Fishburn, at this point, is already inside the top one percent of all golfers out there to have made it to the collegiate level and accomplished as much as he did. However, his goals and aspirations did not stop there. It was time to get his hands on that PGA Tour card.
Obviously, it did not happen with a snap of a finger. It did not take too long for him to get to Korn Ferry Tour status.
With very little status after the year he graduated, he took three flights to play in an event on PGA Tour Canada in Kelowna, Canada. In baseball terms, he considered this equal to single-A in minor league baseball. It was a Monday qualifier round, so he only had 18 holes to prove that he has what it takes at that level.
Of course, he shot a 64 like it was nothing and officially got full status on the Canadian tour.
“Golf is all about playing well when you need to,” he said. “As the pressure increases, I’ve been able to manage that.”
He would go on to do just that. After about a year on PGA Tour Canada, he played in the season-ending event in 2019 where he could move up to the Korn Ferry Tour. The key prerequisite there is he had to win in order to finish top-five in the money list and qualify. No problem for him as he indeed won and leveled up. He played his best when it mattered most once again.
The margin for error is getting smaller. Patrick ended up spending four seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, but not without some adversity yet again.
That first season served as a wake-up call for him. Going into the last event, he was only 82nd on the points list standings.
“I was going to lose my Korn Ferry card and have to go back to PGA Tour Canada, unless I got top-five in the very last event,” he said.
Then, the king of clutch himself proceeded to finish fourth and keep his card.
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Collected Road To Glory
Former BYU golfer Patrick Fishburn’s cool, calm and collected road to glory
By Glen Guerrette, June 23, 2025
Former BYU golfer and current PGA tour pro Patrick Fishburn stepped up to the tee box on hole 10 at Quail Hollow to take his first swing ever at a major, the PGA Championship.
With thousands of people watching, it is easy to assume he was nervous with many thoughts running through his head and possibly shaking while staring down the longest hole on the course. However, it was quite the contrary.
“Everything around seemed different, but myself and my game kind of felt the same,” said Fishburn. “My mind would almost be the same as if I was playing a local tournament in Utah.”
His first tee shot being absolutely striped is evidence of that mindset. A 323-yard drive landing on the right side of the fairway is how you start off your first major.
Feeling no pressure and acting like it was just another day of golf for Fishburn did not just happen overnight for him. The composure he has was born and refined through his upbringing, competitiveness and character.
Choosing golf as his destiny
Out of the small town of Farr West, Utah, Fishburn grew up in a family of four — and has a wife and two kids of his own with one on the way — that still reside there to this day. All hands are on deck in his family’s horse ranching business where they still live. Although he really enjoys helping out the horse ranch whenever he can, his heart has always been drawn to sports.
The two predominant sports in Fishburn’s life were basketball and golf. It was all basketball during the cold months and golf in the summer months. He gave 100 percent attention to one sport or the other depending on the season.
“When it was basketball season, I wouldn’t touch a golf club, and when it was golf season, I wouldn’t touch a basketball,” said Fishburn. “I loved basketball just as much as I loved golf.”
Ultimately choosing golf was not set and stone because of his skills on the hardwood. He was first-team all-state as a 6-foot-4 point guard in his senior year at Fremont High School. This got him several scholarship offers to play Division I.
The rest of his three siblings were also very athletic multi-sport athletes which is what Fishburn’s dad Steve Fishburn pushed for.
“With all the kids, I always felt like it was important when they were young to play everything,” he said. “You played whatever sport was in season and then moved on to the next one."
When Patrick got to thinking about the sport he would choose professionally, it eventually became clear to him that golf would be the way.
“As far as pursuing a path professionally, golf was going to be the ticket.” he said.
By the time he was 11 years old, he started playing with his father’s friends and other older men at Ogden Golf & Country Club to help his game mature. They would all always play with something on the line so
that they were playing for some incentive and with pressure. This became a regular thing every summer until he graduated.
“It’s always been good for me ever since I was a kid to always play with something on the line,” he said.
Even when night came around, he would not be tired of golf. He grew up very close to current tour pro and former BYU golfer Zac Blair. Blair’s dad, Jimmy, owned a driving range only a mile from the Fishburns, so Patrick always craved to go to the lit up driving range and smack some more golf balls around.
“It became obvious at a young age how elite of a player he was,” said Steve Fishburn. “He was playing up to two or three years older than what his actual age bracket was. That’s how he got to really know Zac Blair and Tony Finau because he was playing in those older age brackets.”
No one can develop the way Patrick has done so alone. He credits quite a few significant figures to his growth.
