Expert Picks: WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession

For the record, Tom Hoge has seen the movie. And let’s be real. Isn’t that what you want to ask him when you find out he’s from Fargo, North Dakota? Yes, that Fargo. The city where Hoge grew up is the setting for the darkly comic 1996 crime film written and directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. The quirky movie, which stars William H. Macy and Frances McDormand, who won an Academy Award for her role, has become something of a cult classic. And no matter where he goes – Hoge now lives in Fort Worth, Texas – when he tells someone where he’s from the scenario is the same. “The first reaction is usually the movie, yes,â€� Hoge says with a wry smile. “And then the second statement is that I’m the first person they’ve ever met from North Dakota. “So I’m kind of ready for those two all the time.â€� Of course, with former North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz leading the Philadelphia Eagles into the Super Bowl on Sunday, the  sports landscape is changing a bit. But he grew up in Bismark and the only movie by that name is a 1940 film about the prime minister of Prussia. So, it’s just not the same. That said, “Fargoâ€� wasn’t filmed in North Dakota’s most populous city. The movie was actually shot around Minneapolis-St. Paul and in the town of Brainerd, Minnesota, which is about 90 minutes away from Fargo. “It’s kind of more out in the country than we would like to claim in Fargo,â€� Hoge said with a smile. “But it was pretty funny. A little different. Dark humor, for sure.â€� Fargo’s visitors center even has an exhibit that includes several of the original scripts, as well as few props. Among those is the wood chipper which the organization’s website calls the “most notorious prop in cinematic history.â€�  Hoge actually was born in Statesville, North Carolina, but moved to Fargo when he was 6 months old. He lived in North Dakota full-time until 2007 when he went to Fort Worth to play golf at Texas Christian University. He’s lived there ever since. At its best, the golf season in Fargo – which was voted as “America’s Toughest Weather Cityâ€� in a 2011 poll on The Weather Channel — only runs from mid-April to mid-November. Hoge can remember high school tournaments as late as in May that were snowed out but he made the most of the days when Mother Nature cooperated. “I kind of laugh, frost delays in Phoenix and places like that when it’s 40 or 45 degrees,â€� Hoge says. “I remember days out playing golf when it was 25 degrees in Fargo. “The golf courses probably didn’t like it that much but I was always trying to get out there and play.â€� Hoge started playing golf when he was 3 years old. He and his brother Charlie would tag along, hitting a few shots here and there, when their parents went to Fargo Country Club. He was inspired by Tiger Woods’ first Masters win and by the time he was 10, Hoge could be found hanging out at the golf course whenever there wasn’t any snow on the ground. “It doesn’t sound like it, Fargo, North Dakota being a golf town, but our golf club had a par-three course where the holes were 60 to 125 yards long and kids could go play that as much as they wanted,â€� he says. “It really was a good spot to grow up and learn how to play.â€� In fact, Hoge estimates, he’s one of 5 or 10 golfers from Fargo who went on to play NCAA Division I golf despite being limited by the relatively short season. A couple played on the Nationwide Tour, as did Hoge, but he is the first to make it to the PGA TOUR full-time. “There were a few times in the winter where I’d be trying to go to play in tournaments in Arizona or somewhere and there’d be snow on the ground,â€� Hoge remembers. “But I’d just kind of shovel the snow away and hit a few balls. “On more than one occasion I would say I’d be the only person on the course every day. But I always wanted to play on the PGA TOUR so I’d use whatever opportunities I had to get better.â€� When the snow piled up – Fargo had to dig out from a record 117 inches of the white stuff during the winter of 1996-97 – Hoge did have another option. He could go to the Sports Bubble and hit off mats at the indoor driving range. While it may not have been satisfying seeing the ball just go 50 yards or so, it was a good place to work on the fundamentals of the game. And it was warm. “So there’s parts when I look back on it growing up in Fargo that were very beneficial to me,â€� Hoge says. “Obviously, you’re limited just not being able to practice and get the experience other guys would in Texas and Florida or other parts of the country. “But it was a good spot. You learn work ethic up there pretty good just because your time is so much shorter than everyone else.â€� Hoge, who is quick to point out that he doesn’t miss the snow or the winters in North Dakota, is currently in the midst of the best year of his TOUR career. He’s had two top-10s in eight starts, including a tie for third at the Sony Open in Hawaii where he held the third-round lead. The way Hoge sees it, weathering the brutal winters in a city that is just 160 miles from the Canadian border, builds character and that has helped him along the way. “If you’d look at kind of the way my career’s been there’s been a lot of times where I’d been struggling and kind of close to losing status,â€� Hoge says. “And going back to the Web.com Tour finals this year I had to birdie seven of the last 12 holes to get back out on the PGA TOUR. “And I think there’s some of that fight that growing up in North Dakota instilled in me.â€�

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood kept a clean card in the March wind, kept his patience and was rewarded at the end with three straight birdies for a 7-under 65 to set the early pace Thursday in THE PLAYERS Championship. The move from May to its traditional spot on the calendar brought green, softer conditions and more wind than usual. Even so, Fleetwood was among several early starters who managed to take aim on the TPC Sawgrass. Fleetwood had only one birdie on the slightly easier back nine, and finished with birdie putts from 15 feet, 30 feet and 18 feet. “If you’re in the fairway all the time, the course feels very, very different,” Fleetwood said. “And it’s a massive key around here. And then I just started picking a few shots up, and then you get on a run like 7, 8, 9, and it feels great after that. Just one of them would feel like a great round, so three of them … I’ll take it.” Byeong Hun An and Brian Harman were at 66, while Rory McIlroy also played bogey-free for a 67. Tiger Woods was among the late starters on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Of those playing in the afternoon, Keegan Bradley and Ryan Moore were the only serious threats to catch Fleetwood. Moore had a hole-in-one on the island-green 17th. Starting on the back nine, Bradley played No. 15 – 18 in 4 under to go out in 5 under. He kept a clean card on the front but couldn’t pull ahead of Fleetwood and will begin Round 2 tied with the Englishman at 7 under. Harris English had an albatross — the third straight year for one at THE PLAYERS — on the par-5 11th hole. The scoring wasn’t unusual, nor was the tight leaderboard. It was simply the way the golf course was playing — longer off the tee because the fairways aren’t quite as fast with rye overseed, softer around the greens. Charles Howell III holed out for an eagle from a fairway bunker on the fourth hole. Harold Varner holed out from the rough on No. 1. “Holing out from a fairway bunker on that hole, no, that will never happen again,” Howell said. “I used that up, so that’s done.” In May or in March, there’s generally no lack of excitement at Sawgrass. McIlroy was among those who approved of the calendar change. This was only the third time in 10 starts at THE PLAYERS he broke 70 in the first round. “I think the course over the last 10 years … it hasn’t lent itself to aggressive play,” McIlroy said. “It’s sort of position and irons off the tee and really trying to plot your way around the golf course. I hit drivers on holes today that I would never have hit driver the last few years. “I don’t know if the course is easier or not,” he said. “We’ll see what the stroke average is at the end of the day. But because I think it’s playing longer, it’ll play longer for most of the guys, and I think it should all even out. But I definitely like the golf course the way it is in March.” Whatever the month, the island green is still there. Moore used a 54-degree wedge for the first ace on the 17th hole since Sergio Garcia two years ago. It was the ninth hole-in-one on the most infamous hole at Sawgrass during THE PLAYERS. Paul Casey put two in the water on the 17th and made a quadruple bogey. English’s shot barely cleared the bunker and rolled softly into the cup for his 2 on the 11th hole, the first albatross on that hole since Hunter Mahan in 2007. It was the fifth in tournament history. Fleetwood, the 36-hole leader last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard until a bad patch on Saturday took him out of the mix, kept motoring along. He putted for birdie on all but two holes, getting up-and-down from 127 yards on the 14th hole and from just off the green at No. 4. “If you like golf, you should like this golf course, really,” Fleetwood said. “It’s just about as fair as you’re going to get a test. If you hit it well like I did today, you’re going to have chances and you can shoot a score, and people are shooting scores. But you can also get it the other way, as soon as you start struggling and start going the other way, it can easily go against you. It’s an amazing course for that.”

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