Charley Hoffman might be the only guy who can catch Jordan Spieth
You know Saturday. It is a time for fun hobbies and chillin' and beaches and a night out and whatever weekend pleasure and, if you must, honey-do lists. Chores aside, it's hard not to like Saturday.
Charley Hoffman, though, hasn't embraced Saturdays -- the last two anyway. As the closest pursuer to five-stroke leader Jordan Spieth, the 38-year-old from San Diego hopes to change that feeling in the third round of the Masters.
Hoffman is one of golf's best ball-strikers and is in a rich vein of form. There's more evidence than his rounds of 67 and 68 the past two days at Augusta National. He is fresh off ties for 11th the past two weeks at the Valero Texas Open and Shell Houston Open, those following his Mayakoba Golf Classic victory and a Humana Challenge runner-up finish early in the season.
But his two Lone Star State tournaments were sabotaged by poor Saturdays after strong starts. He had a third-round 79 at Valero, followed by a 74 a week later in Houston.
"I can't say why I played bad on Saturday the last couple of weeks, but I felt comfortable, (then) got off to a couple of bad starts (and had) bad breaks," said Hoffman, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour. "But I don't see that coming tomorrow at all, and hopefully it doesn't."
Now he enters the weekend, on golf's biggest stage, as the chief pursuer, one looking for a reversal. He'll be paired in the final twosome with golf's hottest player in Spieth. This is bigger than Texas.
"Hopefully this Saturday is a little different," Hoffman said. "Hopefully I play four good rounds instead of three of them this week."
Can Hoffman win? Sure. Anyone who saw him win the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship should know that. And this season he's seventh in FedEx Cup points and 10th in wages.
What's more, Hoffman has been a consistent performer for a while, having finished among the top 69 money winners each of the past five years. And golf is expert at delivering surprises and, as Tiger Woods said Friday, "anything can happen here" over the final 36 holes.
"I'm not surprised by this," said Hoffman's veteran caddie, Brett Waldman, a Web.com Tour player in 2011. "He's played well all year and doesn't have any holes in his game."
Will Hoffman win? That's unlikely, the oddsmakers will tell you, given Spieth's form and position, and the likes of Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson just behind in third.
Hoffman is a likable sort who for years has been known for his long locks and colorful clothing, including a green glove worn places besides Georgia. But he got rid of the scarecrow look and shaved his hair two years ago because it "stopped growing on top like it used to" and "wasn't that great a look anymore."
Now he blends in as just another conformist in the Tour group photo.
"The hair's gone, so I'm not that much different than any golfer now," Hoffman said, drawing laughter. "But most importantly, I just want to play good golf and give myself chances to win golf tournaments."
Ranked 63rd in the world, the former UNLV golfer is playing in just his second Masters. He tied for 27th in his first visit here, in 2011, back when he was less polished and not as confident.
Asked about what he's like now in pressure situations, he got more laughs when saying, "I don't like to lose, that's my personality. Unfortunately you have to lose a lot in golf. My theory inside is when you're playing good golf, keep playing good golf."
So there's the weekend goal. Keep hitting the spots at which he's aiming. Spots. That's his focus. Not Spieth. Not scoreboards. Not the big galleries.
"When you get in between the ropes, it's just golf and you're trying to hit shots in a specific area on this golf course," he said. "So far I've been able to hit my spots, and I think that's the most important thing."
That and keeping high numbers off the card. Hoffman makes a lot of birdies but has been prone to the odd double bogey over the years. It follows that a San Diego golf writer mentioned such "blow-up holes" when asking Hoffman about the key so far this week.
"Haven't had a blow-up hole," he cracked.
