list, which gets him into the first two signature events of 2026, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational at Riviera, where Hoey was a member in college.
Hoey also improved his strokes gained putting average by over a tenth of a shot.
“I did not expect this quick of a return,” Hoey added.
While Hoey was still the Tour’s worst-ranked putter, out of 180 qualified players, he was second in strokes gained tee to green, behind only Scottie Scheffler. He also was third off the tee, which was unsurprising for the guy nicknamed “WGD,” or “World’s Greatest Driver,” in college.
Hoey’s season was reminiscent of some other seasons by some elite ball-strikers who struggled with the flatstick, namely Scheffler from two seasons ago, when the world No. 1 had a nearly three-stroke difference between what he gained in strokes gained tee to green and what lost on the greens. But had Hoey not gone to the broomstick, he could’ve challenged for the largest gap besides Scheffler in 2022-23.
Here is a look at the biggest season-long differences between strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained putting, among players with positive strokes gained tee to green, since at least 2004:
- 2.916 – Scottie Scheffler (2022-23), +2.615 SGTTG, -0.301 SGP
- 2.521 – Tiger Woods (2006), +2.982 SGTTG, +0.461 SGP
- 2.521 – Lucas Glover (2014-15), +1.170 SGTTG, -1.351 SGP
- 2.481 – Sergio Garcia (2004), +1.908 SGTTG, -0.573 SGP
- 2.428 – Vijay Singh (2004), +2.339 SGTTG, -0.089 SGP
- 2.360 – Adam Scott (2006), +2.230 SGTTG, -0.130 SGP
- 2.357 – Adam Scott (2010), +1.609 SGTTG, -0.748 SGP
- 2.306 – Scottie Scheffler (2024), +2.401 SGTTG, +0.095 SGP
- 2.282 – Vijay Singh (2008), +1.875 SGTTG, -0.407 SGP
- 2.271 – Rico Hoey (2025), +1.324 SGTTG, -0.998 SGP
- 2.266 – Luke List (2021-22), 1.371 SGTTG, -0.895 SGP