N.j.'s Morgan Hoffmann Showing Improvement Each Year
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE BARCLAYS
NJSGA 2005 Junior champion Morgan Hoffman, a native of Wyckoff, N.J., isn’t yet a household name off the PGA Tour, but he’s getting there.
Following The Barclays at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J., Hoffmann, who turned 26 on August 11, holds a solid FedEx Cup ranking of 72, far above the No. 124 ranking he had a year ago heading into the same event, played in 2014 at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus.Only the Top 125 make it into the playoffs.
“It is gratifying to see improvement. You want to get better each year. You analyze the stats and see things you need to improve on. This year, I did a lot of work with my wedges,” said Hoffmann after morning stint on the practice range where he was hitting some long and straight drives.
“It’s great to be back in Jersey. I look forward to this each year. It’s nice to be back and get the support of the New Jersey fans. It’s also nice to sleep in my own bed,” said Hoffmann, 28, whose personal bed is still in Wyckoff at his mom’s house.
Hoffmann is gearing up at the right time. He has earned $1,095,235 this year. Last year, he made most of his money ($1.6 million) thanks to his meteoric rise in the FedEx Cup playoffs.In this year's Barclays, Hoffmann finsihed T-39 and earned $33,000 and moved up to No. 72 in the FedEx Cup rankings.
By finishing No. 26 in the FedEx Cup rankings in 2014, he earned spots in the 2015 Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open Championships.
“This season, I got in all the majors, so I had more time off. Time management Is a key for me,” said Hoffmann, who played golf at Oklahoma State.
In 2014, Hoffmann became the first player to advance from outside the Playoffs bubble three consecutive weeks (The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship and BMW Championship) to earn a spot in the TOUR Championship
A year ago, he arrived at Ridgewood Country Club for The Barclays ranked 124th in the standings, just inside the top 125 mark. Three events later he found himself slotted at 21st and headed to the TOUR Championship at East Lake, Ga., where he finished T-27.
Not only did he play well at East Lake with a T-27, but Hoffmann. The 2005 NJSGA Junior Champion is making quite a name for himself on the PGA Tour and will certainly have a ton of Met Area fans rooting for him at The Barclays at Plainfield this coming weekend
Among the highlights this year, Hoffman finished T-27 at the U.S. Open, made the cut at the PGA Championship, was T-13 in early July at the Greenbriar Classic and was fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after leading the first two days.
For every 10,000 steps Hoffmann registers on a pedometer as he walks Plainfield Country Club this week, Horizon BCBSNJ will add another $1,000 to a $5,000 donation it is also making to the New Jersey Golf Foundation.
Many of the children who benefit from the charitable work of the New Jersey Golf Foundation met up with Hoffmann at the Horizon Health and Wellness Center. Hoffmann offered them golfing tips and answered some questions as he prepares for the first round of The Barclays.
DEFENDING CHAMPION HUNTER MAHAN ONLY GOLFER TO PLAY IN EVERY FEDEX CUP EVENT
Hunter Mahan, who won The Barclays in 2014 at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, is the only player on the PGA TOUR to start in all 32 FedExCup Playoff events since its inception in 2007.
He said he will enjoy playing a classic golf course such as Plainfield Country Club this week.
“I like the classic golf courses. They are so much fun to play. It's amazing that they have stood the test of time for so long. Plainfield is a really unique golf course. There's a lot of really dramatic undulations on the greens and on fairways. I enjoy that.
“It is just playing golf and it is just hitting shots into -- the shot where you want to hit it and going from there. But I enjoy playing golf -- they don't make golf courses like this, so I do enjoy this classical type of golf course,” said Mahan, who has earned $1.26 million this year with three Top 10 finishes and $29 million in his career.
He earned $3 million in 2014. His FedEx Cup ranking this year is 77.
He was asked how he felt regarding the streak of playing all 32 FedEx Cup events
“I'm proud of that fact. I think everybody wants to get to THE TOUR Championship because you were the 30 best players that year and now it has even more significance, because two bad weeks, and you can be ousted,” he said.
“So it's a combo of playing good all year and then playing good kind of at the right time. I take great pride in that and I think it's a great accomplishment because it's through a long period of time. It's not like a six-month stretch of great golf. You know, it's eight years of great golf. I take great pride in that, and I'm going to try to work well this week and next week and hopefully the next two and continue my streak.”
DAVIS LOVE III WINS WYNDHAM, THIRD OLDEST GOLFER TO WIN A PGA TOUR EVENT
Davis Love III’s victory in the Wyndham Championship last week got him into the FedExCup Playoffs. He is ranked 76th in the FedExCup and this is in his 13th start at The Barclays.
At 51 years old, he is still playing on the PGA Tour and not the Champions Tour.
“I just felt like I could still compete out here. I felt if I could putt well enough, if the wedge game was good; that ball-striking-wise, the statistics, even coming back from some surgeries, statistics were proving out that ball-striking-wise, I was fine. I just wasn't getting the ball in the hole,” Love said.
“Some of that, like other players, if you don't play enough, if you're off, you're rusty, short game shows. So now that I've played a nice stretch and worked on my game, the short game has come around. I just feel like I could compete out here just as well as I could out there.
“….. Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup duties, it's nice. I sat with Jordan Spieth yesterday and just sat with Nick Watney and played with Bill Haas and Bubba Watson and guys like that just recently, getting ready for The Presidents Cup,” he noted.
