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One of the nice things about the PGA Tour is the change of pace week in, week out. One week you can have a Vijay Singh or a Tiger Woods win and the next week it could be a Charley Hoffman. Charley who you may ask? Winning the Bob Hope you say? How?
On the who factor, Hoffman is a 30 year old journeyman from San Diego that looks more like he would belongs in a surfing contest before a PGA Tour event. If there were records on the PGA Tour for player winning with the longest hair, Hoffman would probably win it, just beating out Bill Glasson who's hair was also pretty long in winning his seventh and last PGA Tour tournament in 1997 at the Las Vegas Invitational.
Hoffman first broke on the PGA Tour in 1994 as a 16 year-old when he became the youngest player to qualify and play in the Buick Invitational. At the time he was attending Poway High School and was more steady that spectacular as a junior golfer. This spilled over into his college days, he made the Nevada-Las Vegas team which had players like Adam Scott, Chad Campbell and Chris Riley.
Hoffman turned pro in 2000 and struggled around the Nationwide and other tours, winning the 2004 Permian Basin Classic but still not playing well enough to make the PGA Tour. That all ended in 2005 when he finished 19th on the Nationwide list and made the Tour. Hoffman took advantage of that chance finishing 82nd on the money list to get a return engagement this year. His 2nd to last start of the year in his adopted home of Las Vegas helped secure his card as he finished T5th, his best PGA Tour finish and help him keep his card.
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From there it was a quick trip to the winners circle in an event that he shouldn't of won. You see history is dead set against not only a player winning his first PGA Tour event at the Hope but the thought of winning on your first trip was unfathomable. It had only been done once before, the first year in 1960 with Arnold Palmer.
Still Hoffman defined the odds and who knows, maybe the creators of the TV show "Survivor" will give him a call because that is what it took for him to win. Hoffman overcame the odds of playing with amateur's the first four days, playing four courses in five days and then playing in the high winds that buffeted the final day of the Hope. Making it all the sweetest, Hoffman did it in front of his parents, girlfriend and girlfriends parents.
Keys to victory for Hoffman
The major keys for Hoffman was his play on his last two holes of regulation making birdie and then an eagle, then making another birdie in the playoff. Here are some other keys for his victory:
- Took 133 putts, average 26.60 putts per round, ranked 1st
- Other key putting stats had him making 44 one-putts, best in the field and only taking one three putt which placed him T3rd
- Ranked 2nd in the bounce bank stat as he was 5 for 9. His most important bounce back was his last, after making a tough bogey at 16 he came back to birdie 17, eagle 18 and then birdie 18 again in the playoff, that's a great bounce back.
- Played the par 5s in 15 under, 4th best of the week.
- Made 27 birdies, 2nd of those that played 90 holes.
Hoffman's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 36 of 69 ..... (T71st) Driving average: 277.7 ..... (62nd) Greens hit: 63 of 90 ....... (T29th) Putts: 133 (26.60 a rd) .... (1st) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 2 1-putt greens: 44 2-putt greens: 33 3-putt greens: 1 Play on par 3s: -1 Play on par 4s: -1 Play on par 5s: -15 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 27 ................ (2nd) Scrambling: 18 of 27 (66.67%) (T22nd)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This Win Means
- Hoffman earned $900,000 for his victory, , best payday before today was $167,400 after finishing T8 at the 2006 EDS Byron Nelson Championship.
- Hoffman defined convention wisdom for the week, in past Hopes the winners have been a player that had a lot of experience but this week he became only the fourth player in Hope history to win their first PGA Tour victory in this event. The only others to do that were Tom Nieporte in 1967, Bill Rogers in 1978 and Donnie Hammond in 1986. Another way of showing what a rare thing that Hoffman did, in the 48 year history of the Hope he became only the second champion to win on his first try. The only other previous to this was Arnold Palmer in the first year of the tournament in 1960.
- Was still able to win despite that the that he hit only 36 of 69 fairways only four players hit less than him
- Hoffman's 343 total was the highest winning score since Steve Jones shot that in the 1989 Bob Hope.
- The last time a champion made eagle on the final hole of a tournament was Phil Mickelson in 2006 BellSouth.
- Hoffman becomes the fifth straight winner who didn't win the year before.
