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 Charley Hoffman wears the Green Friendly Golf Belt in Brown Croc during THE PLAYERS Championship.
May. 11, 2007
By Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Charley Hoffman barely could keep track of the score he made on his very first hole in THE PLAYERS Championship, let alone pronounce it.
Charley Hoffman authored a solid 69 after playing early Friday morning. (WireImage)
It was just as difficult to explain it. At least he found a way to atone for it.
Hoffman, winner earlier this year at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, endured a nightmarish debut hole in THE PLAYERS, but somehow stands in the same place in relation to par as he did before he took his first swing: level par.
Quite a feat considering he carded a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 10th hole at Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass, his opening hole of the tournament.
"I can't ever remember having more than a triple-bogey (to start a tournament), much less a quad or a quintuplet or whatever," Hoffman said. "If you would have told me I was even par after making 9 on the first hole, I probably wouldn't have believed you. But I was happy with my game going into the week, and, unfortunately, I started off with a bad hole.
"But I think it got me focused and got me ready to play the next 35 holes."
Indeed, Hoffman somehow managed to eke out a 3-over-par 75 Thursday, meaning he covered the remainder of his round in 2-under par -- this while playing in the more difficult afternoon wave. On Friday morning, he came back with a 3-under-par 69 despite a bogey at the difficult 18th.
At even-par 144, Hoffman stood tied inside the top 20 and in contention.
"[With] a start like that, it's a pretty amazing comeback," Joe Durant said.
Incidentally, Hoffman also made a bogey at the 10th Friday after three-putting from 60 feet. That put him 6-over par on two trips over the 466-yard par-4. Last week at the Wachovia Championship, he missed the cut by going 6-over par for 36 holes.
"Yeah, I'd be right in it, and I still think I'm going to be right in it," Hoffman said. "Obviously, you can't take back what happened. I wouldn't have done anything different. The very first shot I hit (after the drive) I tried to get it back into play. It's not like I made a mistake."
The anatomy of a nine is a befuddling thing to behold because it usually requires an inordinate amount of luck, all of it bad.
Hoffman, who ranks near the bottom in driving accuracy on the PGA TOUR, pulled his tee shot with a 3-wood into the trees. The ball hit a limb and plugged into the waste bunker that runs down the left side.
He elected to just pitch out for his second, but bladed it across the fairway and into oblivion.
Lost ball.
After a drop and another plugged lie, he went at the green, hit another tree and bounced left near the hazard. He chipped out, but then dumped his sixth shot into a greenside bunker. He splashed out from a third plugged lie and two-putted for his nine.
"Three plugs and a lost ball one hole. Not bad," Hoffman, 30, shrugged.
The hole took him and playing partners Kirk Triplett and Tim Herron nearly 30 minutes to complete.
"And we still had to wait in the next tee," Hoffman said.
They laughed all the way there. "We were all sort of laughing," Hoffman said. "I walked to the tee and I go, 'Well, I think I made 9 there, and you can audit me if you want to. I'm not sure what I got.'
"But I was happy I didn't make a 10," Hoffman added.
Hoffman said the early blow-up wasn't as disquieting as it could have been since it came so early in the tournament.
"You have nothing to lose at that point," Hoffman said. "If it would have happened in the middle of the round, who knows what would have happened ... how it would have affected me. I was able to play some good holes after that and stay pretty calm and played a good round after that."
A quick poll of a few handfuls of players revealed no similar disastrous overtures, although Billy Mayfair remembers the first hole he ever played in the first stage of his initial trip to Q-School in 1988.
He hooked his opening drive out of bounds, though it was so close to the boundary that officials had to use a power cord from an outdoor tool to determine if the ball was indeed off the course. It was -- by fractions of an inch. Players were allowed to use carts at the time, and after Mayfair finally finished that first hole, his cart caught fire.
"Fortunately, I wasn't in the cart at the time," Mayfair said. "And I did make it through and got my card, so it turned out OK."
Charley Hoffman, after catching fire in his golf game, is hoping for a similarly pleasing finish to his week at THE PLAYERS.
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