“My dad was a big part … throughout the years I’ve had great relationships with some of the past players like Daniel Summerhays, Zac Blair, and Tony Finau,” he said. “Luckily, I have had quite a few people help me. It takes a lot of people to help make it here."
One more guy that influenced him was Craig Sarlo, the head golf pro at Ogden Country Club. He instructed him on the many intricacies of a golf swing while he grinded at that course. Sarlo’s son, Ryan, is someone he considers his best friend. He caddied for him when he first became a pro.
All these valuable relationships Patrick gained have been and will be very instrumental in terms of having that mentorship then, now, and in the future.
Consistently playing with players older than him in pressure situations and listening to all the counsel he received was extremely critical to his game maturing. His elite level talent as well the demeanor he carried about him is what led to getting numerous Division I offers. The royal blue school was his clear cut favorite to attend and it was not close in his eyes.
An accomplished BYU tenure … with a little speed bump
Patrick describes it as “a no-brainer” choosing BYU out of over 20 offers he received. He was highly touted due to winning over 60 junior, amateur, state, and national golf tournaments, being a four-time first-team all-state golfer, being named 2009 Utah State Junior Player of the Year and 2010 Utah State High School Medalist.
BYU's education system, the rich golf pipeline, current head coach Bruce Brockbank and current assistant coach Todd Miller were the main factors out of several that made him become a Cougar.
His freshman year came and went while being teammates with his buddy Zac Blair as well as his two-year missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nashville, Tenn. He expressed gratitude with no regrets about serving a mission.
Naturally, taking two years off from any sport is bound to lead to some rust. Shaking that rust off for him became a challenge to the point of him redshirting and being on the brink of losing his scholarship.
“I remember coming back and shot 91 in a qualifying [round] with the team,” said Patrick. “I was shooting in the 80’s kind of consistently. My game was really off … I was missing all over the golf course. I couldn’t hit a fairway.”
Any casual golfer would be elated to shoot in the 80s on any given round. Obviously, that was not the production he was looking for, nor were the coaches. A guy with as high of a club head speed and ball speed his swing produces, the misses had a much bigger variance to them which led to inaccurate shots and high scores.
In this huge test of adversity, Patrick’s maturity and humility came through. He did not blame anyone or the mission for his temporary shortcomings. That accountability was his first step to getting his game back on the right track.
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“Honestly, I wouldn’t be on the PGA Tour without my experience on the mission, and I was very grateful I made the choice to do that,” he said. “But when I came back I was in rough shape. It took me at least a year to get my game back."
It is extremely difficult to see him be at the level he is now without the patience and support from coach Brockbank during this time.
“We just knew he had great potential,” said Brockbank. “A guy that hits it as hard as he does makes it hard to keep the ball in front of you. We knew we had to be patient … Coach Miller and I just felt like he would find a way to get it done because he always had.”
Patrick believed in himself and confirmed that he felt that belief in his game reciprocated from them.
“Whenever I would meet with and talk to him he was like ‘Fish, I still believe you can be an All-American. I know you can do it,’” he said. “That helped my confidence grow. Coach Brockbank and coach Miller were great in helping through that process and helping me improve.”
“It was a matter of time. It wasn’t a surprise,” Brockbank said. “We were going to wait one year, two years, or three years.”
He really made sure Patrick did not quit on his game because of the potential he could see in him, and both of them knew quitting was never an option. Time and practice were the only hurdles.
His game certainly came back with some vengeance. The resume speaks for itself as to how he was able to make it to the next level.
Fishburn earned 2017 and 2018 WCC Player of the Year, 2018 PING All-American third team, first place at 2017 Pacific Invitational, second place in 2018 NCAA Norman Regionals, 35th overall as an individual at nationals in 2018, 10 top-10 finishes, and 31 top-20 finishes in 50 events played in his collegiate career.
Outside of college events, he won the 2016 Utah State Amateur, 2017 Utah Open with the record-breaking score 26-under par, and was ranked the 32nd best amateur golfer in the world according to the Scratch Players Group.
The professional progression
Aside from his accolades, his game would ultimately be defined by the length he can drive the ball and willingness to hit whatever shot was required on the course.
“In my opinion, the power game they play in professional golf and we play in college, he was kind of our start to that,” said Brockbank. “Everybody just loved watching him hit balls because it comes off a little different.”
A former teammate and current UNLV men’s golf assistant coach, Spencer Dunaway, recalls his dominance on the course.
“He just hits the ball so far, so he can just overpower courses. Has the ability to hit every shot in the bag. Whatever the shot required, he wasn’t afraid. For two years, I saw that up close and personal.”
