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Former TCU star Tom Hoge drains hole-in-one, wins 2023 Masters Par 3 competition

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•04/05/23
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(Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

The past year and a half has been quite the wild ride for former TCU golf star Tom Hoge. He’s been having the best year of his life and it’s not even been close, really. First, the former Horned Frog won his first event in his 203rd start on the PGA Tour, bringing home a win at the 2022 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, on one of the most famous golf courses in the world. By winning that tournament, he punched his ticket to The Masters for the second straight year.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon, he was one of five players to make a hole-in-one in this year’s Par 3 contest. Hoge used that hole-in-one to help him finish at 6-under on the nine-hole course and bring home the win the Par 3 contest, finishing one stroke ahead of LIV Golf’s Bubba Watson, who finished in tie for second place.

Check out Hoge’s hole-in-one below.

While it’s not a serious event at all, it’s still yet another incredible memory that Hoge can add to the portfolio from this past year. Hoge received a crystal vase for his hole-in-one and a crystal bowl for his winning round of 6-under (pictured above).

He’s skyrocketed up the FedEx Cup Rankings among the best golfers in the world. Hoge currently sits at 22 in the FedEx Cup Rankings, surely the best ranking of his PGA Tour career thus far. He currently sits at No. 26 in the Official World Golf Rankings, which still has to feel like a dream for the former TCU star.

Hoge has toiled in relative obscurity for much of his PGA Tour career thus far and was simply scratching and clawing to maintain his card early in his career (especially 2015-2016 and 2016-2017). Then in 2020, something started to click for the North Dakota native. He finished with two Top 10s, including a T4 finish in the Northern Trust Championship in the 2021 FedEx Cup Playoffs. That led to a massive payday (he finished the year with $1.6 million) and he finished 54th overall in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Then in the 2021-2022 season, Hoge continued to build on that momentum racking up two Top 5 finishes (The RSM Classic-T4, The American Express-2). His good form carried him into Pebble Beach, a course he clearly has an affinity for, as he finished inside the Top 15 in 2020. Hoge fired an opening round 63 at Pebble Beach to help propel him to the first win of his PGA Tour career, as he finished at 19-under par for the tournament and staved off Jordan Spieth.

Then in the 2022 Tour Championship, Hoge rattled off four rounds in the 60s, including three rounds of 66, to finish with a remarkably impressive Top 10 finish. Simply put, that’s one of the most loaded fields in all of golf and for him to finish in the Top 10 in a field that strong, is just yet another impressive milestone in his career.

He’s only continued to improve in 2022-2023, racking up four Top 10s thus far, including a T3 at The Player’s Championship at Sawgrass in Jacksonville, Florida.

With the weather slated to be windy and rainy this weekend at Augusta National, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Hoge performs. Last season he finished T39 in the 2022 version of The Masters. After playing his college golf in the state of Texas, he clearly doesn’t mind playing in the wind. Anybody who wins on Pebble Beach has to be comfortable in windy conditions. And after his Top 10 finish at East Lake Golf Club (Atlanta, Georgia), among the strongest fields in all of golf, it certainly shows he has the talent to compete with the big boys on a very similar course.