How much does Hoge love casinos? Well, it was the jumping off point for his appearance on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, and a topic he was more than willing to talk about.
“We all know you like to flip cards and roll some dice,” Drew Stoltz said. “How far does a casino have to be away from your hotel for you to be like, ‘No, it’s too far.'”
“Probably a few hours,” Hoge answered. “I would say I’ve been known to do [that] in my past.”
His game of choice? Craps. Although, when his legs need a short rest, he’ll take a seat at the Blackjack table to play through a few hands.
“Just a little change of the pace here and there,” Hoge said.
In fact, Hoge’s reputation as a casino aficionado is one that is well known on the PGA Tour. As Colt Knost joked, if there’s a casino nearby, once the final putt drops, Hoge is off to the craps table.
“There ain’t no practice afterwards if there’s a casino nearby,” Knost joked.
Hoge did admit that his casino habits have slowed down with age. Now with his wife by his side on Tour each week, he doesn’t head to the casinos nearly as frequently.
But that also has to do with the Tour’s Las Vegas stops the past two seasons. With the Asian swing postponed, the Tour set up shop in Vegas for back-to-back weeks in the fall. And that access did Hoge no favors.
“I’m finally learning, I guess,” Hoge said. “By the end of those two weeks, it almost makes you physically sick walking by a craps table or a Blackjack table trying to get onto the golf course every day.”
Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.