Tom Hoge had the perfect pedigree for Saturday's windy round at Valero Texas Open
AI-assisted summary
Tom Hoge, known for his accuracy over distance, excelled in tough conditions at the Valero Texas Open.
Hoge's steady play, including nine straight pars, kept him in contention despite the challenging weather.
He capitalized on the back nine with four birdies, propelling him near the top of the leaderboard.
Hoge's experience playing in windy conditions in Fort Worth prepared him for the challenging weather at TPC San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO — For those familiar with the resume of Tom Hoge, it's not a huge surprise that the 35-year-old would pull out of the pack Saturday on a wicked day at the Valero Texas Open.
After two days of balmy temperatures, Saturday had a completely different feel at TPC San Antonio, winds whipping and temps about 30 degrees cooler than they were before the event's cut. With slow greens and gnarly rough, those who bombed their way to the top in the first few days had to play a different style of game in the third round.
Enter Hoge. Raised in North Dakota and a former member of the PGA Tour Canada, Hoge's game is based more on feel and accuracy than sheer distance, where he lags near the bottom of the Tour statistically.
And although he's comfortable with playing in uncomfortable weather, Hoge also has plenty of Texas pedigree, as he resides in Fort Worth after a successful collegiate career at Texas Christian University.
On Saturday, it took a bit, but Hoge hung tough through the front nine with nine straight pars and then got hot down the stretch, posting four birdies and no bogeys on the back to catapult himself near the top of the leaderboard after 54 holes.
"It was tough. Totally opposite wind than we've had the last two days, so made a little more thought off the tees to figure out the new golf course, so to speak," Hoge said. "Even the downwind holes, they were a challenge because the ball was bouncing out so much. You know, I just tried to battle and fight and knew I had to make a lot of those six-, seven-foot par putts in there, which I did off the start, and that kind of kept me in things."
Although he's still behind Andrew Novak and Brian Harman, Hoge will play in the final few pairings on Sunday and he's hoping to do something similar to what he did in his last start at TPC Sawgrass when he jumped into a T-3 finish by virtue of a 66 in the final round of The Players Championship.
And things are going to turn even chillier on Sunday, as wind chills could be in the 20s at the beginning of play. His recent practice has helped prepare Hoge for just such an opportunity.
"I just think that I've played in a lot of wind," he said. "I've been at home in Fort Worth, Texas, the last few weeks here, it's been really windy, so I certainly felt comfortable in these conditions.
"Just know everyone's going struggle with it, so just hang in there the best I can."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Spaniard veteran sizzles, claims another major crown
Miguel Angel Jimenez has won the Kaulig Companies Championship for his fourth PGA Tour Champions victory of the season, rallying to force a playoff and beating Steven Alker with a 20-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. Two strokes down after playing partner Alker birdied the par-5 16th, Jimenez made a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-4 17th and an 18-footer on the par-4 18th. "I knew I had to make birdie-birdie to have any chance," Jimenez said. "I make birdie on the 17th, gives you wings to go to 18th, and then the rest is history." Tied for the lead entering Sunday's third and final round at Firestone South, the 61-year-old Jimenez and 53-year-old Kiwi Alker each shot two-under 68s to finish at 10-under 270 in the major championship. They each parred the 18th on the first playoff hole, with Jimenez missing an 18-foot birdie try and Alker holing a three-and-a-half footer to send it back to tee for a second extra hole. Before Jimenez's winning putt, Alker missed a 20-foot birdie try after a recovery shot from the trees right of the fairway. Cue the victory cigar 🔥Jiménez drained his birdie putt on the 2nd playoff hole to win @KauligChamp — PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) June 22, 2025 Jimenez won his third major title after taking the Regions Tradition and the Senior British Open — both in 2018 — and earned a spot next year in The Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass. The Spanish star has 17 career victories on 50-and-over tour. "It's very special," Jimenez said. "I win here and put my name beside of all the great names through the history of the golf tournaments here on this beautiful golf course. "Amazing that my game is still nice ... I hope it's not the last one." Jimenez beat Alker by two strokes in the Trophy Hassan II in February in Morocco, then won the Hoag Classic in March in Newport Beach, California, and the Principal Charity Classic in a playoff three weeks ago in Des Moines, Iowa. Stewart Cink (66) was third at eight under and fellow American Steve Flesch (65) was another stroke adrift. Australian's Richard Green (72) and Michael Wright (73) tied for seventh at three under, while compatriots Mark Hensby (71) and Steve Allan (69) also enjoyed top-20 finishes. The US Senior Open begins on Thursday at the Broadmoor in Colorado. With AAP.
