Tom Hoge Wins AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Fort Worth resident Tom Hoge captured his first PGA TOUR victory with his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Hoge, 32, opened the week with a 63 at Pebble Beach Golf Links and wrapped the up the tournament with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to overtake Jordan Spieth for the lead. His birdie on No. 16 was of the tap-in variety following a near hole-out from the fairway as Spieth simultaneously bogeyed No. 17 to turn the tide for good.

“Last year for me in that I missed a lot of cuts throughout the summer and then finished fourth at Liberty National, the first playoff event,” Hoge said. “That got me into the second event, gave me some confidence again and since then I played really well. I was fourth at Sea Island right before the break and then took some time off, but for me that was motivating more than anything that I wanted to work harder and kind of get in that situation a lot more.

“I always felt like all the times I got in contention I felt like I’ve been a little bit too far back going into Sunday, if that make sense. I’ve always been four, five shots back and you really need a lot of things to go your way,” Hoge continued. “So for me, I was one back at Palm Springs starting Sunday, I was tied for the lead here today, I just felt a lot more comfortable in this situation today out there.”

Hoge, who finished at 19-under, earned $1,566,000 for the win.

“I’m almost a little in shock,” Hoge said. “It’s been so long since I won anything that I forgot how to celebrate.”

2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champion Spieth discussed his bogey on No. 17 following the round.

“To start with? It was my best swing of the week. It was 175 to cover, 185 hole, yesterday my 9-iron given it was a little different wind flew close to 170. I hit an 8 and I kind of today it was really tricky because the wind kept going almost back to northeast and then it would go to northwest and with a cold wind here that makes such a massive difference, more than it does anywhere else that we play, I think,” Spieth said. “And I just was worried if I held it up against that breeze that it may not carry, but we were pretty confident in it and when I struck it I thought it was all over it. I hit the dead center of the face, high, kind of hold straight ball, the wind just took it a little. And it was on the line where it would have actually not only bounced towards the hole it would have then fed left. I was, in the air I was thinking this might lip out. And it hits the lip and goes in the bunker.

“Bunker shot, you would like to leave below the hole instead of above out here and it just shot out,” Spieth continued. “I wasn’t trying to hole it or anything like that, just wasn’t a lot of sand in it and then I just lined up pretty high to have a die pace on my putt and I just hit it just a little bit too hard.”

Next up on the PGA TOUR is the WM Phoenix Open with a stellar field that includes defending champion Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schaufelle, Adam Scott and Rickie Fowler.