Colt Knost watched on a phone from the golf course as his record was broken.
Tom Hoge had a record-setting performance Saturday during the third round of the 2023 Players Championship.
Hoge set a TPC Sawgrass course record, shooting 10-under 62 with 10 birdies and no bogeys. Nine players had previously shot 63 in Ponte Vedra Beach, most recently Dustin Johnson in the final round in 2022.
One of those with the previous record is Colt Knost, now a member of the CBS golf broadcasting team. He shot a 63 in the second round in 2016.
And he wasn’t too thrilled his course record is no more.
Knost was playing golf Saturday himself, and he watched on a phone as Hoge broke his record at TPC Sawgrass. His reaction is hilarious.
One of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour was no match for Tom Hoge on Moving Day at The Players
What a 24 hours for Tom Hoge.
The No. 33rd ranked golfer in the world just barely made the cut at the 2023 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on Friday, notching a birdie on No. 17 to get him right on the number to advance to the weekend.
On Saturday, he etched himself into history at one of the most notoriously difficult courses on the PGA Tour. Hoge carded a course record round of 62 with 10 birdies during a bogey-free round and broke a tie at 63 held by nine players.
Dustin Johnson famously tied the course record at 63 last year with an eagle on No. 18. Hoge tied the record through 17 holes and easily cleaned up for birdie on his 18th to finish the day after starting on the back nine. That moved him from two-over par on the tournament to eight-under and a tie for eighth place heading into Sunday in the richest event on the Tour schedule.
There’s having a solid moving day, and then there’s rocketing up 57 spots on the leaderboard as Hoge did.
WHAT A ROUND 🤯
Tom Hoge birdies the last to shoot 10-under 62, the lowest score ever recorded at @THEPLAYERSChamp
The 33-year-old strung together birdies at hole Nos. 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18, scoring 31 on both the front and back nine. Before Saturday, Hoge had never shot better than 66 in any round at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.
He’s walked off the course +6600 at BetMGM to win the event and claim the $4.5 million prize.
Regardless of whether or not he’s able to pull it off, he’ll forever be known as a legend at an iconic stop each year on the Florida swing.
The 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will begin on Thursday morning from the gorgeous Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will continue on Saturday morning from the gorgeous Pebble Beach Golf Links which includes Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Peninsula.
Two of the top golfers in the game with go at it again when Tom Hoge and Jordan Spieth tee off as Spieth will be looking to bounce back after last year’s two-stroke loss to Hoge.
Here is everything you need on how, when, and where to watch the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this weekend.
PGA Tour odds courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook. Odds last updated Saturday at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Want some action on the PGA Tour? Place your legal sports bets on this game or others in CO & NJ.
We recommend interesting sports viewing/streaming and betting opportunities. If you sign up for a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
Jordan Spieth missed a win by two strokes last year. Is the Pebble Beach Pro-Am his to lose in 2023?
The PGA Tour’s West Coast swing is fully underway. Before the chaotic madness of the WM Phoenix Open kicks into gear next week, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am will offer plenty of intrigue and drama—if not a few lighter moments from the amateur pool—as the first tournament in February.
Fresh off his win at the Farmers Insurance Open, Max Homa won’t be at Pebble Beach, but plenty of Tour stalwarts like Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Fitzpatrick highlight an eclectic field.
Spieth will look to avenge his second-place finish from last year after finishing two strokes behind Tom Hoge.
While Hoge (+2000) is back in the field this year, the tournament hasn’t seen a repeat winner since Dustin Johnson went back-to-back in 2009-2010.
So who’s claiming the title this year and which bets should you place?
View photos of Tom Hoge throughout his career, detailing his eight-year journey to finally becoming a PGA Tour winner in 2022.
Tom Hoge is a quintessential PGA Tour pro. He’s not a flashy name, but he’s a guy that has gotten it done on Tour since he first joined in 2015.
A solid amateur and collegiate career that included a third-place individual finish at the 2009 NCAA Championship, Hoge graduated from TCU and immediately turned pro in 2011.
Since then, Hoge rose through the ranks, beginning on the Canadian Tour. Graduating to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2012, he played three seasons on the junior circuit before earning his PGA Tour card for the 2015 season.
In his eighth season on the Tour, Hoge finally broke through with his first win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2022. Although not an official PGA Tour win, Hoge also won the QBE Shootout in December of 2022 with playing partner Sahith Theegala.
At 33 years old, Hoge has proven he’s a late bloomer. Prepare to see him above the fold on leaderboards in 2023 and beyond.
Hours after tying for third (and banking $840,000) in his debut appearance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Tom Hoge was headed to Los Angeles for a quick trip before returning to the islands for the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Why the detour? College loyalties die hard.