USA Today
8 hours ago
- USA Today
Tiger Woods can join PGA Tour Champions in 2026. Will he make a return to Firestone?
There's a chance Tiger Woods could again be prowling Firestone South next summer, but the question remains: Will he jump to the PGA Tour Champions circuit? It's one of the biggest questions in the golf world heading into this winter, and it's certainly the No. 1 topic when considering the 50-and-over Tour that includes the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone County Club's South Course, where Woods has a superhuman history. Woods, an eight-time winner at Firestone, turns 50 years old in December, making him eligible for the 2026 PGA Tour Champions season. The 2026 Kaulig Companies Championship would be Woods' first potential return to Firestone since the Bridgestone Invitational was moved away from Akron after the 2018 event. If Woods joins the senior circuit, it would make sense for him to play Firestone South considering his success rate there. But questions remain about both his mental and physical ambitions as he enters his 50s, and the paths he chooses to take as he deals with his own injuries. 'He's just an amazing, phenomenal player,' Ernie Els said this week. 'Hopefully we'll see him out here next year or the year after that.' Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour Champions Woods has a reputation of being historically competitive. The question has been asked by some around the sport whether he'd ever play on the PGA Tour Champions, or if he'd simply play select PGA Tour events until he fully retires. It would seem more likely than not, though, that Woods will extend his playing career by joining the Champions tour. "For us it would be a thrill to see Tiger come out and play the Champions Tour, and I'm convinced he will play several — depends how many," Bernhard Langer said on a conference call in January. "I'm going to gradually get older and older here, and I may not be at the very top of my game when he comes out, but he always moves the needle." The next question is whether Woods' body can handle it, and how much he wants to push it. He hasn't played a round of professional golf since July 2024 after a lengthy injury history that includes numerous leg surgeries, other extensive health issues and a horrific single-car accident in Los Angeles in 2021 that nearly cost him his right leg. Woods already stated he'd never again play a full PGA Tour schedule. He'll certainly play the four majors when he can. Woods has stated that he feels lucky to even have his leg after the car accident. If he joins the PGA Tour Champions circuit, how often he can play would be a major issue to answer. Players on that Tour, though, can use golf carts, possibly allowing him to play more often. 'When he gets in a cart, he'll tear it up, absolutely,' Jack Nicklaus said last month at the Memorial Tournament, according to Golfweek. 'He'll win better than 50 percent of the tournaments he plays in, I think. You all know how good a player he is but, I mean, his work ethic is so good.' He also joked about using a cart in 2023, seemingly indicating he intends to play on the Champions Tour by saying, "I've got three more years, where I get the little buggy and be out there with Fred [Couples]. But until then, no buggy." The financial aspect for Firestone, the Kaulig Companies Championship and even the city of Akron could be immense. Where Woods goes, the crowd goes. That has always been the case, and it'd likely hold true on any Tour, at least to a degree. The PGA Tour Champions features some legends of the game, including Els, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Langer and quite a few others. But no name is bigger than Woods in the game of golf, and that isn't changing anytime soon. The golf world now awaits his decision, and Firestone South wonders whether it'll welcome back its No. 1 player.
