Still smiling
PGA vet Charley Hoffman has had his share of ups and downs
CROMWELL — Charley Hoffman has an easy-going personality that has allowed him to deal well with both success and failure on the PGA Tour.
Hoffman has four victories and 50 top-10 finishes on tour. He also has eight runner-up finishes, including one at the Travelers Championship.
“I’ve had chances to win here. I’ve played well here in the past,” said Hoffman, 42. “The place (TPC River Highlands) fits my eye. The crowds throughout the years have grown immensely. It’s turned into quite an exciting tournament. The last four holes in the valley is about as exciting as it gets in the game of golf: a driveable par 4, a good par 3, and a couple of good par 4s to end it.”
Hoffman, 42, returns after taking the last two weeks off, a time to “decompress and hang out with the family. At this day and age in my life, that’s more important than getting a ton of reps in.”
He returned to the PGA Tour to play the Travelers Championship for the ninth time in the last 10 years.
He has three top-10 finishes in this event. Hoffman tied for third two years ago, finishing two strokes out of a sudden-death playoff. You may remember that playoff: Jordan Spieth holed out from the greenside bunker for birdie on 18 to beat Daniel Berger.
“It’s a great, fun golf course to play,” Hoffman said. “It’s not a golf course that’s going to beat you up. You’re going to hit good golf shots, make birdies and eagles and anything can happen at the end. A short hitter can play well, a long hitter can play well. Birdies always help crowds get involved in the events, and this event definitely has a lot of fireworks. … (Kevin) Streelman showed in the past that you can come out of the back of the pack to win a golf tournament or the leader can come back to you. It can happen both ways. That’s what makes this tournament so fun.”
Streelman birdied his final seven holes in 2014 to come from behind to win. That is still a PGA Tour record. That was also two years after Hoffman blew a golden opportunity to win the Travelers.
He took the outright lead in the 2012 final round with a birdie on 12. He birdied the next hole and still had a two-shot lead standing on the 17th tee. Then he sliced his tee shot into the water and ended up making a
double bogey.
Hoffman bogeyed the 18th hole also and ended up in a tie for second with Bubba Watson. Marc Leishman fired a final-round 62 and was finished with his round approximately two hours before Hoffman faltered.
“I had a two-shot lead on 17 and put it in the water and lost it. You’ve got to execute golf shots,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman has long taken both the good and bad results in stride. The San Diego native and Las Vegas resident gets to take his daughters to school, then go work on his game. During the summer, the family travels to tournaments with him.
“That puts me in a good frame of mind also,” Hoffman said. “I’m not hanging out at the golf course beating my head against the wall all day long. I learned that no matter what, it’s nice to be around your kids and feed off their energy.”
Now comes the stretch run of the FedExCup season. With the playoffs moved up a few weeks to end the season earlier, Hoffman now has only a little more than a month to improve his standing of 55th place.
That improvement may start with this weekend.
“I have good feelings. I’ve got a good mental state of mind because I had a few weeks off. I’m excited to come out here and play,” Hoffman said.