way. My head wasn’t really on straight for the first qualifying. “But sitting at home and seeing the guys leave just turned me upside down. I practiced my butt off and made it a goal to just forget about everything else and play golf.” “Morgan was so determined that it would not happen again,” McGraw adds. “The disappointment of not making it drove his practice every day. He worked his tail off. It’s a bad feeling for a kid to not make the trip, his teammates are gone, and I just think he didn’t want to have that feeling again.” With his head on straight, Hoffmann qualified for the next tournament, the Ping/Golfweek Preview at Inverness in Toledo, Ohio. Posting scores of 69, 66 and 72, Hoffmann took home a share of the individual title as the Cowboys ran away with the team trophy. “He won his first college tournament and went on to have a fantastic year.” In the 2008-09 campaign, Hoffmann would go on to win the Morris Williams Invitational along with medalist honors at the Big 12 Championships, tying Moore’s mark for most victories by an OSU freshman. He earned first-team All-America status and captured the Mickelson Award, the program’s fourth in a row. His second year in orange, Hoffmann had what could only be described as a “sophomore slump” at a program of OSU’s stature. In 13 starts, he carded 10 top-five finishes (including runner-up to Uihlein at the Preview), and earned second team All-America status.
46 May 2011
Basically, when you back Morgan up against a wall or you get him in his competitive mode, he’ll figure it out. I think his game is on an upswing right now.” — Mike McGraw
“Morgan had a little sophomore slump last year,” McGraw says. “I don’t know if ‘slump’ is the right word, but he didn’t win a golf tournament and didn’t play as well as he did the year before. Ultimately, you should get better as you go along. He didn’t play as well.” “I threw him back into qualifying this past fall. He was exempt from Olympia Fields and played poorly and then played really poorly in the Preview. I said, ‘Morgan you need to go back into qualifying and earn this spot again from your teammates.’ He said, ‘I was wondering if you were going to ask me that. I think I need to be there, too.’ In the subsequent qualifying rounds at Karsten, Hoffmann shot 71, 72, 69, earning his way back into the starting five. “Basically, when you back Morgan up against a wall or you get him in his competitive mode, he’ll figure it out. So putting him back in the qualifying is exactly what he needed. This year he’s been focused and playing really well. I think his game is on an upswing right now.” With a 10-under par performance, Hoffmann captured the individual title at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters in April. Along with Uihlein and Tway, he helped lead the top-ranked Pokes to seven team titles in 2010-11, including the Big 12 Championship, where he won medalist honors for the second time at Prairie Dunes. The 2011 NCAA Golf Championships will be held at Karsten Creek, OSU’s home course. After near-misses and heartbreak the last two seasons, Hoffmann says the team is determined to win it all this year. “My main goal this whole year is to win the national title as a team, because it would just mean the world to me,” Hoffmann says. “I’ve just pictured in my head so many times running around on the 18th green screaming and celebrating. It would just be the greatest thing to be there embracing your teammates, thinking about how hard we worked for so long and prepared ourselves for this moment.” c o n t i n u e s p. 5 1