Charley Hoffman is not in the habit of personally requesting autographs from his fellow golfers. But when he found himself next to Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer on the practice tee at Augusta National on Thursday, he didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity.
So Hoffman pulled from his bag the yellow Masters flags he had the forethought to procure on Tuesday and sidled up to the two Masters legends shortly before they provided the honorary tee shots. They were happy to oblige.
“They were nice enough to do that,” Hoffman said with a big grin. “I was sort of scared. ‘Should I ask them; should I not ask them?’ My mind wasn’t really on golf really, I was watching those guys.”
That approach seemed to serve Hoffman well. The 38-year-old from Las Vegas, playing in only his second Masters, left the course as the leader-in-the-clubhouse with a first-round 67.
“Obviously to follow those guys off the tee, I mean, it’s pretty lucky and special,” said Hoffman, who played with Masters rookie Brian Harman of Savannah in the day’s first group. “I’m honored that the Masters gave me that opportunity, and I sort of took advantage of it and it was nice. I knew going into it, I like playing early and I like playing at a decent pace, so I knew this was going to benefit my game pretty well.”
The fact that Hoffman is even in this year’s field is a bit fortuitous. He qualified for the Masters by winning the last PGA Tour event of the 2014 calendar year. He overcame a three-stroke deficit to win OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico last November.
That he shot 67 and exited as the leader-in-the-clubhouse is something Hoffman was still trying to wrap his mind around.
“I’ve never been in a position like this,” said Hoffman, who finished 78th in FedEx Cup points last year. “You know, I’m just trying to put myself in position come Sunday more than anything. I’d have been happy to shoot 2 under it was nice to (birdie 18) get to 5 under. I’m going to enjoy it. Hopefully I’m there on Sunday. If I’m not, I had a great opening round. But I don’t see any reason why I won’t be there.”
As for those flags, Hoffman plans to auction them to raise money for his foundation. He plans to get Gary Player to sign them, too. Player had left before he got up the nerve to ask.
“I got in and out of there as fast as I could,” he said with a big laugh.
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