Is this the 3M Open or the U.S. Open?
If you watched a certain Tom Hoge birdie putt from the first round of the 3M Open Thursday with no other context, you might not be able to tell.
When Hoge stepped onto the 586-yard 18th hole (his 9th of the day) at TPC Twin Cities, his scorecard was clean, nary a square in sight. Then he reached the green in two. After lagging his 38-footer to about four feet, Hoge was thinking 4. With five other birds on his scorecard, another at 18 would ultimately have given him a tie for the lead at six under with Scott Piercy and Sungjae Im at the end of the first round.
It wasn’t to be.
Hoge — whose putting this season has been subpar, ranking 123rd in strokes gained — rocked back his putter and struck his birdie try. The putt looked good until it didn’t, snapping hard left just before the hole. Like, hard left.
“Oh, look at that!” said the PGA Tour Live announcer. “That is incredible.”
After that? Bye-bye. His ball kept rolling another nine feet past the hole. It was one of those putts that helps you appreciate the difficulty of pin positions on Tour. Check it out here:
Hoge also missed the comebacker for par, settling for a dispiriting bogey. If he winds up in contention come Sunday, Hoge surely will be kicking himself for this four-putt. Still, at four under as of this writing, the veteran pro is solidly in the mix.
Friday’s second round is an important one for Hoge, who has missed the cut in his last six starts. The projected cut is currently +1, so working the weekend shouldn’t be a problem. But, hey, stuff happens. Hideki Matsuyama made a 9. Wesley Bryan made a 10. And the wind is picking up in Blaine, Minn.
Hoge grew up in Fargo, N.D. (on the border of Minnesota), so is about as close to a hometown hero as we’ll see this week.
Can he bag his second Tour win? First, let’s see if he can exact revenge on the 18th green.