Pack chasing Hoge at Pine Ridge
North Dakotan in only his third pro tournament at Players Cup
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/07/2011 (5478 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Can a Monday qualifier win the Players Cup Hosted By Jonathan Toews?
It’s never been done before on the Canadian Tour, or so our research would have us believe, but Fargo Country Club’s Tom Hoge seems not to care.
“I think it sets up well for me,” said Hoge (pronounced Hoe-gie), a 22-year-old fresh out of Texas Christian University. “I’m a pretty good ball-striker. If you can keep getting chances for birdies, you’ll be avoiding all the tough chips around the greens.”
Hoge attached a four-under 67 on Friday to his opening round of 66 and at nine-under-par 133, he’s the man they’re chasing today at Pine Ridge Golf Club.
This is his third pro event. Last week in Saskatoon in his tour debut, he made the cut and finished tied for 46th.
Then he had to qualify all over again Monday, this time at Winnipeg’s Elmhurst.
“It’s kind of a long week coming from Saskatoon. Got here about 2 o’clock Monday morning, got lost on the way to (Elmhurst) and got there 10 minutes before my tee time,” he said. “I got in the playoff, so luckily it worked out OK.”
Hoge got through a four-man playoff on Monday after shooting 72.
He was the 2009 and 2010 Minnesota amateur champ and a two-time North Dakota match-play winner. He added two college tournament titles to his resumé while getting his degree at Texas Christian.
Until this week, he had never seen Pine Ridge.
“Well, there’s a lot of course knowledge to go into it,” Hoge said. “I think if you can keep it in the centre of the greens and below the hole, that’s the biggest thing. The more you play out here, the more you’ll learn where the better spots are to miss. Fortunately, I haven’t been in too much trouble so far.”
He’ll have no trouble with today’s sleep-in either. He’s on the first tee today with Josh Habig, the 2006 champion here, at 1 p.m.
“The last couple of weeks, I’ve had the 2:30 tee time, being the Monday qualifier, so I’ve got a little bit of the taste for having to sit around all morning,” Hoge laughed. “Luckily, the British Open’s on tomorrow. I can watch that.”
Habig starts today one back, though he had the lead for part of the morning after his smart 69.
The top Canadian so far also shared the lead briefly on Friday. Alberta’s Dustin Risdon birdied his 17th hole Friday to get to nine-under, but met disaster at Pine Ridge’s famous ninth.
He drove into the left bunker, flopped out a little too strongly and though he stayed barely on the right side of the green, three-putted from 50 feet.
At seven-under, Risdon is two back and one ahead of the group that includes Vancouver’s Devin Carrey (67 Friday), Merritt, B.C.’s Roger Sloan (69) and Americans Chris Killmer (66) and Brian Prouty (65).
The tour’s No. 2 money man, Hugo Leon, of Chile, joined the chase with a 66 Friday to get to five-under, and 2007 champ, Mike Mezei, pulled in at four-under through two days, as did Jon McLean.
“One of my goals coming into this year was to put myself in this position more often,” said Habig, who has one tour win, here in 2006. “I haven’t really been a leader throughout an event very often. When I won out here, it was shooting really low the last day, coming from behind.
“You’ve got more pressure, maybe people are hunting you down, but you want to be in that spot to test yourself and see how you react.”
Prouty, a 27-year-old from Arizona, joined the hunt Friday with better putting.
“Both yesterday and today I hit it great,” he said. “Yesterday I had 33 putts. Today I had 27. There’s the math right there.”
He completed his day with an easy two-putt par on the par-3 ninth when his tee shot somehow stayed on the sloped right side of the green.
“That’s frickin’ unbelievable,” he laughed. “I’m amazed my ball stayed on the green here. It’s magical. I must have made a deal with the devil for that.”
The winner’s cheque for $32,000 and his Canadian Open invitation will be handed out after Sunday’s final round.
tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca
