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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 1, 2011

Charley Hoffman

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

DOUG MILNE: Thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Obviously it's a significant week for you for a number of reasons: Your ties with Waste Management and the fact that you almost pulled off a victory here a couple of years ago. That being said, obviously a special week for you. Just a couple comments maybe about the state of your game as we're heading into the week?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: The state of my game hasn't been very positive, unfortunately. Last week was also a pretty big week for me. San Diego is where I grew up. My charity event there, Waste Management is a big part of that event, also, and raised a bunch of money for San Diego charities down there, almost 200 grand for a few different charities, which was fun, took some time and energy for the week.
Unfortunately two missed cuts so far in the year. Usually in the past few years I'm a pretty consistent golfer. Little slow start for me. Can't really pinpoint the reasons. Last week I didn't putt very good. Two weeks prior I didn't hit it very good.
It's nice to come back to Phoenix where I almost won. Kenny Perry beat me in a playoff. It's nice to have Waste Management be a part of this event for the last couple of years. What they do to just try to make this PGA TOUR event better than any other event, with the initiation that they do with renewable energy, running this tournament completely on renewable energy is, I think, is -- I mean, as a player, even cooler to be a part of Waste Management and leading that wave so all the other tournaments can also do that.
Then another cool thing, they are going to have the first -- their box on 18 is going to be completely powered by solar energy. No other tournament has had a box completely powered by solar energy, and it's just the way -- I like being a part of a company that's leading in everything they're doing, and they're definitely leading the initiative, going green, and hopefully get our sport greener all around the country, not just here in Phoenix.
DOUG MILNE: With that, we'll open it up, take a few questions.

Q. Were you into that type of eco-friendly attitude before this partnership happened?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: You know what? Growing up in California I think I was aware of it. I would lie to say that I do everything that I should do. I definitely improved my footprint immensely since being a part of Waste Management. They've broadened my horizons just like I think I'm trying to broaden everybody else's horizons when I come here. I mean, the most important things are the four Rs: Reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. And if you do that, you're going to leave this place a better place than when you came here.
So, I mean, I would say I definitely did recycle, just because in California it was sort of a cool thing to do, but I definitely do way more now than I ever did in the past.

Q. You were talking about your game a little bit. When you've got one thing wrong one week, one thing wrong the next week, how do you get it to come together?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: That's actually encouraging, because one week I putted all right and another week I didn't. I wish I could pinpoint what I was doing wrong, but beginning of this week, I feel great, which I'd tell you if I didn't. Last week I didn't feel that great about my ball striking, and actually my ball striking came around a little bit.
I don't know if I focused so much on my ball striking last week that I sort of put the putting on the back burner. But putting, you look at my stats in the past, it's probably one of my strongest things I do throughout the whole year.
Not making putts for one week doesn't bother me that much, because I know it's probably going to come back. The ball striking, that going away a little bit, I wasn't too sure why that happened, but it feels better.
My instructor and I were working on a bunch of things this last two or three weeks, Shawn Callahan. I wouldn't say we took a step backwards and hopefully take about ten steps forward. We were working on a few things this offseason, because I was pretty busy. I have a baby that's 11 weeks old now.
So I wouldn't say I didn't practice, but I probably didn't practice as much as I had in the past, so my instructor and I, we maybe did some cramming the last few weeks to get ready. Obviously everything didn't click, and it's starting to definitely click now, getting ready for the rest of the season.

Q. Isn't that kind of a feature of the West Coast swing, really?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Not for me. Being in the West Coast and living in Vegas and San Diego, weather is the least of my -- I mean, I've got plenty of time to practice and play, and I usually pride myself on being very prepared for the few events. I wouldn't say I wasn't prepared. I just don't think what my instructor and I were working on really clicked as much as we wanted it to.
It's one of those things. I've done it plenty other times. Sometimes you get something right, you have to take a few steps back, and I definitely feel like I'm on the right foot going forward right now.

Q. Charity event? Was it Monday?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: It was Monday of last week, the Farmers, the San Diego Country Club -- sorry. That's wrong. Del Mar Country Club. It's actually, long story short, originally was Craig Stadler's event for a bunch of years in San Diego. He did it, and obviously he moved on to Colorado and not on the PGA TOUR anymore.
San Diego Junior Golf approached me five or six years ago after my first year on tour wondering if I would like to take over. I was like, What? You want me to do that? It was a great honor. I did that for a couple of years, and my wife and I started our foundation and my foundation took it over two years ago. So it's running under my foundation now.
We do a couple of events, one in Vegas actually on-site the week of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Open, and then we do the one in
San Diego the Monday of the Farmers. I tell you what, it takes a lot of time and a lot of work, more for my wife and our board members, which consists of my dad and my wife's dad and a lot of other people.
We're definitely getting it down now to where it's running smoothly and making more money every year, which for me, the way the economy was, is a big success. We started when the economy was pretty good, and we made only a little bit of money because we didn't know what we were doing, and we have been able to prove and make more money every single year, which is good for the future.

Q. We are going to have a greenout Saturday. You're a colorful man. What will you be wearing?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Um, green. (Laughter.)

Q. From head to toe?
CHARLEY HOFFMAN: I haven't decided my full outfit. I will guarantee you I have green pants, green shoes, green hat, green gloves. I haven't decided if the white shirt will look better than the green shirt yet. The shirt is probably the only thing up for grabs.

End of FastScripts

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