Mark Hubbard’s week gets even wackier at Procore Championship

NAPA, Calif. – Mark Hubbard sat just outside the cart barn at the Procore Championship, munching through two of Silverado Resort’s famous burger dogs.

His crazy week had just gotten even crazier, but all had ended well yet again. Now it was time to savor the moment, as if to say: I worked hard to get here, I may as well enjoy it.

“Golf is impossible,” Hubbard said after signing for an opening-round 67 that included nine birdies and one triple-bogey, leaving him just two back of early leader David Lipsky. “I'm just doing a little bit better job of accepting things and I think that carried over on Monday and then also carried over into my back nine today after that triple.”

Hubbard had to Monday qualify into this tournament even though he is fully exempt on the PGA TOUR (68th in the FedExCup). He whiffed on signing up for the Procore, but rather than sulk about it, he made his way to the nearby Yolo Fliers Club for a Sunday practice round, then shot 7-under 65 to win the Monday qualifier.

He kept it going at Silverado on Thursday as he strung together nine birdies, erasing his mistake at the par-3 17th hole, plus a bogey on 16, to shoot an eventful 5-under round.

For Hubbard, who played collegiately for nearby San Jose State, a week that almost ended before it began might be turning into something special.

“As bummed as I was on Friday when I missed the deadline and didn't think I would be playing this week – because I love this tournament, I love Napa – I feel like I rebounded really quickly,” he said. “I have been putting in some pretty good work.

“Probably out of all the aspects of my game,” he continued, “I've been putting the most work into my mental game just because I haven't really been that happy on the golf course lately. I just think some of that's paying off.”

Hubbard was fed up with his game after finishing T61 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, ending his FedExCup Playoffs run two weeks early. He took two weeks away from the game – so far away, he forgot to register for the Procore.

Also, he was dealing with the fallout of having dropped his phone in a cold plunge.

Predictably, he took a lot of grief for the lapse, with his brother, Nathan, who followed his opening round here Thursday, posting on X: “f*ing legend (also moron).”

Without that screwup, though, Hubbard wouldn’t be where he is now. For his round at Yolo on Monday he brought an old friend out of retirement, a toe-hang putter he’d abandoned this season. It shone, just as it did again Thursday. With the afternoon wave still on the course, Hubbard was in the top five in Strokes Gained: Putting.

“I went back to my old black beauty, my Odyssey No. 9 that I putted with since 2014,” he said. “I think some of the work I did with the Spider that I switched to has been helpful with my stroke, but just the deep-milled face on there, versus the insert, my feel is so much better, which is what you really need on these greens with the poa annua.”

For one of the quirkiest but hardest-working players on TOUR, so far, so good.