Tom

Hoge

The TCU product is making his seventh appearance at this event but still trying to find the magic from his 2016 debut appearance (T17). He’s landed at 40th or worse in all of his return visits. “I would say today on the first tee was probably as nervous as I’ve ever been on the golf course. I certainly feel the pressure to try to play well in front of all my friends that have come out and tried to support me.” Hoge peppered 14 greens today, gaining 3.9 strokes on approach along the way. The highlight was a hole-out eagle from 154 yards at the par-4 seventh. He entered the week at 34th in the FedExCup race and is currently on pace to pick up plenty of points this week.

The TCU product enters the week off a ho-hum T58 at the PGA Championship. Returning home for the week, Hoge will be making his seventh appearance at Colonial Country Club. He twirled a T17 in his 2016 debut but has landed nothing better than a T40 in his return visits. “Just that little bit of extra pressure. It’s a tournament that I’ve been coming to since my days at TCU here just up the road. I always want to play well. Sometimes that’s hard when you really want it that badly.” Hoge has four top 10s on the season to find himself at 34th in the FedExCup race.

Hoge swallowed five bogeys and three doubles on Thursday but didn’t give up. He made the cut on the number with a second-round 68 before firing a course-record 62 on Saturday and backed it up with a solid 70 on Sunday. “I’ve always loved this golf course. I feel like it sets up really well for me so I feel like should play well when I come here. I’m just going to look back on Thursday; a little bit frustrated with that performance because I would have been right there without that.” Hoge posted 16-under 200 over the final three rounds which was three shots better than the next closest (Scottie Scheffler, 203). He jumps from 24th to 16th in the FedExCup race.

The TCU product is not particularly known for his steady putting but he got the job done today with five putts poured home from outside of nine feet. Three of those were birdies and two of them were par-savers. That was good for three strokes gained putting, fourth best in the field at press time. He’d previously lost 5.9 strokes over his last eight rounds at Riviera CC but flipped that script today. Hoge arrived at 22nd in the early FedExCup race and is right back in contention this week in Pacific Palisades, California.

Hoge broke his maiden at this event last year, posting a 19-under 268 to clip Jordan Spieth at week’s end. “This is a spot that’s really grown on me over the years. I think it’s my ninth time playing in this tournament now. Really look forward to being back here this week. Throw on top of it winning here last year was fun, and just excited to get back. It’s been a full year since I’ve been back, so fun to be here.” Hoge is 5-for-8 overall at the event with a notable 12th-place finish in 2021 to go along with his win last year. The TCU product is currently 17th in the early FedExCup standings with five top 15s on his early-season resume.

The TCU product only split 8-of-15 fairways but still managed 15 GIR. He ended the week ranked T13 in fairways hit and T19 in GIR. The short game was the only thing that really held him back but it’s tough to complain about a 23-under tally in your first event after the holiday break. “It’s nice to be out here, get familiar with the wind, get familiar with this kind of grainy Bermuda grass you have to chip off. I struggled with that a lot this week so that’s going to be a focus when I do get there at Sony to practice a little bit.” Hoge will now go head to Los Angeles to see his alma mater play in the national championship before returning to Hawaii for the Sony Open.

Hoge, a proud TCU Horned Frog, is making a pit stop in Los Angeles, in between events in Maui and Honolulu, according to the Associated Press. Hoge is hoping to see his team upset the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in college football’s national championship. It’s a 5,000-mile trek Hoge is looking forward to. “We [TCU] haven’t won since 1938,” Hoge told the AP’s Doug Ferguson. “There might not be another chance in my lifetime.”

Hoge gained 13.3 strokes over the field in rounds one, three, and four this week but gave 2.2 strokes back on Friday. It was a tough day on and around the greens on Friday but that’s the only thing he can really complain about this week. Hoge walked off the course ranked 2nd in strokes gained approach this week (+6.96). Hoge won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this year at 19-under but this will be his second time reaching or eclipsing the 20-under mark (21-under in his runner-up finish at the 2022 American Express). Eight of his 10 best finishes on the PGA TOUR have been on weeks where he’s reached 15-under or better and he’ll continue to be a fantasy target when birdies are readily available.

Hoge was nine shots higher during the second round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, going from a one-shot lead to a five-shot deficit as he now heads into the weekend T-17 amid a crowded leaderboard. Hoge made a few putts but couldn’t keep the bogeys off the card, squaring five of them on a track where the 36-hole cut fell at 4 under. Hoge lost more than a shot on the greens, a 2.6 stroke dip from his opening-round performance, and suffered some expected regression from an opener that included a pair of eagles.

Hoge opened his season with a T12 in Napa (Fortinet Championship) and he kept his foot on the gas today. The TCU product had plenty of highlights today but the hole-out eagle from 110 yards at the par-4 seventh was the obvious winner. He would later add a traditional eagle, sinking a 33-foot putt at the par-5 16th. He walked off the course ranked 1st in strokes gained tee-to-green. If this lead holds up then it’ll be his ninth career first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR and third of the 2022 schedule (WIN at Pebble Beach Pro-Am; T33 at THE PLAYERS).