FARGO — The high temperature in Fargo on Friday is forecasted to be 14 below, but at least Tom Hoge will be teeing it up at The American Express tournament in La Quinta, California, with temps in the 70s. The differential in heat probably best sums up the tension between the PGA and LIV tours.
It got testy there for a while and while the return of Brooks Koepka from LIV to the PGA this season may signal the start of some sort of truce, the angst is still there. About Hoge? The Fargo South graduate is happy he remained status quo.
In an interview with sportscaster Trey Wingo, Hoge said he was one of the players who was helped the most from PGA players bolting for the high dollars of the Saudi-backed Private Investment Fund LIV Tour.
It boosted his pocket book. Seeing some top PGA players leave the tour made for openings to the higher purse signature events, which Hoge, as he should, took advantage of.
“I would say nobody’s benefited more financially than I have because I’ve played well in some of those events and have been in all of them,” he told Wingo. “So it’s been fantastic for me. I shouldn’t be the guy here, complaining about any of that coming along. But it is tough for the game of golf that there’s a lot of great players that are on LIV that we’re not competing against every week like we were.”
Hoge is starting his 12th full season having played 316 career tournaments with earnings of $25.2 million, according to the PGA Tour.
The first LIV Tour event was in June of 2022, although most of the big name players had already announced they were jumping ship in late 2021, which came a few months before Hoge’s first and only PGA Tour victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
It’s a Midwest, humbling statement for Hoge saying the fact LIV players were off the PGA Tour is a reason for success. It’s not that cut-and-dried. Hoge outlasted Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Matthew Fitzpatrick to win at Pebble Beach, not exactly chump names. Several other top golfers were in that field.
Hoge told me in 2022 he was offered a four-year contract to join LIV. He did not disclose the amount but he did say it was more than what his career earnings were at the time, which were around $12 million.
Well, he’s doubled his pay since then although there’s more to it than guys like Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann heading to the LIV. The PGA Tour responded to the LIV money by substantially upping its own purses.
Since the LIV started, Hoge has had 18 top-10 finishes, which in itself makes for a lucrative career even before LIV. But those 18 finishes since LIV made for higher money since the PGA upped its game.
So, he’s right, by staying the course, staying patient and not jumping ship, Hoge has certainly benefited.
Good for him.
It certainly beats the television-challenged LIV. Quick: How many LIV tournaments have you watched? Have you seen one?
We know where to find Tom every week. The Golf Channel, assuming he’s in contention. He made the cut and finished in a tie for 40th in the season opener at the Sony Open in Hawaii last weekend.
There was a time in his early years Hoge was just trying to keep his PGA Tour card, much less playing in majors and signature events. He started on the Korn Ferry Tour, returning to Fargo in 2017 to play in the Bobcat North Dakota Open, which he won. A high academic guy with a business degree from TCU, he had that to fall back on.
Seems laughable now.
“LIV has come along and changed things, I feel like I know as little about that as anyone,” Hoge said. “I just try to keep my head down and keep playing and if they give me a tee time next year, I’m doing well.”
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.