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Lynch: PGA Tour's new boss has fresh opportunities, but the same old problems need answers
It's probably a testament to Jay Monahan's one-on-one popularity that he managed to remain leader of the PGA Tour for two years and 10 days after announcing the controversial decision that foreshortened his commissionership, but the recent announcement of his successor finally draws to an end the Gethsemane hours of his tenure, when everyone — including Monahan and those closest to him — awaited what they knew was inevitable. The furious player backlash to the June 6, 2023, Framework Agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund wasn't grounded in moral objections to doing business with authoritarians, nor in shock at the about-face Monahan performed to get there. It was the secretive manner in which he went about it, an enormous governance misstep that led to structural reforms that sharply curtailed the executive authority of his office. That altered balance of power is just one of the many challenges awaiting Brian Rolapp, the newly-named CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises and de facto head of the entire organization. Rolapp represents a departure from his predecessors at the top of the Ponte Vedra pyramid, beyond not having the commissioner title quite yet (Monahan will remain in that role through '26). He's an outsider, not a product of the Tour's conclave nor even of the broader golf ecosystem. He's barely a golfer at all, despite his game efforts to disguise that reality. None of those facts are inherently negative. While there was no doubt who Rolapp worked for in his last job at the NFL — team owners — the PGA Tour's constituencies are more complex. There's one that wants to be owners (fans), one that thinks they're owners (players), and one that are actually owners (Strategic Sports Group, which invested $1.5 billion). Rolapp's credentials, management style and innovative thinking have been widely praised, and he'll need them to navigate his many stakeholders, who are not always aligned. For example, every entity with whom the PGA Tour partners — sponsors, broadcasters, tournaments — focuses on the same end user of its services: fans. But headquarters sees the end users of its services as the players, and that's who is always prioritized. Rolapp seems conscious of the need to bridge that divide. 'What has attracted me about this opportunity is that it's unique in sports in that the players own the Tour. It's their Tour. They are the shareholders. They are the owners, so I certainly work for them,' he said. 'Having said that, and we talked a little bit about this in our player meeting, I think they know what's good for fans is also good for the Tour. "It's not that complicated. If you think what's best for the fan, it's usually best for everybody involved.' What of the stalled PIF negotiations that came to define the Monahan era? Will that prove uncomplicated too? Yasir Al-Rumayyan has been incommunicado since leaving the White House in a snit on February 20. Even if he (or H.E. to his supplicants) adopts a more conciliatory tone, is there any upside to Rolapp wading into the same quagmire that trapped Monahan? A new leader who inherits a failed negotiation and widespread player apathy about any deal could be more inclined to cut bait and move on. His comments on Tuesday hinted as much. 'When it comes to the situation with LIV, I think that's a complex situation that's probably something I should learn more about before I speak,' he said. 'But I will say my focus is on growing the Tour, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has.' When pushed on the PIF negotiations, he didn't slam the door, but nor did he sound like a man eager to wait around until Al-Rumayyan's ego is sufficiently stroked. 'Again, I'm not close enough to any of those discussions, but I will say what I saw regardless of that is a very strong Tour. I see a strong product.' It may be that the only avenues for the PGA Tour to work with PIF/LIV involve TGL, the indoor team league in which the Tour is a partner, or an international series staged in concert with the DP World Tour outside of the FedEx Cup season, from September through January. Rolapp expressed enthusiasm about golf's potential for global expansion, but he also doesn't need the Saudis for that. What he does need is buy-in from players and from SSG on spending its investment dollars. 'Where we deploy that capital, I have ideas. It's an investor group that is experienced in sports. They're smart,' he said a few days ago. 'And the player directors are bright and motivated and focused, and that was really great to see. I think what I've seen from the board have been very focused on growing the game, looking out for players, and so it was all positive.' At some point, those stakeholder interests will begin to arc in different directions. Rolapp will never be more powerful than in his first year, and he's been bought valuable breathing space by the tailwinds Monahan leaves behind, like robust TV ratings and a healthy book of sponsor business. But he's still at the mercy of the players, who control votes on the board. Striking a balance between what players are willing to do, what fans are willing to accept, and what SSG is willing to pay for will be a time-consuming task. It's a good thing he's not worried about maintaining an index.
