It happened a year later than planned, but a lifelong dream became a reality in January for former Orange County high school star Beau Hossler.
With dozens of family members and friends following every shot and cheering him on at Torrey Pines, Hossler made his PGA Tour debut as a professional during the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, where he finished tied for 49th at 1-under par and earned his first tour paycheck of $16,536.
What made his debut more notable is that Hossler outplayed Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka and a guy named Tiger Woods, who made his return to the PGA Tour after a 17-month layoff. All of those big names missed the cut at Torrey Pines, while Hossler played on.
Playing the weekend in his first tour start was a noteworthy achievement, but Hossler, 21, was disappointed he didn’t play his best after carding a 5-under 67 on the North Course to tie him for third after the opening round. He shot 75-74-71 in the final three rounds, all on the more difficult South Course.
“It was not the finish I wanted,” Hossler said after signing his final-round scorecard and minutes before Jon Rahm, 22, finished birdie-eagle to win the Farmers for his first PGA Tour victory. “But making the cut and playing four rounds out here in my first (pro event) is only helping my experience. … Having the opportunity to compete is really special, especially close to home. It was a privilege to be here and play on a golf course that challenges you and exposes all of your weaknesses. I can certainly assess where I’m at and move forward. I’m hoping to get better each and every week.”
He almost made it back-to-back cuts the following at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, but two closing bogeys prior to the 54-hole cut meant he missed playing the weekend at Pebble Beach by one stroke.
Hossler, who grew up in Mission Viejo and played golf at Santa Margarita High, turned pro after his junior year at Texas. He had planned to play on the PGA Tour last summer but had to delay the start of his pro career after suffering a shoulder injury while competing against USC in the semifinals of the NCAA Golf Championship in June. He had surgery for a torn labrum the same week he beat out Rahm for the Fred Haskins Award as collegiate golf’s top player, requiring six weeks of rehab and practice to return to competition. Now Hossler says he is “100 percent healthy” and believes he has the “tournament preparation I need to go out and be successful this year” on the PGA Tour.
Since a young age Hossler has stepped up in competition to measure himself against the best, as he did in qualifying for three U.S. Opens as an amateur before the age of 20, a feat that only three others had accomplished, none named Tiger. Other early notable accomplishments include:
At 14 Hossler was the second-youngest qualifier in the 105-year history of the US Amateur.
At 16 he qualified for the 2011 U.S. Open and was the youngest player in the field at Congressional Country Club, as well as the third-youngest qualifier in the 111-year history of the event. A month later, he won the boys 15-17 title in the Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines, by two strokes over Bryson DeChambeau.
At 17 he became the first high school player to qualify for the U.S. Open in back-to-back years since Mason Rudolph in 1950-51, and he briefly led the 2012 Open at The Olympic Club midway through the second round and was on the leaderboard until a final-round 76 dropped him to 29th.
Since then, Hossler has competed in numerous events around the world, winning the SCGA Amateur in 2013 and 2014, as well as the aforementioned Western Amateur. He also made the cut at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, went 3-1 for the victorious U.S. team in the 2015 Palmer Cup and also had a team-best 3-1 record for the losing U.S. team in the 2015 Walker Cup at Royal Lytham in England.
In his three years at Texas he was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2014 and the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016, winning five tournaments as a junior a year ago before getting injured.
Now living in Dallas, Hossler competed on sponsor’s exemptions at Torrey Pines and at Pebble Beach and has four more sponsor’s exemptions lined up at PGA Tour events in Texas beginning this month: Shell Houston Open (March 30-April 2), Valero Texas Open in San Antonio (April 20-23), AT&T Byron Nelson in Irving (May 18-21) and the Dean & Deluca Invitational at Colonial in Fort Worth (May 25-28).
The goal is to win enough money to earn his PGA Tour card for next year, as fellow Longhorn alumnus Jordan Spieth did after turning pro, without having to go to Q-School or try to earn playing status on the Web.com Tour. He believes all of the U.S. Amateurs and U.S. Opens and international team events have prepared him for this quest, as have all the practice rounds with pros such as Phil Mickelson, Brendan Steele and Spieth.
