The PGA Tour’s 10 Biggest Disappointments of 2021/22
By Bill Felber
2. Charley Hoffman
How much worse? (1.184 strokes)
Hoffman is a 45-year-old veteran whose 2022 play suggests that his best years are probably behind him.
He made 25 starts but managed only one top 10 and won just $554,000. That made 2022 Hoffman’s worst season since he hit the PGA Tour in 2006; as recently as the 2020-21 season he topped $3 million in earnings.
His stroke average basically collapsed, from 70.326 in 2020-21 to 71.51 this season. That, too, was a career-worst.
Hoffman’s chart explains what parts of his game failed him in 2021-22.
2020-21 2021-22 Change
Off The Tee 0.341 0.008 -0.333
Approaches 0.646 -0.107 -0.753
Around the Green -0.123 0.061 0.062
Putting 0.330 -0.434 -0.764
As the chart shows, two of Hoffman’s three historic strengths cratered in 2022. His approach game, worth more than six-tenths of a stroke to him one season earlier, became a liability in 2022. Meanwhile, his putting, another historic strength, fell into decided liability territory.
When a player loses his iron game and his putter both for extended stretches, there is nothing much to fall back on. That’s why Hoffman fell from 34th in scoring average to outside the top 150.
As a four-time PGA Tour champion, Hoffman has plenty of memories to fall back on. But he finished outside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings for the first time in 2022, so his future is by no means secure.