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.