Tour Life
PGA Tour pro collects $1.5 million payday at the Players, still flies home coach
The 2023 Players Championship will be remembered as Scottie Scheffler's latest coronation, but Tom Hoge had a pretty darn good week as well. The 33-year-old barely made the cut, but then blitzed TPC Sawgrass over the weekend with a course-record 62 on Saturday and a solid Sunday 70 that gave him a T-3 and earned him a whopping $1.475 million from that record purse. But even the second-biggest payday of his career couldn't change his frugal travel plans.
Even with Hoge racking up big checks, including for his first PGA Tour win at Pebble Beach last year, he has maintained a sensible budget when it comes to flying. "I always fly coach," he told the Associated Press' Doug Ferguson in January. "I try to hang onto some of this money we make, right?" Smart.
And when Ferguson tweeted that Hoge would still be flying coach on Sunday night following his big weekend, the TCU product shared proof:
Good for you, Tom. And it even looks like you got a window seat!
Seriously, though, that takes some discipline to stay in 21C and not at least splurge to move up to the front of the plane and get some extra legroom. Maybe if he had made that final par putt on 18 for solo third and an extra $250K. But probably not. Hoge seems like he only cares about getting from Point A to Point B. Well, and getting his golf clubs there as well.
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