Hoge played college golf at TCU, graduating in 2011, and his Horned Frogs are enjoying a magical ride to the College Football Playoff National Championship. He attended the semifinal game against Michigan on New Year’s Eve in Glendale, Arizona. Monday’s tilt against Georgia kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET. He and his wife, Kelly, will be among the thousands of purple-clad TCU fans at SoFi Stadium.
Hoge was scheduled to take a late Sunday flight from Maui to Los Angeles, according to the pgatour.com. He will then catch a 5 hour, 30 minute flight to Honolulu on Tuesday morning. Hoge, not among those scheduled to meet the media Tuesday at Waialae Country Club, simply doesn’t want to miss the Sony event.
“I never thought about skipping Sony. That’s one of my favorite events. I’ve had a lot of success on that course,” Hoge told pgatour.com. “There were some thoughts after I booked flights and hotels and all that stuff, whether I should really go to the game or not, but I think I want to be there for it. So we’ll do both.”
After his final round Sunday, Hoge was asked to put on his analyst hat.
“Oh, man, how much time do we got?” he said. “I’m hopeful that we can hang with ’em. The start’s going to be important, kind of like it was for the Michigan game, where we got ahead early and kind of hung on.
“But it’s going to be a fun game to be at. I’m hopeful that we’ll be in the fourth quarter with a chance to win. Max Duggan has kind of been our hero all year leading us back, so hopefully he can do it again.”
No word if fellow Sentry participants Brian Harman or Russell Henley, who both went to Georgia, will also be making the trip to L.A.
Conversations with Champions is presented by Sentry.
“Conversations with Champions presented by Sentry” is a weekly series from Golfweek. This week: Sahith Theegala and Tom Hoge.
Theegala and Hoge won the 2022 QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, after rallying late after being down two shots entering the final round.
Theegala, who hit his best drive of the day on 18, drilled a birdie putt to give him and Hoge a one-shot lead. Ryan Palmer and Charley Hoffman, who led after the first and second rounds, each had looks for birdie but both missed their putts.
Here’s everything the Theegala and Hoge duo said after winning the 2022 QBE Shootout.
Q: You guys kind of made it hard on yourselves coming down the stretch there by not birdieing 17. Was there any sort of conversation going to 18 to pump each other up?
Sahith Theegala: No, I think we’ve been playing so well all week and vibing off each other, I mean, it’s to be expected to have one or two bad holes and it just happened to be 17. But we’ve been playing well all week. Like we said at the start of the round, we just need two chances and we gave ourselves two really good changes on 18. Yeah, it was kind of unspoken I think that like let’s go and get this last hole.
Q: Tom, I think when you holed that long birdie put at the par 3 12th, I think you guys were either tied for the lead or got to the lead for the first time. Did you have a conversation then about let’s go, let’s go, or were you just sort of getting into the mix of it right then and you turned it on?
Tom Hoge: Really the only conversation we had today was in the scramble and we were like 5 under through 12, which was probably our worst start of all three formats. It was a bit of an issue at that point, but we were playing well. Like you said, nothing really needed to be said, just kind of get on to the next hole and keep trying to make birdies. I mean, you just felt like you had to birdie every hole out there for the way that the rest of the field’s been playing, so it was very simple what we had to do.
Q: Sahith, talk about that little problem you had on the first?
ST: Yeah.
Q: What happened?
ST: It’s funny, I was just telling my mom at breakfast, knocked on wood how healthy I’ve been for the last four, five years, and testament to my trainer, Josh. I literally have played every tournament seemingly 100 percent. First swing of the day on hole 1, I got under it and I knew I had to save it, and I saved it and I just pulled the left side of my, it’s like my oblique, I think. It’s not even my back really. I was trying to massage my back to free this up, but as I kept swinging and I think a little bit of adrenaline too, it got a lot better on the back nine. It feels much better now. I think it’s just something I need to take three or four days off and it’ll be good. But I’m going to take more than that off. Yeah, no worries at all.
Q: Speaking of adrenaline, that putt you holed on the last to make that birdie first and force them to make theirs, which they didn’t, how good a feeling was that for you?
ST: Oh, that felt great. It just felt great to contribute a little bit. Tom was really holding me up pretty much all around, he made so many really big putts. Again, I think it’s just a testament to having two good looks. I was just a little bit away, but I knew Tom’s been putting well and it kind of freed me up a little bit to be like all right, let’s give this thing a great run. To have that go in, it felt so good, can’t even explain how good it felt.
Q: How good did it feel for you when you saw it go in?
TH: Felt great watching, yeah. It was an interesting day because I don’t think either one of us played our best for 18 holes, but we kind of timed it right. I got off to some good starts to both nines and then Sahith kind of brought me home. You know, kind of the ham and egg worked really well for us and holed the timely putts when we needed to, for sure.
Q: You guys are a true rookie team this year. I think the only other time a rookie team has won was 2011, Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele, apart from the first event way back in ’99. How meaningful is that for you guys to pull this off in your first go-round here?
