After 'longer than anticipated' return from injury, Trey Mullinax is back on track at Sanderson Farms Championship

The leaderboard didn’t change much through the afternoon at the Sanderson Farms Championship. In fact, Beau Hossler’s midday advantage held steady through to sunset.

But the focus Friday at The Country Club of Jackson was around the cut – the pressure and the effort and the mental gymnastics that come along with needing to find a weekend at this point in the FedExCup Fall to guarantee padding the points.

An especially necessary mathematical mountain for those around that top-125 mark.

Fist pumps were not unleashed for final-round heroics, no, there were emotional outbursts from those just having an opportunity to make it to the final round all together.

Take Trey Mullinax, for example.

Mullinax, a past winner on the PGA TOUR, has not found the weekend since the Wyndham Championship in August of 2023. In his defense, he battled a hip injury for the balance of the 2024 campaign and just returned to action on TOUR at the Procure Championship earlier this month. But his 2023 was a tough one. He made only three cuts from March onwards.

This particular week was a big one for a variety of reasons. It’s the closest TOUR stop to his home in Alabama and had plenty of family out cheering. But the biggest thing was to prove that yes, he’s absolutely on the path back.

“Haven't played on the weekend on the PGA TOUR in a year, so feels really will good honestly. I love what I do. Battling […] this year for me after surgery, it was tough. It was hard,” Mullinax, who had labrum surgery on his right hip, said. “But I did the right thing by waiting and I feel really good.

“To be able to play the weekend close to home and have some friends and family watch is a lot of fun.”

The reason, though, why so many more people were able to watch Mullinax’s round unfold – versus just his assembled friends and family – was thanks to a new laser-like focus on broadcast innovation from the PGA TOUR in the FedExCup Fall. Thursday’s coverage featured in-round interviews, while Friday’s broadcast featured prominently the players around the cutline and the pressure and intensity of making the weekend.

“Friday is one of the most important days on the PGA TOUR. It's what defines this organization,” PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan said at the TOUR Championship. “Being able to tell those stories, not just for that week but in context for what they're trying to achieve, and in the fall obviously they're competing for their cards, they're competing for their careers and they're competing for consequence.

“Being able to pull those stories forward is something that you can expect us to do, as well as you'll see a number of other broadcast innovations that we'll continue to test as we go forward.”

As far as going forward in this particular week, count Mullinax as one of them who survived the cut – which fell at 6 under – and is now about to complete four rounds on the PGA TOUR for the first time in more than a year.

It’s been a journey “longer than anticipated,” Mullinax admitted. The surgery, at first blush, sounds complex. He had “a lot of damage” to his right hip and the surgery involved moving ligaments down from his hip to anchor them in. He also had bone spurs removed.

After an opening-round 72, Mullinax said it was fine for him to have some nice rounds while at home or hit some strong shots all in a row (pain-free) with his coach alongside. But he said he had a hard time seeing that work translate inside the ropes on the PGA TOUR – until Friday.

“It’s different out here,” Mullinax said. “You’re under the pressure. It’s your job. It’s what you love to do.”

And thanks to the PGA TOUR’s broadcast innovation effort Friday at the Sanderson Farms Championship, golf fans got to watch Mullinax navigate that pressure through to the weekend in Mississippi.