“Alright, hit them straight,” said Rico Hoey before hanging up his phone. He had just won the Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour. Tears flowing, excitement oozing out–the victory punched his PGA Tour card–the Californian face-timed his parents. For 20-odd seconds. His parents were golfing, apparently in the middle of a round, when Hoey called. Hence, ‘hit them straight’.
Hoey comes from a family of first-generation golfers. Parents took up the game. Sisters tried to turn it into a profession. The brother succeeded. A lot of hard work, struggle went behind it, and here are the people who stood in good stead.
Rico Hoey’s family migrated from Manila to California
The Hoey family moved out to California when the kids were fairly young. The family of five–Rico has two sisters–took up golfing after that. At the Goose Creek GC in Mira Loma. The same muni where another Californian, Sahith Theegala, learn to play golf.
Growing up, Rico Hoey’s idol was Tiger Woods. He wanted to get an earring when he was still a second grader. Mom said okay. They went to the nearest mall, where Hoey was the only boy. He got his ears pierced. The zirconia studs still glitter on his ears. Hoey’s parents got them into golf, and the kids just ran with it.
Both of his sisters were collegiate golfers. Kay, a two-time All-America Second Team selection, was part of the Long Beach State University Golf team between 2004 and 2009. Whereas Simone, a two-time All-Big West First Team honoree, was part of the same team from 2010 to 2013. But it was the brother who turned pro.
Last year, when Hoey made his PGA Tour debut at the Sony Open Hawaii, his parents were in the gallery. And that’s when Hoey’s father revealed what went down in California after that phone call. “I broke down when I found out when he won that tournament.”
Adding further, he said, “I knew he was on his way. After all these years of struggle and struggle and all that, it was…[a relief].” It was a relief indeed. Hoey has been struggling for years to break into the PGA Tour. At one point, the 29-year-old thought of quitting golf altogether. Two people stopped him.
Hoey’s coach and girlfriend played an influential role
It was 2021. Rico Hoey was struggling mightily after coming out of an injury. He missed multiple cuts and then benched himself. Pro golf was done. Time to start a new chapter in life. Maybe polish the LinkedIn profile. Look for some jobs. He majored in history at the University of Southern California.
His girlfriend, Megan Mercado, didn’t like the idea. In 2023, after punching his ticket to the PGA Tour, Hoey told Fore, “I remember always joking around with my girlfriend, saying, ‘I’m going to fire up the LinkedIn.’ And she’s like, ‘you won’t.’ I’m so glad everyone talked me out of that.”
Mercado, his girlfriend of seven years, talked him out of it, and three years later, she was in Hawaii, watching her boyfriend make his PGA Tour debut at the 2024 Sony Open. Another person who wanted Hoey to continue golfing was Ross Fisher, his mentor and the general manager of Goose Creek GC.
He gave him the option of coaching, turning a PGA-certified golf instructor. Hoey worked at a kids’ clinic; he also started placing tee markers at the crack of dawn. Never did he say it was a job beneath him.
Actually, quite the opposite.
Watching the kids with pro golf dreams rekindled the fire inside him. Hoey went back to the grind. Fisher helped him with his short game which was in a miserly state. They started from scratch, and now he is inside the top 125 golfers on the planet from having been 3064 at the end of 2022.
Currently, it is his caddie, Bryan Martin, who is helping him in this journey to move inside top 100. Martin, a former golfer turned looper, is now on the bag for Rico Hoey. The 38-year-old has been on the bag for PGA Tour winner Kurt Kitayama before.
“I used to play and then I had to figure out a way to make some money,” Martin told Avid Golfer a few years back. Martin’s past experience as a golfer helped him find jobs quicker than others.
Martin and Hoey share a good bond outside the court as well. At the 2024 Isco Championship, speaking of Martin, Hoey said, the veteran looper keeps him in a positive mindset, inspiring him when things go wrong. These are the people behind Tour Pro, Rico Hoey’s success. As of now, he has yet to win on Tour, but he has been close. Maybe soon enough, you might call him a PGA Tour winner.
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