Long road back pays off for Hoffmann

CROMWELL — There were plenty of smiles from a golfer who was going to finish near the bottom of the standings at the Travelers Championship, and for good reason. Morgan Hoffmann has plenty to be pleased about.

This was the first cut Hoffmann had made since the Greenbrier in September of 2019 — an event no longer on the PGA Tour schedule.

“It’s definitely a real treat to play four rounds. That Friday (second) round was a real nail biter and stresser,” Hoffmann said. “It’s been a lot of hard work to get back to here.”

Hoffmann, 32, was diagnosed with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy in 2016. It is defined as a genetic muscle disorder or progressive muscle degeneration of the face, shoulder blades or upper arms.

It had taken years before Hoffmann could get a proper diagnosis. The course of treatment was ambiguous at best.

Hoffman, a two-time All-American at Oklahoma State, continued to play on the tour, The results got worse. So he turned to natural cleansing, unorthodox metaphors of medicine to try and heal. Raw foods to eat instead of anything packaged. That also took leaving the United States for Costa Rica to live for an extended period — living off the land in the most literal sense.

Eventually, he started to feel better and heal.

“My advice to everybody is do your homework, do your research, trust your body and try to be as natural as possible,” Hoffmann said.

Before this year, Hoffmann’s last PGA Tour event was the Shriners Hospital for Children

Open in October of 2019. He returned on a threeevent major medical extension. He missed the cut at both the RBC Heritage and the Wells Fargo Championship. Since then, he has gained back some muscle and speed in his golf swing.

So you can understand Hoffmann’s happiness to play all four rounds this week.

Hoffmann chose the Travelers Championship as his final of the three events for several reasons, one of which being he received a sponsor’s exemption from the event back in 2011, turning pro at TPC River Highlands.

“Because of the course, I had family watching and (River Highlands) has this energy around the ropes. There were so many positive things to take away from this week, especially having my friends and family out there screaming for 1-foot par putts to go in. That was really nice.”

Hoffmann hit his final full shot of the week to tap-in range for birdie on the 18th hole.

What are his options? Hoffmann plans to apply for more sponsor’s exemptions to see if he can continue to play tour events. He can also play on the Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder of the season.

“Hopefully, I’ll get some more sponsor’s exemptions and Monday (qualify) into some,” Hoffmann said. “I kind of wanted to see how the week went. I’ll reach out to a few tournament directors and see how they respond.

“Next year. … I have full status on Korn Ferry. I don’t have to worry about that. I can go play a full year out there. I’d like to get some more starts out here this year.”