Patrick Rodgers arrived on the PGA Tour with all the credentials. Eleven collegiate wins at Stanford, a scoring average better than Tiger Woods, and major college honors, including the Ben Hogan Award in 2014. He turned pro in 2014 via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, earned his PGA Tour card in 2015, and was expected to deliver. Yet after over a decade and 329 starts, he is still searching for his first Tour win. So, when he spoke about this, he sounded quite tired.

“The struggle cut deeper than I ever imagined,” he said on episode 3 of the PGA Tour’s Mindful. “Four runner-ups, two playoff losses, and many weeks spent trying to recover from each one. Every missed cut somehow felt like the worst one. Every bogey on the last left a pit in my stomach. Watching my peers achieve the success I desperately chased chipped away at my ego and my belief. Hundreds of what-ifs. Thousands of hours of effort with seemingly nothing to show for it.”

The numbers from his record book can confirm this story. Rodgers has finished second four times and lost twice in the playoffs over 11 seasons on Tour.

• In 2017, Bryson DeChambeau won his first Tour title at the John Deere Classic by just one shot over Rodgers.
• At the 2023 Barracuda Championship, 21-year-old Akshay Bhatia earned his first win in a sudden-death playoff against him. Both times, Rodgers couldn’t help but watch victory slip away.

The 2017 John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run showed how quickly things can change. Rodgers started Sunday with a two-shot lead at 16-under while DeChambeau was four behind. Things took a turn when DeChambeau birdied four of his last six holes and shot 65. Rodgers bogeyed the par-5 17th and missed a long chip on 18 that would have forced a playoff. The margin was one shot, and that was the end of that story.

“Our tendency when you have the lead is to kind of hold on and play safe and guard against making mistakes,” Rodgers said after the round. “Obviously, Bryson shot a great one.”

In 2018 at the RSM Classic, Rodgers shot 61 and 62 on the weekend to reach a playoff with Charles Howell III. He missed his putt on the second extra hole, while Howell made his birdie. Five years later, at the 2023 Barracuda Championship, Rodgers had a 10-foot putt on the final hole to win, but it lipped out. In the playoff, his drive landed in a divot, the approach came up short, and Akshay Bhatia made par to win. The pattern has kind of continued since.

The 2025 Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines saw Rodgers shoot a 68 in Round 3, hitting 14 out of 18 greens, putting him at 8-under and in the lead going into Sunday, with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy trailing by five shots. After his round, Rodgers was appreciative.

“I played awesome today. That finishing stretch is no joke.”

Then came Sunday; Ludvig Aberg shot a 66, while Rodgers finished with a 71 and tied for third. Then, in November at Sea Island for the 2025 RSM Classic, he added another chapter to his long story. Rodgers entered the final round tied for second at 17-under, just two shots behind leader Sami Valimaki. But his final round score of 69 left him tied for seventh while Valimaki went on to win—another Sunday and a similar ending.

Before Sunday at Sea Island, Rodgers was emotional and honest, echoing a similar sentiment: “Everyone’s on their own journey. For me, a lot of my sort of understanding at this point of my career has been through failure and through trial and error; I’ve kind of learned a lot of lessons the hard way. But I feel really at peace with who I am as a player. I don’t feel like my life as a PGA Tour player hinges on me winning tomorrow, and I think that’s a powerful place to play from.”

If you want to see where the initial heavy expectations started for Rodgers, you just need to look at Stanford in 2014. Rodgers left as the first player since Woods to win every major collegiate award in a single year, make two Walker Cup teams, and hold the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 16 weeks. The comparison to Woods was not misplaced based on the results, but it was just too early.

Rodgers does not express any bitterness about it now, as he looks towards bigger things.

“What I want to create for my wife and me is a lot deeper than any golf accomplishment,” he said on episode 3 of the PGA Tour’s Mindful. “Two beautiful kids and a supportive wife taught me there’s more to being a winner than making birdies.”

His wife, Jade Gordon, works as a British stunt coordinator. Together, Rodgers and Gordon have two children, Rafi and Rosie. He says he stopped believing he needed a win to prove himself as a player. And people are noticing.

Michael Thorbjornsen salutes Patrick Rodgers’ decade of patience on the PGA Tour

When Michael Thorbjornsen started at Stanford, Rodgers was already a well-known name there, and although they were nine years apart, both former world No. 1 amateurs ended up in the same final group at the 2025 RSM Classic. They spent four and a half hours together on Sea Island during Round 3. Thorbjornsen, who is 24 and only in his second year as a pro, paid close attention to his senior.

“It’s nice to have someone that kind of went through the same thing as me, just a little older,” Thorbjornsen told Golf Channel after Saturday’s round at the 2025 RSM Classic. “He played great today. I mean, whether he wins or I win, it doesn’t really matter; we have more tournaments to play next year.”

These words are well-made observations from someone not watching someone focused on failure, and who knows that there is a lot more game and more tournaments to play.

After all, Tommy Fleetwood won his first PGA Tour win after 163 starts. So, roadblocks are not the end of the story but rather a new chapter in a longer journey. As Rodgers noted, he remains in the field and continues to compete, which is a result in itself.