The man from Fargo warms up at Pebble

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Just for the record, it was -5 degrees on Thursday in Fargo, N.D. Also on Thursday, Tom Hoge, the best pro golfer ever to come from Fargo — at least in recent memory — was -9.

That’s because he was playing Pebble Beach, where sometimes conditions during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am might make people think they’re in North Dakota rather than Northern California.

But not this year. If it wasn’t Maui, the temperature on the Monterey Peninsula leveling at 57 degrees, there were no clouds, no rain and for Hoge no bogies.

OK, so he isn’t as well known as guys like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, and coming into this tournament he had missed 89 cuts of the previous 202 tournaments he played, but Hoge (pronounced HOAG-ey, like the sandwich) finished second in the American Express a couple weeks back.

And on Thursday he shot a 63 on one of the world’s most famous courses in some of the winter’s best conditions. Sell the umbrellas. Ditch the apres-ski boots. Bring your admiration.

This is hardly a lock for Hoge. He’s only a shot ahead of the Irishman Seamus Power, who recorded his 64 at Spyglass Hill, another of the three courses used in the first three rounds. PGA Tour champ Patrick Cantlay had a 65 and former AT&T winner Jordan Spieth a 68, both at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Still, for a man from a city made infamous in the black-humor flick “Fargo” a few years back, being in the sunshine and being in the lead is, well, special.

He played here in the years of chilblains and heavy rains, so-called Crosby weather (remember, the tournament was created by Bing Crosby).

“Yeah, I enjoy it,” he said. “You know, when the years have bad weather it's still fun to be out here. And then you get weather like (Thursday) and this week, and it's fantastic.”

Hoge, 32, was born in North Carolina, but his family moved to North Dakota, when he played between blizzards, and he later went to school at Texas Christian.

He started his round at 10, the hole before the course turns away from the water, with a birdie. Then he birdied 11. And 18. But it was on the front where he made the run, six birdies in a row, on holes three through eight.

“It's hard to be in a bad mood out here,” said Hoge. “I mean, Pebble Beach and perfect weather is about as good as it gets. So it was a lot of fun.

“I feel like I've been playing well. I've been excited to get out here on the golf course and feel like Pebble Beach is a golf course that suits me well, so I was excited to get out here this week.”

And get as far away Fargo as possible?

“The first reaction is usually the movie, yes,” Hoge told Helen Ross of PGATour.com, discussing the reaction to his background. “And then the second statement is that I’m the first person they’ve ever met from North Dakota.

“So I’m kind of ready for those two all the time.”

On this fine day, he was just as ready for Pebble Beach.