How dialed is Tom Hoge with his numbers through his bag? D.J. and Neil from @NoLayingUp busted out their internal random number generators (aka their golf nerd brains), fired up the TrackMan, and put Tom to the test.
Spoiler alert… Tom was really good at this game but you’ll have to watch to see just how good he is. And let us know in the comments what your favorite yardage is when it’s time to go pin seeking.
» Subscribe to Titleist: https://www.youtube.com/@titleist?sub_confirmation=1
Well, you got to give me a number. What’s a number that your caddy reads off to you and you’re like, “Oh, hell yeah. There’s got to be one.” You get like excited about like the way it looks. Honestly, if I’m 75 to 175 is kind of that way. Okay. What’s that like? Yeah, I know. That sounds fun, huh? Why don’t we call a couple numbers out TV? Sure. Let’s do it. Um, see how dialed I am. Yeah. Well, we want to start with wedges. Yeah. 76 50. Let’s go. 133. 200 on the number. 187 235 60 139 1906 118 163. I love this game. I play this game just about every day. So, we’ll see how I am. It was funny um going back a few years ago. I won the par three contest at the Masters and I had a little bit of time where I was kind of done for the day on Wednesday afternoon. I always play a little game on Trackman. Um you know, kind of hitting my numbers there. I give myself two yards of variance is kind of my deal. But um had a nice 30 minute session. Get dialed in and went out. Felt like I was cheating when I got out on the golf course. Yeah. Far three contest. Oh, what’ you say? 70. 76. 76. What club we got? I got a 60. Okay. I feel like when I get real dialed on track, man, I’ve got a nice swing that feels like shoulder high to shoulder high. That’s 70 yards for me. Okay. I was going to say, so this should feel like a swing. 90% swing sort of. Yeah, maybe even not that much. I mean, I still feel like 76. I’m kind of that same shoulder high to shoulder high. I just feel like it’s maybe a little bit more on the bottom um to dial that in there. Feels like controlled height. Felt pretty good. Yeah, that’s 78. I’d say two yards there. All right, what’s next? What do we got? Let’s go 163. Okay. Pretty full eight iron for me. What would full be? 165. Okay. 163. Huh. Just a This is one’s pretty much almost just a stock shot here for me. That could be pretty good. That’s really good. Come on. Oh, 62. There we go. Good. Jeez. Uh, so I noticed it feels like you line the ball up a little. Yeah. like kind of Hzle pretty cooling Hzle a little bit at a dress which is which is you know you’re a better man than me that’s I don’t know where I got that from and it drives me nuts at times where I stay on the range I try to get out the center and I still just keep working it back into the heel a little bit. Yeah. So you just been you just you didn’t start doing that as a kid or anything? I’m not sure where it came from to be honest with you. Um you never battle the the S’s? No, I hit one. Um I hit one on Sunday at Memorial warming up on the range and that was the first one in a long time. I was like, was it early in the warmup? I was like or was it just Yeah, I think it goes with a nine iron. I always go 60° 9 iron 6. I think it was with a nine iron. I was like, oh boy. Hope this doesn’t show up again here today at all. Whoa. That’s great. All right. What number you got? Flighty to 118. 118. All right. Yeah, we’re pitching at 118. Is that right? Is that what is that what we’re looking for? Yeah. Yeah. But like you say, like taking something like what do you hit pitching wedge normally? 135. Okay. So, and we got a little wind in here. So, for sure. Yeah. Um and and you know, 115 120 that’s really on the lower end of where I’d be trying to hit this thing cuz 52 degree, you know, for me is 120 121 somewhere in there. All right. 118. So, I get a little more back in my stance, I would say. And I’m kind of grip down this thing pretty good. So, you do you’re choking up on it. We’re taking spin off. Yep. Taking spin off. Pretty short back swing. Maybe a touch far. What do we get out of it? It’s a little far, I think. 120. 120. I mean, still. We’ll take that. That’s fun. Pretty good for me. Six footer for very fun. I’ll take that. Really fun. But yeah, I mean, that’s a shot, especially when the wind gets up or you get in some of those greens get a little softer like that with spin a lot that I like going to. Um, and I like doing that kind of all the way up through the bag even. you know, you get seven irons, six irons, but um kind of a specialty shot because that thing’s coming in pretty low and it’s going to take a pretty good skip coming in there. And it’s like skip skip and then it’s going to grab or Yeah, by one big skip and grab. But I mean, that’s dependent on course conditions more than anything, I would say. But yeah, it’s it’s the great trade-off. you know, I’ve had a nice little run in my career here for the last 5 years or so that it’s like, do I want to throw all this away to potentially chase another five or 10 yards or, you know, if I just get the ball in play and make these scoring clubs really good, I can still compete with these guys out here? Well, I was going to ask, what’s the what’s the lowest you’ll go on your Trackman game? So, like, do do you hit 30 and everything else? Little little game I play to start with is kind of my stock daily thing is 50 to 80 yards in five yard increments. a 50 55 seven shots to give myself 14 yards is kind of pass or pass fail. So if I don’t get 14, I’ll just keep doing it over and over. Uh well, I think we’re about to do some short game stuff. So let’s just see 50. You found the hard you found the hard ones for me. Yeah, that’s that’s a hard one for me, too. They’re not my favorite. I mean, especially being kind of a lower launching, lower spinning guy, you know, 50, especially in the golf course, it’s coming in here pretty flat. All right, this one’s going to be kind of tough. What do we think? I think a little short. I think that’s good. Think so. Yeah. I’m generally long if anything. You called it. You called it right in the front. You guys found my weak spot here. I mean, yeah, that’s a pretty good