What is the secret to making the Tour Championship? Morgan Hoffmann will tell you that it’s treating every week of golf’s playoffs like it was a friendly outing with your college buds.
Hoffmann became the first player in FedEx Cup history to begin each round of the playoffs below the cut-off line and play his way into the next week. Barely within the top 125 players when the playoffs began (No. 124), he put up his first top 10 finish of the season at the Barclays (ninth) to creep into the top 100 for the next week. He barely survived the next week’s cut to 70 players, when his 35th place finish at the Deutsche Bank left him 68th in points. With weekend rounds of 62-63 at the BMW last week and a third-place finish, Hoffman catapulted to No 21 for the 30-man Tour Championship Field.
“It basically was just carefree, free-wheeling it,” Hoffmann said, explaining the attitude that got him to East Lake.
“Going out and trying to not have any expectations and going back to kind of college play where there are no scoreboards out there. Just going out having fun and going for pretty much every flag and just trying to do the best I can every shot.”
The 25-year-old former Oklahoma State player, in only his second full season on PGA Tour, can continue to approach this week like he’s playing with house money. He’s already met or exceeded all reasonable — and some unreasonable — expectations.
“It’s a dream come true,” Hoffmann said. “From the beginning of the season, this was my major goal, to get to the finals in Atlanta. It’s a true honor to be here, especially coming from No. 124, just sneaking into the playoffs.”
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