PGN Features
FEATURE: Michael Has Wright Stuff, Shoots Champions Tour Low

AKRON, Ohio — When 18-year-old Noah Wright made his way from Australia into the United States, his father Michael made the determination that he wanted his son on the bag.
In this, their third event together, the pair combined for Michael’s best round on the PGA Tour Champions, a 63 which vaulted him up the Kaulig Companies Championship leaderboard and into the penultimate group Sunday.
“It started (with) him just coming over,” Wright explained. “I thought, well, while he’s here he may as well be on the bag. This is his third week on it, and he’s done a great job so far. He’s going to come back in September, start of September, so he’s going to play out the rest of the year with me. It’s been really cool to have him on the bag and someone I can trust and just share that experience with.”
Michael Wright was the last player in the field as an alternate.
After the best round of his PGA TOUR Champions career, the rookie is T4 @KauligChamp! pic.twitter.com/MkuFRqBHxc
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 13, 2024
Wright was not even in the field heading into this week’s Kaulig Companies Championship, but Harrison Frazar’s Wednesday withdrawal placed him as the final player in and now he is in great position to win his first major, three shots off of Steve Stricker’s lead.
“I had a lot of fun out there today,” assessed Wright. “I had a section through the middle of the round where I actually blacked out, I didn’t even put any scores down on my scorecard, I had forgotten to write the scores, so just had a real just zone experience through that middle of the round.
“Then maybe caught up with me a little bit towards the end. No, it was just a fun day and thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Wright’s “black out” occurred with birdies on holes 3 through 7 and he was in such a zone that he did not even realize he had successfully buried five in a row.
His scorecard from the third hole through the 14th hole was blank, further proving just how focused Wright was on going low.
“Bliss,” Wright remarked. “Just why we do it, why we do all the hard work that we do to get into that state. Even though the shots, most of them were coming off where I was looking, some didn’t, but when you’re in that state you couldn’t care less. You’re just like, ‘Give me another go at the next one,’ and then it pretty much goes where you want.
“It’s one of those things, it’s the greatest feeling. I wish we could do it more. It just doesn’t come along very often, but I’m glad it did around this joint, I just love this place. It’s a real strong layout and yeah, it was a pleasure to be able to just hit the ball where I was looking. I had some fun today.”
Wright conceded that perhaps the longest putt he holed was his 15-foot effort on the eighth hole but his 1.39 putts per green ranked first in the field and springboarded him atop the same statistic for the tournament.
Last year, Michael Wright holed out on the 72nd hole of Q-School to become a PGA TOUR Champions member.
Now he’s 8-under on the day and T1 @KauligChamp! https://t.co/VGCJOvsIIh pic.twitter.com/rBcUL0sQIu
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 13, 2024
While this was not the best round Wright has ever played, he stated it was his best on a course as strong as Firestone Country Club.
Wright famously got into the PGA Tour Champions by holing out from 112 meters (approximately 122 yards) to earn his card, one of five players who did so at the final stage of Q-School.
His best finish is a tie for 17th at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
The Wrights got to Akron last week and got to enjoy some family bonding time by playing both Firestone North and the Fazio course, and now hope to team together to bring a win in a major way.
“Seeing Tiger win everything that he played in here, some good names on the trophy wall up there. Everything about it, just the surfaces are really good quality. Even the other courses, we managed to play a couple other courses last week, we got here a bit early and played there. Just all the grass, everything’s just top notch. It’s cool.”
“It was one shot, but it was 25 years of hard work.” ❤️
With a hole-out birdie at the 72nd hole, Michael Wright is a 2024 Champions Tour member! pic.twitter.com/MrQpmollJf
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) December 9, 2023