The way Patrick Fishburn sees it, not making the cut at the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic last week was a blessing in disguise, even if it was his third-straight missed cut in as many weeks.
Shortly after shooting 73-74 at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina to miss the cut by a bunch, Fishburn packed his bags, jumped into a car with his caddy, Alex “Big Al” Riddell, and made the three-hour drive to Charlotte, North Carolina, for this week’s 107th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club.
Fishburn, the former Fremont High and BYU golf star from Ogden, is playing in his first major golf championship, beginning Thursday at a course he was unfamiliar with until getting in a practice round Sunday when he could have still been playing back in Myrtle Beach if he had made the cut there.
“It’s not a golf course that you would want to play blindly,” he said, noting that it was so rainy Monday that he couldn’t get out on the course.
In his second season on the PGA Tour, Fishburn is 71st on the PGA Championship Points List, but only the top 70 players are guaranteed spots in the second major of the season. However, he got in when Billy Horschel had to withdraw after having hip surgery.
“Obviously, you grow up in golf dreaming of playing in the majors, so this is a dream come true,” Fishburn said.
Fishburn, 32, is one of two Utahns in the 156-player field, joining former Salt Lake City resident Tony Finau, who will be playing in his 36th major and 11th PGA Championship. Fishburn and Finau, 35, played a practice round together on Tuesday.
Fishburn tees off on No. 10 Thursday at 5:16 a.m. MDT with Andre Chi and Seamus Power.
Finau, who tied for 18th in last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, tees off on No. 10 Thursday at 6:33 a.m. MDT with Nicolai Hojgaard and Max Greyserman.
“I am so excited to play,” Fishburn told the Deseret News on Tuesday. “I think this golf course sets up well for me. It lends itself to some of the strengths I have and allows me to play the way I like to play.”
Obviously, the 6-foot-4 Fishburn, who grew up on a horse farm outside of Ogden and was a high school basketball star at Fremont High before serving a two-year church mission in Nashville, Tennessee, loves the monstrous 7,626-yard layout at Quail Hollow because he’s one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour.
“It is an unbelievable venue, probably the biggest property I have played a tournament on. It is massive,” he said. “I have heard multiple people say this is the closest thing to Augusta National that they have played. I believe them, from what I have seen. It is a really impressive place.”
Fishburn won the Utah State Amateur in 2016 and the Utah Open in 2017 before turning pro in 2018. He earned his PGA Tour card prior to the 2023-24 season and is currently 107th in the FedEx Cup standings and 114th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
He’s had two top-10 finishes in the 14 events he’s played in 2025, tying for sixth at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January and tying for fifth at the Valero Texas Open a month ago. Just making the cut at par-71 Quail Hollow would be a big accomplishment, but he’s not focusing on any particular results this week.
“I am more caught up in the process of things than the results. I just know that if I do certain things with each shot, I have a good feeling it will lead to something good,” he said.
Fishburn said he’s had some issues with his putting the past few weeks, but believes he figured out the problem on the practice green the other day: a putter that has the wrong loft and the wrong lie angle.
“So that was kind of a big thing to discover,” he said. “Some little tweaks I have made around the greens, just chipping and putting and just scoring the ball the last two days have really helped.
“So I think I have the game to be in the hunt. You never really think of winning or what place you are going to take,” he continued. “I just know if I play the way I am capable of playing, it will be good enough to be involved on Sunday, even though I have no experience playing in majors and I have no idea what to expect.”
To make up for his inexperience in majors, Fishburn has leaned on his three best friends in golf: Finau, Zurich Classic teammate Zac Blair and veteran PGA Tour player Daniel Summerhays, who, like, Fishburn and Blair, also played for BYU.
Summerhays is rehabbing this season and will be in Charlotte this weekend to provide more advice and mentoring. He placed third in the 2016 PGA Championship.
“I lean a lot on all those guys. They have been huge mentors for me,” Fishburn said. “Asking questions and getting advice is something I have done for a lot of years. I haven’t been afraid to learn from really everyone. There is so much to learn in golf and I try to pay attention to how guys are approaching shots and puling them off. Those guys have always been extremely good to me in providing information and being mentors for me. I am lucky to have those three guys to look up to.”
Along with Summerhays, Fishburn will have his parents — Steve and Peggy — and some old high school friends cheering him on in North Carolina, as well as his agent, Rob Despain, and former Ogden Golf & Country Club pro Craig Sarlo.
His wife of eight years, Madison, won’t be able to make the trip because she is eight months pregnant with the couple’s third child.
“What a proud moment for Utah and the Fishburn family,” Despain said on his Fishin’ for Birdies podcast recently. “It is definitely a milestone in Patrick’s career.”
2025 PGA Championship feature written by Desert News Sports’ Jay Drew. Photos by Fairways Media unless otherwise credited.
