Tom Hoge and Sahith Theegala made their QBE Shootout debut one to remember with a one-stroke victory in the team event on Dec. 11, in Naples, Fla.
Hoge and Theegala combined to shoot a 10-under-par 62 during the four-ball format in the final round to edge Charley Hoffman and Ryan Palmer by one shot.
Theegala drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole then had to wait out to shorter birdie attempts from Hoffman and Palmer that would have forced a playoff. But neither birdie putt fell as the Hoge–Theegala team finished at 34–under 182 to tie the second-best score in tournament history.
“I think it’s just a testament to having two good looks,” Theegala said of birdie chances at 18 from himself and Hoge. “I was just a little bit away, but I knew Tom’s been putting well and it kind of freed me up a little bit to be like, ‘All right, let’s give this thing a great run.' To have that go in, it felt so good, can’t even explain how good it felt.”
The record winning score of 37–under 179 was delivered by Harris English and Matt Kuchar in 2020.
It was the fifth consecutive year of the event at the Tiburon Golf Course that the winning team was at 30 under or better.
Hoge and Theegala opened the final round tied for second place before shooting their third-consecutive round at 10 under or better. They were tied for fourth after the opening round.
“It was an interesting day because I don’t think either one of us played our best for 18 holes, but we kind of timed it right,” Hoge said. “I got off to some good starts to both nines and then Sahith kind of brought me home. You know, kind of the ham and egg worked really well for us and (we) holed the timely putts when we needed to, for sure.”
Hoffman and Palmer were unable to hold on to a two-stroke lead heading into the final round. They shot a 7-under 65 as they were unsuccessful in bidding to become the fifth team to go wire-to-wire for the victory.
“If you would ask us at the beginning of the week if we were the 12th ranked team (and) we had a putt (at 18) to go extra holes, we'd be pretty happy about it,” Hoffman said. “We played good, the putts just didn’t drop for us today.”
Harris and Kuchar finished tied for third at 32 under in their bid to win the QBE Shootout for a fourth time. It was their seventh top-five finish in the event.
The team of Max Homa and Kevin Kisner finished in fourth place at 30 under, while Trey Mullinax and Scott Stallings finished tied for fifth place with Denny McCarthy and the LGPA’s Nelly Korda at 27 under.
