While Inching Up Golf's Ladder, Tom Hoge Also Knows Where He Stands
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — A year ago, Tom Hoge came here looking for an elusive first win.
Weeks after a two-shot victory over Jordan Spieth at Pebble Beach, he was in discussions about leaving the PGA Tour for a new and potentially exciting adventure called LIV Golf.
That is how winning on the PGA Tour can change your fortunes and provide opportunities that just weeks earlier were not part of your professional vocabulary.
The discussions with LIV didn’t go very far, not even to the money stage with the Saudi-backed league.
Instead, Hoge had the realization that there is a group of 25 or so atop the world ranking and then there are the others fighting for that next spot in line and his focus is to get into that elite group, which he couldn’t do if he left.
“The biggest thing for me is that I had won for the first time, I was making the decision a few months afterwards, and there were so many tournaments I've wanted to play in for the first time, tournaments I grew up with,” Hoge said. “Tour Championship, Maui, those sort of tournaments, and when I went to bed at night, I wasn't ready to give those up.”
Yet, unlike some players that say money is not a part of their decision to go to LIV or stay with the status quo, Hoge was honest about the importance of money and how your career could be over just like that.
“If I trip walking off this stage and hurt my wrist or something that I might never make a dollar again,” Hoge said. “You've got insurance for that, but it still isn't the same as making it on the golf course. You almost look at it more for your family and wife and future kids that you almost feel a bit obligated to look at that money and take it.”
After his first win last year, Hoge celebrated at a Taco Bell in Phoenix, showing who he really is and how winning was important, but that it didn’t define him.
His decision not to defect to LIV also showed what is important to him, and why what defined him steered him into staying on the Tour.
“I don't know if they ever really cared about me, to be honest with you,” Hoge said of LIV. “I know my place in the game, and I know that I'm not really moving the needle, so to speak. So certainly not a big draw there.”
With three top 10s this season, including a T3 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Hoge started the season 45th in the world and is currently ranked 29th, looking to crack the elusive top 25.
While he is moving in the right direction, it’s always a process.
“I feel like I've had the potential to be here, but it's taken me so long to get there that I would say I've got a lot better appreciation for it,” Hoge said. “You see how many good players there are.”