no man’s land though. That is if you can hit 162 on the number. I mean, would that be one you’d consciously avoid in layups or generally speaking, it’s and also, you know, core strategy, I would say. Um, you know, if you get into some of the short par4s where other guys might push it up more, I’ll generally lay back to get 70, 80 yards. Um, just because I know that I feel like for my game I’m as good from 80, 110 as I am from 50. So, why why kind of take that risk to push it up there? Fading it. I feel more comfortable hitting fades. But, um, I feel like, you know, to me, I’m kind of an old school guy. I would say that I work on the fundamentals a lot, you know, alignment, setup, that sort of stuff. And then I go off ball flight. So yeah, generally if I get off, I’ll be a little too fade biased and I try to hit more draws on the range to kind of bring it back to neutral so I can hit hit bull shots. I’m probably one of the few guys that, you know, walks up there and really is trying to curve it, move it up and down. Yeah, a lot of guys are just hitting, you know, their stock go-to shot. So I would say first of all, I’d probably try to hit a different shot, see if I can find a feel that I’m more comfortable with, go from there. Um, and if that doesn’t work, just start looking for flights to head home. So, when you’re trying to find that different like shot shape or feel, are you are you manipulating that with ball position? Are you doing something with your hands? Like, what’s the what’s the way you go about changing like Okay, that the little hold off fade’s not working. So, you’re going to try to hit send some sort of draw in there probably if the fade’s not feeling. So, how how are you going to try to do that? If I’m setting up, you know, square to that flag for a draw. Perfect. You know, if that’s if that’s our square, we’ll call it. Okay. Stock shot. If I’m hitting that little fade, I would say I’m pretty much at it. If I’m going to go draw, I feel like I’m, you know, getting everything a little more close to the target line. Yeah. And then for me, it’s just more of a natural feel that I’m going to kind of swing on that line and feel the face release a little bit more to to get the draw in there. Okay. But, um, yeah, try to send out there. It’s more setup. Yeah. I feel like everything’s based off setup for me especially. Yep. Yeah. There it is. So, you can move it right to left. You just don’t like the quick left miss. Like when you’re you’re set up you’re Yeah. You’re set up for the unpredictable left. Yeah. I know. Even that I would say like if I’m hitting a draw in there, I love to feel like the draw is going to miss out right still. I hate seeing that thing cross over the go too much. Yeah. Exactly. All right. All right, let’s see. 200 on the number. Okay, go up in the bag. What is the top? What is the top end of your bag? What What do you uh So, six iron is about 190, five 205, and four iron is about 220. Okay. And then what you got to five or seven or something? And then I’ll either go sevenwood or three iron depending on, you know, conditions, course, how that’s all going to look. Um, you know, even Augusta this year for the Masters, I felt like we were kind of always watching the fourth T where the pin was, where the TE was for what I was going to need off that. I didn’t really want to hit a seven with that badly off that one, you know, just cuz it’s in the air forever on that hole and the wind can get it. But, um, yeah, but yeah, uh, 200 pretty comfortable five iron. Let me try to fade one just to take a little bit off of it here. That’s like that one. That felt like it maybe a little short. See if it gets there. 202 in the in the in the margin of error. That’s impressive. What’s your best finish this year? Uh third of the players. It’s a nice check. Yeah, that’s fun. Again, they just can’t stop playing one of these signature events. That was my spot. Uh players, um I mean, just purely golf course at the players. Is there something else? Is it just you like how it fits your eye? What? I don’t know what it is. But I play that place really well and it’s a good one with the biggest purse of the year to jump in there. Yeah. God, those cash boots and and well and Pebble, which in my head I’m like those are so vastly different places. Feel like you always play well at Pebble. Yeah, but the only thing I would say about both of them is you’re kind of all hitting it to one spot, you know, off the tea and then go from there with your iron switch. Small target my strength. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, one more. I don’t know how much space we got up there. What do we think that flag is? Should we try out the 250? See what we got. Yeah, I’ve just This is This is the new one just went in the bag for me at Colonial. Okay. Um felt like from the old one I was getting maybe another five yard or so. 235ish was kind of my top end carry I felt like. But And you feel like you’re getting five more out of this? Yeah. So 7wood’s always been about 240 for me. Okay. The old driving iron plane was kind of 230ish. Feel like I got a little bit more out of this and touch higher flight which I liked when we were at Colonial. But generally speaking, you know, I like I like hitting this more off of TE’s. So it was in the bag at Memorial where we had a couple T- shots on three and 14. Um, so not as much, you know, dialing in the carry number with this club as much as hitting it and seeing it run out when I when I need it. Well, let’s see. 235. All right. Putting the heat on me here. Yeah, that means it’s a good one. I was in my head there about hitting it right off the heel off the start. I still caught a pretty good little probably. 236. New top end. There we go. Yeah. All right. You guys are getting me dialed here. It should be a good week here. I know. Well, good to see you, Tom. Yeah, guys. Thanks for spending some time with us. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. We’ll see you guys out at some ProAms coming up here soon. I hope so. Hopefully. BMW. We don’t say no to too many invites. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We’re always always around.
