You’d would have excused most for overlooking Tom Hoge, one of a trio (along with Beau Hossler and Andrew Putnam) to share the 54-hole lead at 15 under entering the final round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
At least when you saw two of the names just one down the leader board: Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth. The more experienced players seemed the more obvious choices to pull out a win on Sunday on the Monterey Peninsula. Particularly when you consider, Hoge had never won a PGA Tour title and was 0-for-1 when leading heading into the final round.
Hoge won’t apologise, however, for stealing the show in the final round. The 32-year-old from Fargo, North Dakota, shot a closing 68 to pull back past Spieth and grab that first career win after eight years on tour and 202 previous starts.
Hoge played an up-and-down front nine, turning in even par and allowing Spieth to pass him. But then Hoge charged back with four back-nine birdies, including a tap-in on the 16th and 22-footer on the 17th. Spieth, meanwhile, bogeyed the 17th after failing to get up and down from the front greenside bunker, then struggled up the par-5 18th, making a par for a closing 69. And with birdies on four of his last 10 holes, Hossler also grabbed a share of second. (Cantlay’s final-round 71 dropped him to T-4.)
Hoge’s biggest payday prior to Sunday at Pebble was $US828,400 ($A1,170,280) for his runner-up finish last month at The American Express. He nearly doubled that by claiming this week’s first-place prize money payout of $US1.566 million ($A2,212,288) from an overall purse of $8.7 million.
Here are the prize money payouts for each golfer at Pebble Beach. Come back shortly after the tournament ends and we’ll update with names and individual paydays.
Win: Tom Hoge, $1,566,000 ($A2,212,288)
2: $948,300
3: $600,300
4: $426,300
5: $356,700
6: $315,375
7: $293,625
8: $271,875
9: $254,475
10: $237,075
11: $219,675
12: $202,275
13: $184,875
14: $167,475
15: $158,775
16: $150,075
17: $141,375
18: $132,675
19: $123,975
20: $115,275
21: $106,575
22: $97,875
23: $90,915
24: $83,955
25: $76,995
26: $70,035
27: $67,425
28: $64,815
29: $62,205
30: $59,595
31: $56,985
32: $54,375
33: $51,765
34: $49,590
35: $47,415
36: $45,240
37: $43,065
38: $41,325
39: $39,585
40: $37,845
41: $36,105
42: $34,365
43: $32,625
44: $30,885
45: $29,145
46: $27,405
47: $25,665
48: $24,273
49: $23,055
50: $22,359
51: $21,837
52: $21,315
53: $20,967
54: $20,619
55: $20,445
56: $20,271
57: $20,097
58: $19,923
59: $19,749
60: $19,575
61: $19,401
62: $19,227
63: $19,053
64: $18,879
