MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2022

Tom Hoge

Quick Quotes

Q. Winning that tournament and knowing you're going to get to play in the Masters, was that one of your first thoughts?

TOM HOGE: Yeah, for sure. Especially because it's so hard to get here, right? You pretty much have to win. Top 50 in the world or top 30 in the FedEx Cup, so the only way there is to win. It's been my eighth year on tour and first Masters, so pretty cool to be here.

Q. For some players the Masters is the pinnacle. Is it that way for you? Or some people prefer the U.S. Open.

TOM HOGE: I would say the Masters is definitely on top on for me. Growing up, Tiger here at Augusta, and I think the familiarity with the golf course because you see it every year versus some of the other tournaments that rotate, but what a cool spot to be here.

Q. You might be playing along side Tiger.

TOM HOGE: Yeah, hopefully. I mean, what a great thing for the game of golf, right? Just the buzz last week of if he would play or not, and just cool to see him back out here.

Q. What was the practice round like? Was this your first practice round, or did you get to play yesterday?

TOM HOGE: I played nine holes yesterday as well. Nine holes today. Everything went well.

It's good to see the golf course. It's pretty firm right now. It will be interesting with the weather here this afternoon to see what it plays like tomorrow after the rain comes through, but it's ready for the weekend for sure with the firmness and quickness of the greens.

Q. I saw you playing with Spieth. Are you buddies with that group, or is that just who you ended up with today?

TOM HOGE: A little bit. I've gotten to know him a little bit better. Daniel Berger was there when I came out as well. I've known for guys for a while, but just randomly paired up with them yesterday, and then we were on the 10th tee again today at the same time, so it all worked out.

Q. Could I get you off to a couple of Minnesota topics?

TOM HOGE: No problem.

Q. When I talked to your dad, he said that Minnesota golf treated you pretty well. You got to play over there a lot. What are your memories of that?

TOM HOGE: For me living in North Dakota, we didn't have a real strong junior program like Minnesota did, so just the opportunity to go play in real golf tournaments, and I think that's the best way to practice and prepare yourself. Get into competition and see how you handle yourself and see what you need to work on. For me it was great to go test my game against bettered players in Minnesota and very fortunate to have that.

Q. Did you have a favorite course or a tourney?

TOM HOGE: I got to play Hazeltine at a young age when I was 14 or 15. That was pretty cool right after the PGA Championship was there, but we played Interlachen. We played so many great golf courses in Minnesota. It was pretty cool that they were all available for us to play.

Q. I saw you skipped a couple of shots. Did the second one make it? I couldn't tell?

TOM HOGE: We all hit at the same time, so it was hard to tell whose ball was going up there.

Q. Did you do that yesterday? Did you play the front nine yesterday?

TOM HOGE: I played the front nine yesterday.

Q. Who is here with you?

TOM HOGE: I have pretty much all my family here. My wife is here right now. Dad is here. Pretty much all the family is coming in tomorrow, so they'll be here by Thursday's round for sure.

Q. Tell me, did Bill Banks send a plane --

TOM HOGE: My brother got married Sunday night in Denver, so Bill was very generous and flew me over here yesterday morning, so I got here in time to practice for the day. It was great.

Q. In general, obviously Lehman and Herron, there have been good Minnesota players. Are people surprised that someone from North Dakota made it to these heights?

TOM HOGE: You certainly have the odds against you, just because our season is so much shorter, but I always looked at it as a positive that we had our season, go take advantage of it, and then you got to put the clubs away for a little while and be fresh again for the next year.

I just tried to take advantage of those opportunities, and I think as my career has progressed, just try to keep getting a little better every year. Might have taken me a little longer than some of these guys, but we're here.

Q. Do you think your iron game fits well here?

TOM HOGE: Yeah. I love it that that's kind of one of the real important parts of Augusta National is your iron play and hitting it into the right spots of these greens, and that's always been strength of mine, so I feel like I'm swinging it pretty well right now, and hopefully we can keep that going.

Q. Last question. What's the coolest thing you've seen or done so far?

TOM HOGE: It's hard to put a finger on one. For me I came here a month ago with my dad and brother. It was all of our first trip here to Augusta, so that was pretty cool. And to see Augusta without everyone here in the tournament, kind of just a regular day, was pretty cool, but everywhere you go, the attention to detail is incredible. Everything is perfect out here, so just a great week.