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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY COCA-COLASeptember 9, 2014Morgan HoffmannATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started. We'd like to welcome Morgan Hoffmann into the interview room here at the TOUR Championship by Coca‑Cola. Morgan, quite a run you've had through the FedEx Playoffs. You continue to stave off elimination each week. What an incredible performance this past week, 62, 63 on the weekend. If we could just get some comments on being here at East Lake. MORGAN HOFFMANN: It's a dream come true. From the beginning of the season, I've always wanted‑‑ this is my major goal, to get to the finals in Atlanta. And it's a true honor to be here. And especially coming from 124, just sneaking in the Playoffs. And put a lot of hard work in it this year. It's finally paid off. Q. Morgan, you didn't win last week, but in some ways do you feel you have the biggest momentum coming into this week because of your position starting the Playoffs? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah, I haven't looked into everybody else's play in the last three weeks, but I feel pretty good about myself. And we've been working really hard and have a great game plan, and my caddie and my attitude coming into this week is really positive. We're looking forward to a good week. Q. When you went into last Saturday, did have this feeling that you had kind of no margin for error, you had to have these two tremendous rounds to advance? Did that mindset ever enter your play, or did you just kind of go out there and play your game? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah, absolutely. Coming into the week I know I had to finish either first or second, maybe third. And the first two days I played great, and I just had a couple of weird shots and some unlucky things happened. Shooting 2‑over, 2‑over obviously isn't the best play, but I had a positive attitude going into the weekend. I knew if I swung the same as I did the first couple of days and just dropped a couple of putts, then good things can happen. And just kind of rode the train. Q. I know you've talked about your new game plan being aggressive. You came to that after the Wyndham Championship. In your mind, does that sort of fit with what the Playoffs are, kind of an all‑or‑nothing deal? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Absolutely. That's a good point. It's nice to go back to kind of the college mentality of playing with Peter Uihlein and Rickie Fowler and Kevin Tway, just messing around at Carson Creek and going pretty much for everything. Kind of just trying to play like it's my home course every week. I haven't known the course at each stop we're at, but we're just trying to go out there and have some fun. Q. Can you talk a little bit about how you first got into golf, who introduced you to it, the courses where you first played, and maybe if you have a memory the first tournament you ever won? MORGAN HOFFMANN: So my dad was a really good golfer. He was scratch my whole life growing up. He got me into it. My mom has no idea about golf. I made an eagle; she calls it a double birdie. So pretty much describes it all right there. But so I grow up at Arcola Country Club, which is in Paramus. It's basically a sister course for Ridgewood where I played the Barclays a few weeks ago. It was an amazing experience growing up there. The greens were great all the time. Practice facility was nice. Really lucky to grow up there. And my first tournament I won was actually the Father‑Son at Arcola when I was eight. My dad and I went out and won somehow. After that, went on the Pioneer Tour, which was Bergen County, which is a small county in New Jersey, their Junior Golf tour. Then started winning there, and kind of led up to the rest. Q. How old were you when you first started? MORGAN HOFFMANN: My dad has pictures of me in diapers with golf clubs in my hands. But first tournament was when I was eight. Q. I know you made a big double birdie a couple of weeks ago to kind of help. But as you look along this improbable journey in the Playoffs, are there key moments that you say that got you here, just one hole, one shot, where it could have gone either way? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah, absolutely. I think a really big one for me was on Sunday, after I doubled No.5 and kind of set me back a little bit. My caddie was: Let's look forward. We have a lot of holes left. I made about a 25‑footer on the next hole, the par 3, to kind of get the momentum back. He's like: All right. Let's go. And we felt really good and never looked back from there. Q. You said about how good your and your caddie's attitude is. What is that attitude? How do you describe it? MORGAN HOFFMANN: It's basically just carefree, free‑willing it. Going out and trying to not have any expectations and, as I said earlier, going back to kind of college play, which there's no scoreboards out there, just going out, having fun, and going out pretty much every flag and just trying to do the best I can every shot. Q. Can you talk about progressing to that attitude? Did you have it coming out of the box on the PGA TOUR, or is it something you had to learn to get to? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I always try and keep the attitude. But it's difficult, especially I'm really hard on myself. And I have a lot of expectations for my game. And I kind of put too much pressure on myself at times and kind of swing out of that attitude. So the best times I've had it was in the Playoffs in the Web.com for‑‑ when I made my TOUR card coming out here, shot I think 64 or 3 in the final round there and got my TOUR card. Just barely snuck in at 19th, I think. I had it that day, and I've had it the whole Playoffs this season. So it's been fun and hopefully I can learn from it and keep it the rest of the next year. Q. You're the only guy to have done this, to advance to each stage from the other side of the bubble, I guess. As you look back at the start of this, did you really expect yourself to be here? How surprised are you to be sitting here right now? And is it all about the attitude, or is there something else that got you here? MORGAN HOFFMANN:  I made a lot of changes in my life recently. I'm trying to keep a close circle of people and just kind of be a little selfish but keep my friends and family obviously close. And it's really worked out for me. And it's tough to do because I have so many friends and family that I love, but you gotta keep it in line to reach my goals. One of my goals was to be here. And it was very improbable. I've seen online the odds of me making it and all that kind of stuff. But it's pretty funny to see what people are writing. But it's great to be here. It's been a dream of mine since I started on the PGA TOUR. And a lot of other benefits come from being here, which is so cool. And I can't wait for the season next year. Q. The epiphany sort of came after missing the cut at Wyndham. After two years, why do you think that was the turning point? What clicked there between you and your caddie? MORGAN HOFFMANN: The last probably ten weeks of the regular season this year I kind of had a lot of pressure on myself. I knew I was playing great golf, and it just wasn't clicking. I wasn't making the putts I needed to, wasn't hitting the shots I needed to. It was really frustrating for me. So after missing the cut at Wyndham, it was kind of an end‑all, be‑all, absolute epiphany, kind of sit down, beat myself. I really looked at every part of my life, from the people in it to what I'm doing, to what I'm eating, to how I'm working out. And it really kind of transformed where I went from there. And that weekend of Wyndham, worked really hard. Wrote down a lot of things and kind of changed my lifestyle coming into the Playoffs. Q. You talk about that process of tightening the circle, which seems like a thing that a lot of golfers say they have to go through. As you say, becoming more selfish. What is it‑‑ describe what happens before and why it's sort of debilitating to you and why people have to make that choice. MORGAN HOFFMANN: So coming on to the TOUR, there was always people always asking for things: Hey, can I get tickets? Can I get extra clubs? Gloves? Balls? All that stuff. I love my friends. So I was always very generous and pretty much did what everybody asked. My agent was like: You need to be more selfish. Well, that's kind of rude.  And I guess it took two years for me to finally listen to him. But it's worked out. Everybody understands. And I just needed to take a little more time for myself and certain aspects of my life. And it's really helped the golf game. Q. Back to the attitude, would you say looking back or looking now, did the attitude grow to the stature of the event, or did the stature of the event that you're succeeding in just start to feel like college or the things you're trying to emulate? MORGAN HOFFMANN: That's a good question. I'd say it wasn't the event or how big it was, or the players in it, it was just kind of my attitude for my all‑around life basically and not just my golf, as I said, from working out to the people and where I go at certain times and all that. So it wasn't a goal set by the events that needed to be played, it was kind of just all‑around thing. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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