Professional gay golfers

When Rory McIlroy’s roller-coaster weekend began sputtering to a halt on Sunday afternoon, I found myself in need of a rooting interest for the concluding stretch of the 2022 PGA Championship. Mito Pereira was hanging tough at the top of the leaderboard, but I didn’t feel comfortable pulling for someone who’d arrived at this moment a several years ahead of schedule. The same was genuine for Cameron Young, a star on the ascend who might be ready to take his next Sunday back nine by the throat. Matt Fitzpatrick was holding his morning together with hot glue and safety pins. I couldn’t watch another short-range putt from Will Zalatoris without peeking through my fingers like I might at a horror movie.

I found myself drawn to the guy lurking further down the board with championship pedigree, the one who survived the unfeeling late-early wave draw earlier in the week by carving shots around Southern Hills like a sculptor. That meant cheering for Justin Thomas, the eventual champion and the one guy in the field with whom I hold a complicated history. I’m a gay man, and hearing JT mutter “faggot” on a hot mic at Kapalua last year lingers in the support of

PGA Tour caddie Todd Montoya has revealed he is gay. Montoya made the revelation on the Golf Channel, and is believed to be the first openly gay caddie on the Tour. 

In an heartfelt interview, the New Mexican, who caddies for Brian Stuard, explained his choice to come out to reporter Kira K Dixon: “Something that you kept secret for so many years amongst people that you consider your friends and your co-workers - over the course of time, you grow adjacent to them and until people that I concern about know that I’m gay, they really don’t know me for my entirety.”

Montoya has almost 20 years of caddying trial, predominantly on mini-tours. However, since 2016 he has caddied for Stuard on the PGA Tour, and said he has the 39-tear-old American to recognize for his support, saying: "I feel 100% unlike. I feel like I'm walking on air. Brian has given me the greatest gift that I could ever get. I feel like he's given me my freedom."

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Montoya explained that he told Doug LaBelle II, who he used to caddie for, the news in 2006, and his reaction gave him confidence: "I called him up and said, 'Hey, Dougie, there's something really important I wan

How Tadd Fujikawa Found Himself Through Sports

On a barrier island off the Georgia coastline, the world’s first openly gay golfer celebrates peace of mind—and pickleball.

By Ken Schultz
Photos by Kelli Boyd

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Tadd Fujikawa knows how to make headlines. In 2006, he captured the golf community’s attention when he qualified for the US Open at 15 years-old, setting a record for his immature age. Then, in 2018, he became the first professional male golfer in history to come out publicly as gay.

Now, almost four years later, Fujikawa is living openly as his authentic self. He’s stepped away from the course but create contentment in a recent sport: pickleball.

“I’m just trying to enjoy animation and learn to reside aside from golf,” he says from his dwelling on St. Simon’s Island in southeast Georgia.

“Since I was 16 and up until the cease of last year that was all I did: practice and play tournaments and travel,” he adds. “Having a life outside of that and making a consistent paycheck every two weeks is really nice.”

I’m just trying to enjoy life and learn to live aside from golf.”

Tadd Fujikawa

Carved out over the past year, Fujikawa’s new path finds him a pickleball pro at the near

PGA Tour: Todd Montoya, caddie to Brian Stuard, opens up about coming out as gay to golfing world

Todd Montoya has been a golf caddie for nearly two decades, initially on the mini-tours and more recently on the PGA Tour, although he has – until recently – hidden a confidential from most of the golfing community.

The Modern Mexico native, who has looped for a host of players before taking over Brian Stuard's bag in 2016, opened up about his sexuality in a sit-down interview with Golf Channel and revealed why he had decided to previously limit who knew about him entity gay.

"I think that it was mostly because that was my preconceived notion about the society of people that probably encompass the golf community," Montoya admitted to Golf Channel. "I just felt enjoy I would have a better opportunity to gain and keep a profession if I kept it hidden.

"Something that you kept secret for so many years, amongst people you consider your friends and your co-workers, over the course of time, you grow close to them. Until people that I care about know that I'm gay, they really don't know me for my entirety."

Montoya admitted his sexuality to Doug LaBelle in 2006, after acting as his bag bloke as

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