For Hoch, fine play never gets taken out of context
By Art Spander, Special to PGATOUR.COM
SONOMA, Calif. -- He always smiled. Always joked around. But sometimes, he didn't talk.
And once, when Scott Hoch did talk, he said the most outrageous thing, according to those who consider golf more religion than sport.
Which is why Hoch's reputation isn't all it deserves to be.
When he played the PGA TOUR, Hoch was as near to being great as possible, without actually being great. Among the top 40 on the money list 19 years out of 20, starting in 1982; a winner of 11 tournaments; and a near-winner of the 1989 Masters.
We'll get to that misfortune shortly.
Scott was the pro in the famous 1995 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic grouping of Hope, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford, a verification he is anything but a grump.
Off the course, Hoch is admired for his donations to the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando to which he and wife Sally gave $100,000 of his winning purse from the 1989 Las Vegas Invitational.
What's wrong with this picture? Do they still have a focus knob on the new high-def TV sets? The image of Scott Hoch needs a little cleaning up.
We recall the putt he missed against Nick Faldo on the second extra hole of the 1989 Masters, when it was so dark you barely could see the ball, much less the cup.
There's also the frequent reminder his last name, often mispronounced, "rhymes with choke.'' How would you like to hear that all the time?
And heavens, Scott once said of the hallowed turf of St. Andrews, it's "the worst piece of mess'' he'd ever seen.
The years and pain, some of it literal from severed tendons in his left hand, slip away. Hoch, now finishing his second full season on the Champions Tour, was willing to look back without anger on Friday after his second-round 6-under par 66 in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Sonoma Golf Club.
Hoch was tied for third at 8-under par 136, a couple of shots behind leader Andy Bean, who also had a 66 for 134. Hoch missed only two fairways and took just 24 putts. A good day for an individual who hasn't always been recognized as a good guy.
Even if, by all accounts, he is a good guy.
"I am what I am,'' said Hoch, who in a month reaches his 53rd birthday. "Besides, we're in a point in our careers where what people say about us doesn't make any difference.''
When he was on the PGA TOUR, the relationship between Hoch and journalists was, well, chippy, a term not be confused with a shot executed with a wedge.
He was full, not of himself, but of opinions, some of which made headlines and didn't make the critics happy.
"Part of it,'' Hoch concedes, "Was my own doing. There was a period when I didn't go in (to the media center). At other times, I just got tired of being interviewed and not (having others report) what I said. They can't misquote you if you don't talk to them.''
"And I also got ticked off. Maybe you play good, and they don't show you on TV. Then you say something and you become a whiner. But, you know, this is different.''
The media, meaning the eager group with the notepads and tape recorders, one concedes, always seek the negative. With Hoch, nobody had to do much searching.
"I think the one thing that's been held against me so long,'' agreed Hoch, "Was what I said about St. Andrews. People (used) that as a blanket statement for all the British Open courses. I was talking about one course.
"They actually have my favorite course over there. My favorite course in the world is Muirfield, over in Scotland. But, no, 20 years later, they take (the quote) about all British Open courses. That's not the case.''
The Masters still hurts, if not exactly like hand on which he had surgery in October 2005. By the time Hoch and Faldo reached the 11th green, down in a hollow of Amen Corner, play should have been suspended.
"But you know,'' said Hoch, "Augusta wouldn't let you do that.
"You wish you had done it. If you look back, Faldo played a great round. He got lucky on 17. He got lucky when I missed a putt on the first playoff hole. And then (on the second) he took advantage of it. That's what a champion does.''
Now and then Hoch glances into that virtual rearview mirror. And grits his teeth.
"I wish I did it,'' he said about the playoff. "Hey, I'm too old to worry about that now. But don't get me wrong. I very much would have liked to have had it.''
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