ST: It means a lot, it’s awesome. I think we got along really well out there. We’re both pretty chill and pretty level headed and don’t go to extreme either way and I think we just fed off each other’s energy. We were talking about it, I think our games are just really good for like partnering in this format. Tom was striping his irons yesterday and that was huge in alternate shot, he left me a lot of kick-ins for birdie, and I was able to get it down there a little bit further than I normally with my tee shots. It was just a good, it just worked out great. And definitely a little bit ham and egg today, which is great.
Q: I know it’s not an official win, but it’s your first, and you already won this year, Tom. Nice way to finish off the year, I’m guessing.
TH: It was fun to be in contention. I don’t care what you’re playing for, it’s always fun coming down the stretch there. I had a great week here this week. The weather’s perfect, I wanted to come back so I was like, we’ve got to get a win so hopefully we can come back in the future.
Sahith Theegala celebrates with Tom Hoge after winning the 2022 QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
Q: What was the thought process when you watched Ryan on 17 hit the chip back to himself and then chip it in?
TH: I guess you’re always expecting that. Charley still had a good look there as well that he could have made birdie. You just expect that you’ve got to make birdies coming down the stretch. I think that we were 32 or 33 under and just felt like you had to birdie 17 and 18 coming in to take care of business ourselves. Sahith made his putt, I still was expecting to go to a playoff there with the two looks that those guys both had. So certainly felt very fortunate to get the win right there.
Q: 2022 for both of you guys has been a very much a breakout season. When you look back on it, each of you, what are your sort of takeaways for the year?
ST: Yeah, I just, I got my PGA Tour card last year and my only goal or expectation was to keep my PGA Tour card. I’ve said it a lot, my dreams never really got past getting a PGA Tour card, so I’d be lying if I said I didn’t exceed my own expectations. I haven’t really thought about it too much, I’ve just tried to let my momentum keep rolling and try and get better and enjoy the whole thing. It’s been an unbelievable year and to cap it off this week with Tom is just a cherry on top. It’s been a really good year and I’m very grateful for it.
TH: I think for me, my eighth year on Tour wrapped up, I just look back, you get in more situations like today where you’re near the lead coming down the stretch and you get a little more comfortable helps out in the future. So I was able to put myself there a few times this year and was able to come up with a win finally. So that felt great and made it easier today drawing on that a little bit. You look at Sahith’s career, to be in these situations at his age, certainly expect he’ll be doing a lot of these winner’s interviews coming up in the future.
Hoge and Theegala became the second rookie team to ever win the QBE Shootout.
Sunday was a grind for Sahith Theegala. He was hurt from the opening tee shot.
He pulled an oblique, and it affected him throughout the final round. Especially with his driver and longer irons, Theegala was clearly in some pain after nearly every swing.
“It’s funny, I was just telling my mom at breakfast, knocked on wood how healthy I’ve been for the last four, five years,” Theegala said.
However, he said it subsided as the round went on. He joked teammate Tom Hoge’s back was the one that was hurting because he carried Theegala all day.
He said the adrenaline of the moment took over when stepping on the 18th tee, and Theegala capitalized.
Theegala and Hoge won the 2022 QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, coming from two down entering the final round to win. Theegala, who hit his best drive of the day down the 18th fairway, drilled a birdie putt to give he and Hoge a one-shot lead. Ryan Palmer and Charley Hoffman, who led after the first and second rounds, each had shorter looks at birdie but were unable to convert.
“It was an interesting day because I don’t think either one of us played our best for 18 holes, but we kind of timed it right,” Hoge said. “I got off to some good starts to both nines and then Sahith kind of brought me home. You know, kind of the ham and egg worked really well for us and holed the timely putts when we needed to, for sure.”
Theegala and Hoge are only the second rookie team to ever win at the QBE Shootout, the first pair being Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele in 2011. Hoge won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last year, and Theegala has yet to win on the PGA Tour.
“We’ve been playing well all week,” Theegala said. “Like we said at the start of the round, we just need two chances and we gave ourselves two really good changes on 18. Yeah, it was kind of unspoken I think that like let’s go and get this last hole.”
Hoge and Theegala shot 10-under 62 in Sunday four-ball, three better than Hoffman and Palmer’s 65, to finish at 34 under for the tournament. On the back nine, Hoffman and Palmer made birdies on five of six holes, but the biggest was on the par-5 17th that tied the teams with one hole to play.
Palmer’s third shot, a chip from the left side of the green, came up short of the green and trickled back to his feet. He hit it again, bouncing off the hill before hitting the green and finding the bottom of the cup.
That’s when Theegala came through and propelled he and Hoge to victory.
“Give credit to them, they went out and played some good golf today,” Hoffman said. “They made a lot of putts and hit a lot of good shots.”