More importantly, his character speaks volumes to how much of a professional and uplifting person he really is. Dunaway spoke highly on this as well.
“Fish is very mature,” he said. “He was definitely like an older brother figure to me. He and his wife would have me over for dinner and game nights. If I had to pick a dream foursome, he would be one of them.”
One Patrick’s patented moves to being cool on the course is telling jokes. That’s how he kept the spirits high in the most important matches.
“He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He looks big and scary, but he’s a super funny person when you talk to him,” said Dunaway. “When we played in the national championship in 2018, I was super nervous going into it. While I was on the range, he came up to me and told me a joke to settle me down a little bit and calm my nerves.”
Brockbank noted his humble and jokester attitude also.
“He was like the big easy … you never had to worry about him. He was always the first one to practice and last one to leave,” he said. “He’s just a humble, gentle giant … Even though he’s that gentle giant, he’s a jokester and likes to have fun. He’s pretty good at pushing the jokes out there and easing the situations.”
Steve noticed some leadership qualities in addition to his other outstanding characteristics based on what he saw and heard.
“He was a great teammate and kind of a natural leader,” he said. “He would always look out for the underdog or one of his teammates that’s struggling.”
Looking back now, although Patrick appreciates his current professional life, he sometimes misses the team and life aspect of college golf, especially at BYU.
“A lot of great memories. It was a lot of fun playing on the team,” he said. “You miss those days when you’re on a team because when you’re playing professionally, you’re out here solo … Such a great experience … I became a better man and a person by going to BYU.”
The professional progression
“I kept getting better each year and was seeing progress,” he said. “Finally made it to the PGA Tour which was cool. That’s been a dream of mine since I was 8 years old and that was a big hurdle to get over to make it.”
Getting over hump after hump all leads back to the kind of playing experiences as a kid.
“Since I was kid, I’ve been, in my mind, playing with things on the line trying to create game-time situations and play with pressure,” he said. “I think it’s helped as I’ve developed.”
In the midst of his second season on tour and first with full status, Fishburn has proven he can swing it in the big leagues. He has 12 top-25 finishes and 7 top-10 finishes including three within the top-five in 43 total events in his career. One of those events is the milestone of competing in his first ever major, the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow this year.
Like we mentioned earlier, the first tee shot nerves did not get to him.
“I’ve done it long enough to where the surroundings don’t really change the way I play,” he said.
Even though Fishburn would have loved to make the cut at the PGA Championship last May, competing in his first major ever is still another step in the right direction. He still managed to score 69 in the second round, so he has shown he got what it takes to score well in a major tournament.
He officially joins a legendary list of 24 BYU golfers to have competed in a major.
Steve Fishburn acknowledges his competitiveness for golf is ultimately how he has got here.
“If you’re a very high level elite athlete, you naturally have an ultra-competitive nature,” he said. “If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been an all-state basketball player, he wouldn’t have been a successful collegiate player, he wouldn’t be an upcoming player on the PGA Tour.”
The future is very bright for the big man. The question of what is inside the crystal ball is certainly up for interpretation, but all signs point upward.
Some of those in Fishburn's circle offered predictions about what's in his future.
“I definitely see him as a multi-winner and a major winner for sure,” said Dunaway. “I think he can get to more than 10 wins. He’s one of the best players I have witnessed and played with, so I believe he’s only scratching the surface.”
“He is physically capable of winning championships and being very competitive in major championships,” said Steve Fishburn. “I truly believe that he will win, and once you win the first one, winning just becomes easier … he doesn’t shy away from the big moments.”
Brockbank added an extra element to the future of Patrick’s career.
“I think the sky’s the limit,” he said. “He just has that extra gear. I hope he gets to play the tour as long as he wants to and have that career … but when you start having those little kiddos you’ll want to be home and watch them grow up.”
Last but not least, what is Patrick Fishburn’s mindset on his future?
“I really don’t think of long-term goals too much,” he said. “I just think how can I get one-percent better each day … I think about goals, but you don’t want to limit yourself with goals either … you never really know what could happen."
There is one goal he did mention that involves his children despite this.
“My kids are really young, so I would like to have them see me play,” he said. “Right now, they’re two and three. They like to come out to events, but they may not remember. I gotta work hard to be out here as long as I can.”
It is not just about the game of golf itself factoring into his career. There are family, mental, psychological and spiritual elements that have to be accounted for as his professional life goes on. If all those things go well for him, expect his tour numbers to start trending up.
When huge moments come around where Patrick Fishburn is involved, expect the easy-going man from a horse ranch in Ogden to come through
