Hoffman's 62 secures Deutsche Bank

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship | Round Four | 07 Sep 2010

Charley Hoffman’s final round of 62 to win the Deutsche Bank Championship has not only earned the 33 year old his second PGA Tour victory but has earned him at least consideration for one of the four captains’ picks on the US Ryder Cup Team.

When Captain Pavin sits down to a teleconference with his assistants later today in order to finalise his team then Hoffman must be one of those in consideration.

In terms of his hopes for selection the 33-year-old’s timing could not have been better but that he was so far down in Ryder Cup standings prior to this week might yet count against him. He will be forced to wait 16 hours or so before he is made aware of his fate one way or the other.

Clearly it is something Hoffman had been thinking about. When asked what the best perk out of this win would be Hoffman had the answer.

“The best perk out of this would be a Ryder Cup berth plus a trip to Augusta National and knowing I can close the deal when I have to.”

“Ironically I was sitting with (assistant captain) Paul Goydos earlier this week and I joked to him if he had any influence in the Captain’s pick. He said well yeah and so I said well put a good word in for me. He replied that if I was to win this week I would make the short list. Well guess what Paul I went out and won and so hopefully I am on the real short list.”

Hoffman today came from four behind overnight leader Jason Day with a round that included 11 birdies to win by three over Day, Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald.

Adam Scott, Tom Gillis and Brandt Snedeker were one shot further back in a share of 5th.

Hoffman had made a slow start to this season after an injury caused some indifferent early season form but in recent weeks he has begun to play with He had made his previous nine cuts and importantly had been putting together a lot of good rounds.

More than half his previous 21 rounds had been in the 60’s and when the momentum started moving in his direction today it just kept going.

Hoffman had already closed in on the lead with an opening nine of 33 but it was his back nine of 29 that did most of the damage. His all round stats were stunning finishing no worse than 10th in any of the five main categories.

Hoffman first joined the PGA Tour in 2006 after finally earning the right to play at the higher level when 19th on the 2005 Nationwide Tour money list.

Hoffman quickly adjusted to the PGA Tour earning more than US$1 million in his first season and then just over twelve months after joining the Tour he secured his maiden PGA Tour title with a playoff victory over John Rollins in demanding final day conditions at the Bob Hope.

Jason Day took a one shot lead into the final day but struggled to build any momentum. He was unable to match the pace set by Hoffman but appeared to have second place locked up when he birdied the 16th to move to outright second and was in reasonable position at the par five last to secure a birdie.

Unfortunately for Day he pulled his approach and, faced with a difficult pitch, he was long and then failed to get up and down. The bogey cost him US$250,000 the difference between outright second and his share of third with Donald and Ogilvy. The trio each earned US$560,000 so let’s not feel too sorry for them.

Despite a poor weekend when he faded to finish 11th Matt Kuchar remains atop the FedEx Cup points ahead of Charley Hoffman followed by Steve Stricker and Jason Day.

Ten Australians remain in the top 70 to head to Cog Hill in Chicago for this week’s BMW Championship.

Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, Robert Allenby John Senden, Stuart Appleby, Michael Sim, Marc Leishman, Greg Chalmers and Matt Jones are still in the race for a start at the final event of the Playoffs, the Tour Championship in starting on September 23rd.

As we have already seen in the opening two events one big week can open to door to the riches of the Tour Championship.