Nelly Korda, who made her QBE Shootout debut this week playing with Denny McCarthy, chipped in for birdie on 18 to cap their second round and nearly one-upped herself Sunday. Korda’s hybrid from the fairway lipped out for eagle, but she drained the birdie putt.
As if people didn’t know, Nelly Korda showed out this week at the QBE Shootout pic.twitter.com/lYkYGcexD5
Korda, who’s playing with her father in the PNC Championship next weekend, and McCarthy finished tied for fifth at 27 under.
Lexi Thompson, the other female professional in the field, shot 24 under and finished T-10 with partner Maverick McNealy. This was the first time in QBE Shootout history that there were two women in the field, but that may change again come next year.
Harris English and Matt Kuchar also shot 10 under Sunday, finishing solo third at 32 under. It’s their seventh time finishing in the top five as a team at the QBE Shootout, extending their tournament record.
Only four of the 12 teams reached double-digits under par Saturday.
NAPLES, Fla. — There was plenty of movement on the leaderboard during Saturday’s second round at the 2022 QBE Shootout.
Teams jockeyed for position to put themselves in contention ahead of Sunday’s final round, but one thing remains the same Saturday night as it was Friday: the names at the top.
Charley Hoffman and Ryan Palmer continued their strong play, carding a 10-under 62 in the second-round modified alternate shot format at Tiburon Golf Club. It was a fairly stress-free performance from the duo, who are pairing up for the first time but have plenty of experience at the QBE Shootout. The most difficult shot they faced was arguably a par putt on 18, which Palmer converted with ease.
“I’m surprised how low I’d say the field went,” Hoffman said. “Obviously sort of benign conditions, but you’ve still got to execute and hit golf shots around this place. Obviously 10 under is a pretty good score.”
Neither has won before, but they’ll take a two-shot lead into Sunday, the same lead they had after the first round.
Charley Hoffman/Ryan Palmer set the lowest opening 36-hole score in QBE Shootout history (56-62–118) to hold a two-stroke lead at 26-under. They were the only team to birdie three of the four par-3 holes in the Modified Alternate Shot format in round two.
Hoffman and Palmer started as hot as they finished, carding birdies on the first two holes to increase their lead. Though other duos tied the lead at points throughout the round, no one was ever able to knock Hoffman and Palmer from the top, and as they came down the stretch, they managed to make birdies and distance themselves from the pack.
They birdied three straight from Nos. 12-14. Then back-to-back on Nos. 16-17. A day after a 56, they were one of four teams (out of 12) to shoot double-digits under par on Saturday.
Their two-round total of 118 is a new record at the QBE Shootout.
“This is a format you could have shot yourself in the foot for sure if you didn’t go out and put a decent round up,” Palmer said. “To shoot 10 under, there was 12 and 11 I believe, I was watching the leaderboard a little bit when I saw them and they played some exceptional golf. We played solid all day, we didn’t do anything spectacular.
“He teed off a lot of great tee balls, my iron play was on point today and he was able to make some putts. And when I needed to, I made a few, so the tag teaming went well today. It was nice to get that round in in this format.”
The closest group chasing is Tom Hoge and Sahith Theegala, which shot 12-under 60 for the second straight day. From holes Nos. 11-17 on the back nine, they were 7 under, punctuated with an eagle on the par-5 17th.
“Today, we just kind of started off hot and never really looked back,” Theegala said. “I was just saying walking off the green it just felt really stress free today.”
Theegala and Hoge made birdie on their first three holes and five of the first six. They cooled off in the middle of the round, but then again rekindled the flame during the stretch on the back nine. They’ll be in the final group on Sunday, looking to become the second pair of first-timers to win.
“I think more than anything, in best ball both of us just need to kind of be in the hole with chances on every hole,” Hoge said. “If we can both play well, it will help it out. Ultimately, you’ve got to make a lot of birdies to catch these guys, they’re playing well.”
Joel Dahmen and a PGA Tour rookie are among this week’s players to watch.
The PGA Tour is back in Las Vegas for the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin. After a star-less Sanderson Farms Championship last week, the Shriners will feature several players from September’s Presidents Cup.
One of those being the 2017 Summerlin winner, Patrick Cantlay, who is the betting favorite at +650. Behind him is another Quail Hollow participant and the defending champion of the event, Sungjae Im, at +1000.
Tom Kim, who seemed to have his Tiger Wood’s “Hello world” moment while playing for the International team last month, is also in the field and looking for the second Tour title of his young career.
A view of the second hole during the final round of the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin on October 10, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
Key stats
Birdie or better percentage
Strokes Gained: Approach
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. TPC San Antonio, 2. Monterey Peninsula CC, 3. St George’s Golf and Country Club
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Patrick Cantlay (10.2 percent), 2. Sungjae Im (6.5 percent), 3. Aaron Wise (4.6 percent)
