PGA Tour Player Is Making Wild Detour to Attend CFP National Championship

The PGA Tour is in the midst of its Hawai’i swing: 39 players are competing in this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui and 144 are set to tee it up at the Sony Open next week in Oahu. For players who are invited to both events, the flight time between the two events is an easy 40-minute ride. 

For Tom Hoge, however, the trip will look a bit different. The TCU alum is making a quick pitstop in Los Angeles. The No. 36 player in the world is planning to fly to SoFi Stadium to watch his beloved Horned Frogs play in the College Football Playoff national championship on Monday. He’ll then fly back to Hawai’i to tee it up at Waialae Country Club.

The journey will add 5,000 miles to his commute from one PGA Tour event to the next. 

The Associate Press’s Doug Ferguson first reported Hoge’s dramatic detour on Twitter.

“We haven’t won since 1938,” Hoge told the AP. “There might not be another chance in my lifetime.”

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Champion might not be far off in that statement. The Horned Frogs, who pulled off an upset over Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl, are taking on the reigning national champion Bulldogs after a Cinderella run this season. After finishing 5–7 in 2021, TCU is 13–1 this campaign, its one loss in the Big 12 championship in overtime. On Wednesday, SI Sportsbook had Georgia as a 13-point favorite.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Hoge had some of his fellow professional golfers join in on the epic detour. Two Georgia alums are in the field at the Tournament of Champions—Brian Harman and Sepp Straka—and there are eight other former Bulldog PGA Tour members on the circuit this season who are quite vocal about their alma mater.