Cowboy Freshman Finds His Way In Stillwater

May 13, 2009

Chris Perry, OSU Media Relations

Morgan Hoffmann's first season as a college golfer has gone a lot more smoothly than his first day in college.

And that has been good thing for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the top-ranked college golf team.

Hoffmann, a Wyckoff, N.J., native and freshman, described his transition to college as a little rough.

"I had a really bad transition into college," Hoffmann said. "The first day, I set off the alarms in the apartments, the fire alarms, and every one had to evacuate. Just little stuff like that."

Eight months later and much better adjusted to life in the dorms and on campus, Hoffmann is the nation's top-ranked collegiate golfer, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin player rankings. He has won three tournament titles, at the Ping/Golfweek Preview in the fall and the Morris Williams Intercollegiate this spring. Most recently, he won the Big 12 Championship at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.

Earlier this year, he matched the school's 18-hole scoring record with a 62 at Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas. His round tied the previous mark held by former Cowboy All-Americans Jonathan Moore and Hunter Mahan. It set up a meeting with Moore afterward, when Hoffman found out that he had put his name atop the storied OSU record books.

"It was really cool," Hoffmann said. "I came off the green and some random guy came up to me and introduced himself. He was like, `hey, you just broke my record, I had the record and I came out and followed you for the last few holes'. It was pretty cool."

Cowboy coach Mike McGraw said Hoffmann's season is comparable to those of Moore, OSU's last individual national champion, and Rickie Fowler, last year's Phil Mickelson Award winner for the nation's top freshman. Fowler won twice his freshman season. Moore won three times, which is the OSU freshman record that Hoffmann has tied, but he did it as a redshirt freshman.

"Jonathan was actually a year older," McGraw said. "I think Rickie's season last year was pretty good. Rickie won twice last year, but only finished out of the top eight once. Morgan's won three times, I think he's finished out of the top 30 a couple times. I would say it is comparable to both of those seasons."

Although college golf is a team sport, golf continues to be an individual sport. As much as one player can help his team, he must do it individually. Hoffmann said his work ethic and his approach to gaining knowledge at each tournament have been instrumental to his success.

"Hard work and learning from everybody that I come along (have been the biggest keys to my success)," Hoffmann said. "I just try to watch everybody and take little parts of their game and try to put it into mine. What's really helped is I take something that I didn't do well in the last tournament that I played in and push myself from that to the next tournament."

McGraw said Hoffmann has exceeded expectations in his first year, though he expected some things out of him. McGraw said only Hoffmann had expectations this high for himself.

"I expected him to make an impact," McGraw said. "I think he has exceeded the expectations of a lot of people, maybe not himself, but of a lot of people. I'm pleasantly surprised by how he's played. Did I expect him to do good things? I did."

Hoffmann, 19, came to OSU as one of the top-ranked juniors in the country. He was an American Junior Golf Association All-American in 2007 and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur in 2008.

Each year, The Cowboys compete to sign the top junior golfers. Hoffmann joined another top junior player, Peter Uilhein, in OSU's 2008 signing class.

The rivalry that they shared in junior golf played a large role in Hoffmann's decision to come to OSU. Once Uihlein decided to sign with the Cowboys, Hoffmann's decision was considerably easier. Hoffmann said the opportunity to be teammates with accomplished players like Fowler and Trent Leon, a senior who played on OSU's last national championship team in 2006.

"Peter and I kind of decided to come here together to push each other," Hoffmann said. "We wanted to be with Rickie (Fowler) and Trent Leon. We thought if we had better players than we are, they could push us to obtain our goals.

"We would like to go pro and we need to be beating every body when we come out of college."

Uihlein first mentioned the idea to Hoffmann to attend Oklahoma State. After his proposition, Hoffmann was sold on OSU after one visit.

"He was the one who really first brought it up to me," Hoffmann said. "At the beginning of our junior year, he said, `I'm looking at these few schools and you should really check out Oklahoma State. I think if I decide to go to Oklahoma State, you should come with me.' That's when I started looking and I came for a visit here. This was the first school I visited. I fell in love with it and I didn't go anywhere else."

McGraw said he knew the 2008 recruiting class would be special. Along with Hoffmann and Uihlein, he signed Sean Einhaus, one of the top-ranked players in Europe.

"You don't expect to get classes like that especially backing up the one we had in 2007, which was Kevin Tway and Rickie Fowler," McGraw said. "You don't expect to be able to have two recruiting classes like that in a row. This one was really special."

