The father approached the instructor, wanting golf lessons for his son. "I think he has some talent,'' the father said.
The instructor thought, "How many times have I heard that?''
Then the son flushed an iron shot into the back of the golf dome, making the kind of sound you usually hear on PGA practice tees, and the instructor told the father, "He has serious talent. We have to work with this.''
The instructor was John Dahl, of Oxbow Country Club in Fargo. The father was Chuck Hoge. The son was Tom Hoge, who was 13.
Sunday, Hoge earned his first PGA Tour victory, storming past Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay on the back nine to win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am by two shots over Spieth, earning a berth at the Masters.
Hoge, 32, grew up in Fargo. He played at TCU, and now lives in Fort Worth and has a place in Las Vegas.
He also visits the Phoenix area to work with Dahl, still his swing coach.
Three weeks ago, Hoge and Dahl played TPC Scottsdale. "We went through the same fundamentals we always have, and I was telling my buddy and other golf professionals after that, 'I think he's going to win,'" Dahl said. "I was even checking out the sportsbooks. I don't gamble, but I was thinking about putting some money on this because he was making birdie on half the holes we played.''
Mark Johnson is the former head pro at Fargo Country Club, Hoge's former home course. Johnson is now the director of golf at Suite Shots in Fargo, a facility affiliated with TopGolf and Toptracer that is preparing to open in Fargo.
He remembers Hoge as an "exceptional iron player'' and competitor.
Hoge's last victory before Pebble Beach came at the Bobcat Open at Fargo CC in 2017. "Tom never won a North Dakota State high school title as an individual,'' Johnson said. "I wouldn't say winning came easy to him. He had to work for everything.
"He played in the Bobcat in 2017 because he had to go back to Q school and he wanted to stay sharp, and he wound up setting a course record and winning. I think the guys on the Dakotas Tour saw how close they were to that level, and yet maybe that they're not really that close, either.''
Johnson said Hoge was talented but would not have succeeded without a lifelong work ethic and the mental toughness to ride out difficult times in a sport that doesn't offer a guaranteed salary.
"He is an extremely talented iron player, and there is not a target he's afraid of hitting,'' Johnson said. "He just keeps churning away.''
Hoge is the third player from North Dakota to win a PGA Tour event. He received a congratulatory tweet from Amy Olson, who grew up in Oxbow and played for North Dakota State and has become a frequent visitor to LPGA leaderboards.
Johnson remembers Hoge setting himself apart on a daily basis at Fargo CC.
"Tom's friends would be off doing something and Tom would be at the golf course,'' Johnson said. "Or they'd have a day off of school, and it would be 40 degrees and blowing like crazy, and Tommy would be on the golf course. His skill is rooted in passion. There are probably more talented guys that have come out of Fargo before him, but Tom mixed talent with work ethic and belief.''
Sunday, Hoge trailed Spieth by two shots on the back nine, then rolled in a long putt at No. 14 for birdie. By the time Hoge stood on the scenic 18th tee, he knew a par would probably win the tournament, so he hit a 5-wood off the tee, laid up to 152 yards and hit an 8-iron well past the tucked pin.
His lag putt left him a nervy 5-footer that he drained for a final round of 68, winning on a course that has seen celebrations by the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Phil Mickelson and Spieth.
Chuck Hoge lives in Michigan, where he cares for his mother. He sat in the same chair for six hours watching his son, shifting to the front of the chair when Hoge stood over his shots.
"You could say the house got quite loud when he made a putt,'' Chuck said. "The beauty of being able to record things is that I watched it live, then I watched some of it again a little later in the evening, and then when I went to bed the Golf Channel had it on again, and I watched some of it again.
"The nice thing was, I knew what had happened. It was still fun to watch it all again.''
