Why Charley Hoffman's rant matters
The well paid PGA pro teed off (!) on the PGA Tour. Why should we care?
Unless you’re a true golf sicko (like me), you probably don’t know who Charley Hoffman is. And even when you see a picture of him, it probably still doesn’t change that - even though Charley Hoffman looks like this:
Now, he doesn’t always dress that garishly, but he does always wear a flat brimmed hat and shades, and yet is still fairly indistinctive as a pro golfer because … well, Hoffman hasn’t done THAT much, certainly not recently. He has four PGA wins, which is nothing to sniff at, but his last was almost six years ago at the Valero Texas Open. And yet, he’s made a TON of money - just on the course, from the PGA, in this career:
So, wait - why are we talking about him? Because this weekend at the WM Phoenix Open, he hit a ball into the water - and when he dropped a ball to play his penalty shot, he made an error in how he handled it, and incurred another penalty shot. And somehow, he wasn’t to blame for this. Here’s Hoffman going nuclear on Instagram:
I could break down all the things wrong here - and many actual writers and podcasts have done just that - but what’s key here is that in his abject whining, he basically said that the tour is under threat if they don’t “protect” their players, and copied in the Saudi League. And Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau (not shown here) immediately commented in support of his screed.
The reactions were quick, and we somehow ended up in a place where Brandel Chamblee was the voice of reason:
Hoffman is 45 years old, and in no way, shape or form is he someone the Saudis would target to play on their tour - and indeed, Hoffman has since said he’s not talked to them whatsoever about doing so. Many folks (including myself) interpreted this not just a threat to leave, but as air cover for doing so. Certainly, I think that’s what Phil and Bryson are doing (and Phil in particular has blocked EVERYONE who says so on Twitter, which feels very snowflake-y, but I digress). But Hoffman is, I believe, doing something different - he’s trying to make the tour even MORE player friendly by using the Saudi threat.
Take, for instance, the arm lock putter.
This is a newer type of putter where players such as Bryson can essentially keep the putter stable against their leading arm, which helps take the yips and movement out. Guys like Will Zalatoris - a great player in all aspects aside from putting, where he’s abominable - might owe their careers to the arm lock. And yet, it’s disturbingly similar to the anchoring that got the tour to ban long putters that many golfers pushed into their chest to achieve a very similar effect. There’s been rumors and certainly suggestions that these new putters should be disqualified for the same violation.
Hoffman’s rant shows why stuff like this is very unlikely to happen. With the threat of the Saudi League very real (if not necessarily about to actually transpire), guys like Hoffman can find any gripe, any complaint - and push for change to make it even easier for them - by holding this threat over the tour’s heads.
What’s insane is that these players are insanely coddled already - and they’re fairly vocal about this when it doesn’t happen. One stop on tour (a TPC course!) added a bunker in the center of the fairway - and instead of tackling it like a hazard, the tour players complained so loudly that the course removed it. Players routinely put videos on Instagram showing how “unfairly” deep the rough is at majors and so forth.
They want nothing more than to be able to hit the ball as far as possible and not be penalized for it. They use equipment that is tuned up to levels that are often technically illegal, but there’s almost zero testing for it. (Which echoes the PED issue from MLB years ago to a disturbing degree.) In short, the players are essentially making all the rules, and benefitting EXTREMELY well financially.
Again, Charley Hoffman has made over $32,000,000 and most sports fans have never heard of him. Ryan Moore has made just over that amount and I continually fail to distinguish him from Ryan Palmer (who has made $31,500,000!). I could go on and on, but if someone wants to complain about the PGA tour, it should never, ever be someone like Charley Friggin Hoffman, who has benefited greatly by the purses and handouts the tour has started giving out in the post-Tiger era.
Now, jamokes like Hoffman have another card to play - the threat of another tour. The PGA Tour has a LOT of problems, many of them self-inflicted. But that’s not what Hoffman is complaining about. And what he wants will make it a much, much worse product.
There’s a rule about slow play that is never enforced. If they start enforcing it, the biggest violator (DeChambeau) almost certainly leaves for the Saudi Tour.
The tour makes it incredibly hard for young talent to play in their events, instead allowing insane amounts of veterans to have almost unlimited exemptions. Charley Hoffman, in fact, was only playing in this event because last year he finished in the top-125 on the FedEx Cup. This year? This is just his second tournament - and he withdrew from the only other one, last week at Pebble Beach. The tour is protecting Charley Hoffman just fine.
But it’s not enough. It will never be enough. And the kind of change the players want will exacerbate most of these problems on tour. Hoffman will get