McGraw remembers the first time he saw Hoffmann was at the U.S. Junior Championship in 2006 when he was finishing up his last season as the OSU women's coach. He credits assistant coach Alan Bratton with discovering Hoffmann's talent.

"Alan Bratton had been following the kids he had seen the year before when I was still coaching women's golf and wasn't recruiting men's junior golfers," McGraw said. "Morgan was one of the players that he had noticed. Morgan hadn't broken out and the whole country didn't know about him at that time. I watched him play at that U.S. Junior in 2006 and decided right then, coach Bratton is right, we need to recruit this guy. We got fortunate enough that he was somewhat interested in us as well."

The Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Year, Hoffmann was also named one of 10 semifinalists for the Ben Hogan Award, given to the nation's top collegiate golfer. He joined teammate and sophomore Fowler, last year's Ben Hogan Award winner, as a semifinalist. He knew coming to OSU, which has won 10 national championships, he must compete at his highest level to play for the Cowboys.

"I came in knowing that it was going to be really hard to make the team," Hoffmann said. "I knew I was going to have to work my butt off to get it. I missed the first tournament and that's what has really pushed me to where I am."

McGraw said Hoffmann was ready to play in the first tournament, but his scores weren't as good as they needed to be in OSU's qualifying rounds.

"He was 20 shots behind the fifth-place finisher," McGraw said. "I went almost exactly off the qualifying scores. Morgan was way back. He finished about ninth or 10th in the qualifying."

McGraw said, as he hopes all players do, Hoffmann is getting the most of out his college experience and his personality has helped him meet people. He said he won't spend eight hours on a Saturday on the driving range because he has other interests.

"He's thoroughly enjoying his college experience," McGraw said. "He's met a lot of other people on campus. He's not just single-minded. The good thing I like about Morgan is he's highly driven and extremely motivated. You don't have to push him to do anything. When he comes out (to Karsten Creek), he gets the most out of that three or four hours that he has and leaves and goes and does the next thing, whatever that is. He's pretty well-rounded."

Many players come to Oklahoma State with the dream of playing professional golf. In football, players must be three years out of high school before they can declare to play professional football. College basketball players must play at least one year of basketball before making the jump to the NBA. In golf, however, there are no rules. As recently as 2004, OSU's Casey Wittenberg went to PGA Tour qualifying school after one season. Hoffmann said he will make his decision when the time comes.

"Honestly, I have no idea (how long I'll stay in college)," Hoffmann said. "I have no expectations; I just want to go with the flow. If I have a crazy season or two, I'd seriously think about it."

However, Hoffmann isn't the only Cowboy enjoying success. But with his help, OSU has climbed to No. 1 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Team Rankings and is No. 2 in the Nike/Golf World Coaches Poll. He credits OSU's youth for much of its success. OSU has used two freshmen (Hoffmann and Uihlein) and two sophomores in the lineup this season.

"We bring more of a go-for-it attitude," Hoffmann said. "Trent Leon, he's consistent and maybe a little more experienced. Rickie and I know I do, we go for every pin. It's fun."

To break the monotony of the lengthy season, the youthful Cowboys spend their time playing basketball or other sports. Doing something other than golf gives them a chance to relax and have some fun.

"We play basketball a bunch," Hoffmann said. "We play baseball. We throw the ball around, we all have mitts out at Karsten. We go work out together."

Hoffmann can put his go-for-it attitude to the test on a daily basis at OSU's Karsten Creek Golf Club. It is where Cowboy golfers call home and spend most of their time.

The Tom Fazio designed-course opened in 1994 has been voted among Golf Digest's top public golf courses in the United States and has been voted the best college golf course in America. Hoffmann said he believes its advantages are a large reason why OSU has traditionally been so successful.

"Coming here I didn't think that the weather was going to be premier for golf," Hoffmann said. "I felt like somewhere in Southern California or Florida would be good. Since the weather is so diverse here, you get to play in everything. You are prepared for everything when you go to tournaments. The ranges are unbelievable, and you can hit any shot you want."

Despite the success Hoffmann and the Cowboys have shared this season, he knows there is work to do. OSU recently won the Big 12 Championship. It has the NCAA Regional Championships, which are being hosted at Karsten Creek, and the NCAA Championships.

"At nationals, I think we have a really good chance because everything is falling into line and we're finally playing better, Hoffmann said. "Everybody is playing better."