[PHOTO: Orlando Ramirez]
Just two weeks after Justin Thomas wrote a memo to the PGA Tour membership, another tour veteran, Charley Hoffman, penned a letter of his own to his fellow players. In it, he shared his thoughts on some recent hot-button issues regarding the tour, specifically.
While Thomas chose to focus on “more access and insight” from the players, Hoffman, a 20-year veteran, first took aim at slow play.
“We’ve taken a lot of the heat over the past few weeks about slow play,” Hoffman wrote. “And yeah, it’s an issue – for our fans, for us as players – cutting down field sizes will help, but only a few minutes a day. As players, we still need to make a concerted effort to speed up.”
Hoffman also echoed Thomas’ sentiment on working better with the tour’s broadcast partners before shifting focus to the AON Swing 5, a pathway for players who are not otherwise exempt into the PGA Tour’s signature events to play their way in by peaking in the full-field events played in between.
“The idea behind [the AON Swing 5] is great,” Hoffman said. “Giving guys more opportunities to play their way into the signature events. But like anything new, we need to make sure it’s working as intended. This year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, only two players got into the field from this category before the deadline, and three of the alternates also qualified via AON Swing 5. So in my mind we only got two unique playing opportunities for our members.”
Finally, Hoffman took aim at players who say they want to play in fewer events, but are then seen competing in other, non-PGA Tour events on the schedule.
“If we truly care about strengthening our tour, we should be supporting as many PGA Tour events as we can,” he wrote. “Many of you keep saying you want to play fewer events, yet you still find time for TGL, Race to Dubai, and other non-PGA Tour events, and that’s going to continue regardless of field size.
“The best competition happens when the best players go head-to-head in a deep, competitive field,” Hoffman added. “Not in small, limited-entry events that leave deserving players on the outside looking in.”
Hoffman’s entire letter can be read in the tweet below from Golf.com’s Sean Zak:
Another letter was sent to PGA Tour members this evening, now from Charley Hoffman:
– Addresses pace of play “heat” Tour received
– critiques Aon Swing 5 implementation
– “Many of you keep saying you want to play fewer events, yet you still find time for TGL, Race to Dubai…” pic.twitter.com/cVora8Qai6— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) February 3, 2025
To the surprise of no one, most of the responses to this tweet are of the negative variety, except for one from an actual fellow PGA Tour player, Dylan Wu, who took a little shot at Thomas on the way out:
I honestly think he was pretty spot on. He’s not a huge name but a well respected guy with a great, long career. It’s a better email than JT telling us to be better with the media. I recall a hot mic moment in Hawaii a few years ago…
— Dylan Wu (@dylan_wu59) February 3, 2025
Hoffman will get a chance to see, and compete against, his fellow players this week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a tournament he nearly won last year out of nowhere, losing to Nick Taylor on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. It will mark Hoffman’s 519th start on tour.
