by Taylor McCutcheon
Born and raised in Florida, Bud Cauley’s rise to the professional golf ranks has been nothing short of noteworthy. As an amateur, Bud represented the United States on the 2006 Junior Ryder Cup Team and the 2009 Walker Cup Team and was ranked No. 1 junior in the world.
He went on to play collegiately for the University of Alabama, where he earned mantle-worthy accolades each season. In 2009, Bud was named the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Year. From 2009 through 2011, he was a three-time first-team All-American.
Bud earned full-time status on the PGA Tour in 2012 without attending Q-School. He is only one of seven players to earn his card through successful performances from sponsor invites, which is incredibly rare. Of the 28 events Bud competed in during his rookie year on Tour, he finished inside of the top 25 ten times. Bud’s upbringing molded him into a golfer full of perseverance and self-belief, attributes that he leaned into later during his professional career.
During the 2018 Memorial Tournament, Cauley was severely injured in a car crash. After taking a few months to recover, he got back on track and played great golf. He returned to the Memorial in 2019 and found himself in contention late on Sunday. Ultimately, he finished inside the top 10, showing tremendous grit and determination along the way.
Bud played two more full seasons through 2020 when he made his last start at the Safeway Open. In September 2023, Bud announced on Instagram that he would return to the professional game in January 2024 after being out with injuries for three years.
Leading up to his return, he began hitting balls again, working hard in the gym, and playing money games with fellow tour players such as Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, and fellow Crimson Tide alum Justin Thomas. He also made two Korn Ferry Tour starts this year in preparation for his first start back on the PGA Tour in Phoenix. Bud finished T21 at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic and T35 at the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic respectively.
Competing under a Major Medical Exemption, Bud arrived at the WM Open in Phoenix last month aiming to keep pace with the best players in the world. Doing just that, he successfully made the cut, shot a tidy 69-68-70-75, finished the week in 65th place, and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Cauley was warmly welcomed back by several tour players from Gary Woodland to Zach Johnson.
At the Cognizant Classic three weeks later, Cauley tallied a second-round bogey-free 65 and held the 36-hole lead at 11-under par. The Florida native looked comfortable around the greens all week. His 11-foot birdie putt on the eighteenth to take the lead into the weekend capped off his fantastic play.
After his round on Friday, he told the media that he checked the leaderboard and knew that a birdie on the last would move him into first place. With a smile on his face, he said, “It was great to have those competitive juices flowing again.” He would go on to finish T21 at PGA National, taking a lot of positives away from the week with a refreshed perspective. Bud told reporters, “There were a lot of times where I thought that my career was over…it just makes me that much more happy that I kept after it and didn’t stop trying.” Bud became an official Holderness and Bourne ambassador in 2020, and we are proud to root for him in his comeback!
