The First Look: CIMB Classic

Tom Hoge captured his first PGA TOUR victory Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, standing strong down the stretch against the likes of former FedExCup champions Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth. It was a long-awaited win for the TCU product and North Dakota native, coming in his 203rd career start. Recent changes to both his swing and equipment have clearly paid off for Hoge, who moved to No. 2 in the FedExCup. His win came just two weeks after a runner-up in The American Express. A putter switch quickly paid dividends, as last week’s victory was punctuated by a 20-foot birdie putt on the 71st hole. Hoge put the one-of-a-kind club in his bag at Pebble Beach, and the backstory of how it got there is quite incredible. Hoge was looking for a new putter a couple weeks ago at The American Express. He wanted one that could help him align more squarely to the target. According to Odyssey tour rep Joe Toulon, Hoge had a tendency to occasionally aim too far left. Hoge’s caddie, Henry Diana Jr., approached Toulon with a request to build a custom Odyssey 2-Ball for his player. “Henry thought a 2-Ball with a long line on it might be something easier for him to line up,” Toulon told GolfWRX. “He didn’t tell Tom about that conversation. I said, ‘You know what, I’ll have one made up and ready to go in case that time comes.’” The problem with the order, though, is that it had to be custom made. Hoge only plays putters with a plumber’s neck, but Odyssey doesn’t make a White Hot OG 2-Ball putter with that hosel. So, Toulon had to put an order into Odyssey headquarters for a custom version with a plumber’s neck. The order took about a week, and it got delivered during the practice days before last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Upon arrival, Toulon noticed the plumber’s neck was significantly heavier than the stock hosel options on the 2-Ball, so he removed the back weight on the sole. At that point, the putter was ready for Hoge’s approval, and he tested it against his other options prior to the event. Obviously, Hoge ended up making the decision to switch into the new custom putter. And the rest is history. But there’s another fold to the story. Diana Jr., Hoge’s caddie, originally suggested the 2-Ball putter because he has a bit of history with that model himself. Back in the mid-90s, Diana Jr. was a professional golfer who, like Hoge, also struggled with aiming too far left. He was using a 1986 Dave Pelz 3-Ball putter at the time. That club was a predecessor to Odyssey’s original 2-Ball putter, which was released in 2001. Diana Jr.’s father was a tool and die maker who built golf clubs on the side. When Diana Jr. was searching for a fix to his alignment issue, his father decided to make him a 2-Ball version. The 2-Ball worked wonders for the younger Diana. Then, years later, Odyssey brought a 2-Ball putter to retail and it became a huge success. “My dad was a tinkerer and he was always forward-thinking in a lot of ways and he had great ideas,” Diana Jr. told GolfWRX. “Pelz was obviously the pioneer of it, and then [my father] tweaked it, then Odyssey obviously came out with it. But it really worked…It’s just unbelievable how full circle it went.” It was a great call by Diana Sr. to craft a prototype version of the 2-Ball back in the mid-’90s, and it was a great call by Diana Jr. to suggest the custom build for Hoge. It wasn’t just the shortest club in the bag that helped Hoge win for the first time. Changes to the longest club also paid off. “When I started helping him – the reason I started helping him – was because he didn’t drive it well enough,” Hoge’s swing instructor, Scott Hamilton, told GolfWRX. “He was at like 51% or 52% driving accuracy. He was so in front of (the golf ball). The thing that makes his iron swing so good wasn’t very beneficial for his driver. He liked to push his pelvis forward on his backswing, so he’d get so in front of it, and that just didn’t work with the driver. “We worked really hard on getting him to load and stay behind it. … He’s greatly improved his driving.” Hoge was using a Titleist TSi2 driver in early 2021 to help take advantage of its more forgiving properties compared to the lower-spinning TSi3 version. According to Van Wezenbeeck, the high MOI (moment of inertia) driver helped offset Hoge’s inconsistency (more on Titleist’s TSi drivers here). The improvements that Hamilton and Hoge made started to set in, however, and he was gaining speed. As his spin rates started to climb while using the TSi2, Van Wezenbeeck and Hoge started to explore the lower-spinning TSi3 head and more stable shafts. Hoge is hitting the ball both longer and straighter, a combination that any golfer would take. “We were kind of fighting spin with the TSi2, and the mishit wasn’t as good,” Hamilton said. “When he jumped to the TSi3, the spin and launch profile started matching up and it started really moving out there. … Last year, he was probably at like 113 or 114 (mph of swing speed), and two years ago he was like 112. … He hit one the other day like 122 or 121. So he’s ramped speed way up. His on-course speed is like 115-117 now; not always, but when he wants it, it’s in there. So that always helps.” It does indeed.

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The International Team hasn’t slowed down Saturday at the Presidents Cup. They’re continuing to roll at Royal Melbourne in the first of the day’s two sessions. Here’s a closer look at how it happened: PRESIDENTS CUP: Scoring | Quiz: Which team should you support? DAY 3 FOUR-BALLS MATCH 1: U.S. WINS 3&2 Rickie Fowler/Justin Thomas (U.S.) def. Marc Leishman/Haotong Li (International) Holes won: U.S. 5, International 2 Holes led: U.S. 13, International 0 Recap: The U.S. Team never trailed, taking the lead for good with Rickie Fowler’s par at the fifth hole. The U.S. went 2-up with Thomas’ birdie at the par-4 eighth hole. It never got any closer. For the second straight match, Thomas ended it with a birdie putt, holing a 13-footer for birdie on 16. Thomas is 3-0 this week and now 6-1-1 in his Presidents Cup career. Fowler and Thomas are 3-0-1 as a Presidents Cup team. MATCH 2: INTERNATIONAL WINS 3&2 Abraham Ancer/Sungjae Im (International) def. Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (U.S.) Holes won: International 4, U.S. 1 Holes led: International 9, U.S. 0 Recap: The first seven holes of this match were halved. The International Team took the lead with pars at the eighth hole. It led the rest of the way. Im holed a 15-foot birdie putt to win the 10th hole and Ancer closed things out with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16. These two International rookies are undefeated this week. Ancer is 3-0, while Im is 2-0-1. MATCH 3: INTERNATIONAL WINS, 5&3 Hideki Matsuyama/C.T. Pan (International) def. Patrick Reed/Webb Simpson (U.S.) Holes won: International 7, U.S. 2 Holes led: International 15, U.S. 0 Recap: The International Team never trailed, taking the lead with Pan’s 13-foot birdie on the first hole. He added an eagle at the drivable par-4 sixth and a birdie at the seventh hole to give his team a 3-up lead. He wasn’t done. His approach on the par-4 12th hit the stick and stopped inches from the hole for another birdie. Matsuyama holed a 17-footer for birdie on the next hole to give his team a 4-up lead. Pan closed it out with a birdie on 15. Reed and Simpson dropped to 0-3 this week. MATCH 4 Adam Scott/Byeong Hun An (International) vs. Matt Kuchar/Tony Finau (U.S.)

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Round 3 of the Cadence Bank Houston Open takes place Saturday at Memorial Park Golf Course. Tony Finau holds the lead at 13-under par as the second round is delayed due to weather. Leaderboard Tee times HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. ET. (Golf Channel) Radio: Saturday, 1-6 p.m. E.T. / Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. ET. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) MUST READS Tony Finau ties career low with 62 to lead Cadence Bank Houston Open Air Force grad Westmoreland comes full circle in Houston Three Things to Know: Taylor Montgomery

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