Andrew Novak names the player on the PGA Tour with a seriously ‘underrated’ iron game, it’s ‘kind of nuts’

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Iron play is one of the most important aspects of being successful on the PGA Tour.

Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa are widely regarded as the best in the business on the PGA Tour with an iron in their hands.

Watching the two American Ryder Cup players in action from the middle of the fairway is quite something.

Their exquisite, yet very simple motions allow them to find the middle of the club face almost every single time.

Interestingly, Scheffler said when he’s not on form he will try to save his iron shots with his hands, rather than just turning through the ball.

How nice is it to hear that even the best player in the world struggles at times!

But is there a more unheralded player on the PGA Tour who should be getting credit for his iron play? It certainly seems that way.

Andrew Novak says Tom Hoge has an ‘underrated’ iron game’

Hoge has played 299 PGA Tour events, and has one win to his name at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2022.

He has made 183 cuts and has bagged 32 top-10’s.

The 35-year-old is obviously a very good player, everyone on the PGA Tour is in all fairness!

However, he seemingly stands out in one particular department.

Hoge was named by Novak, when he was asked to build a dream PGA Tour player, when speaking on The Smylie Show with Smylie Kaufman.

However, unfortunately for Hoge, Scheffler got the nod in the end.

Novak said, “I don’t see any reason not to just take Scottie’s iron game. With iron game if you want to go underrated, let’s throw Tom Hoge in there. His approach game is kind of nuts. Collin too.“

The recent Zurich Classic of New Orleans champion also named his picks for the other categories.

Driving?

He said, “I mean driving has to be Rory, right? It has to be. It is stupid what he does off the tee.“

Scrambling?

“Me.“

Putting?

“Denny, is probably the way to go right?“

Mental game?

“If we are trying to make this feel like an unbeatable force, I am going to throw Peter Malnati because it’s like I am losing to this guy by six shots right now and he’s being entirely too nice about it. But I think Xander or maybe a Patrick Cantlay, when I watch them play they seem very focused in on what they are doing. Very structured. They know exactly what they want to and what they are trying to do in the moment. It feels very scientific, we are doing this and this, and they have got it down.“

What Novak’s perfect player looks like:

Hoge’s iron play compared with Scheffler’s and Morikawa’s

The 35-year-old PGA Tour player is clearly a strong iron player, but where does he actually sit in the top two statistical categories for approaches to the green?

Scheffler tops the strokes gained approach to the green stats with +1.224, with Morikawa in third spot with a score of +1.090.

Meanwhile, Hoge is down in 12th position with +0.635.

Scheffler is 4th in greens in regulation with an average of 71.45% greens hit. Morikawa sits in 11th with 71.04% and Hoge is way down the list in 137th with 63.89%.

Judging by those stats, Hoge isn’t on the same level as Scheffler and Morikawa unfortunately.