Career Firsts: Scott Hoch

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Scott Hoch first joined the PGA TOUR in 1980 after turning professional in 1979.

Even professional golfers had to start somewhere. With the 2009 season just around the corner, PGATOUR.com will take a look at some important firsts -- including their first golf lesson and PGA TOUR win -- for popular Champions Tour golfers and PGA TOUR veterans, with players. First up (no pun intended!): Scott Hoch.

FIRST GOLF LESSON. "I really didn't have a formal lesson until I went to see David Leadbetter in the mid-'90s. I couldn't afford them. I was pretty much self taught and did my own thing. I had some influence from a guy named Roger Watson who won two National Club Pro Championships. He would give me some suggestions from time to time. For one thing, I used to play with a baseball grip until midway through the 10th grade and he helped me with the switch to the overlapping grip. It was different. I hit everything to the right for awhile but basically I have a fairly simple swing. Perhaps that's why I never had the real lows or the real highs when I was on the PGA TOUR. I've always been more of a feel player than a mechanical player and when things have gone wrong with my swing, I've been able to work it out and get back on track quickly."

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Scott Hoch celebrates his first Champions Tour win in 2007 in Austin, Texas.

FIRST START IN A PGA TOUR EVENT. The 1979 Masters. Hoch played as an amateur and tied for 34th.

FIRST PGA TOUR VICTORY. 1980 Quad Cities Open. Hoch's first victory came at Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley, Ill. The Quad Cities was his seventh event that year. In his first six tournaments that season, he'd withdrawn twice, missed two cuts and earned two top-25 finishes. But at Oakwood, he edged fellow Wake Forest alum Curtis Strange by three strokes to take home the $36,000 winner's check.

FIRST MILLION-DOLLAR SEASON. 1996. Hoch earned $1,039,564.

FIRST CHAMPIONS TOUR START. The 2006 Constellation Energy Classic, where he tied for 27th.

FIRST CHAMPIONS TOUR WIN. 2007 FedEx Kinko's Classic. Hoch joined the Champions Tour in late 2006 but didn't capture his first title until the following season. In just his 10th start after turning 50, Hoch beat D.A. Weibring by two strokes in Austin, Texas for his maiden victory. With three straight rounds in the 60s -- which also featured just one bogey in 54 holes -- Hoch won for the first time since 2003. He'd battled injuries up until the victory and was still recovering from major surgery on his left wrist in late 2005 to repair severed tendons. He also had struggled with his putting in his first few events. During the week before his first win, Hoch decided to make some changes and switched to a new Bobby Grace Putter and a new Titleist ProV1x ball. That did the trick, as his putting improved dramatically and he kept the ball in the fairway.

OTHER FIRSTS. Hoch was first in the TOUR in scoring average in 1996 with a 70.08 average, earning him the Vardon Trophy ... By winning two TOUR events in 2001, he was the first 45-year-old to win twice in one TOUR season since Hale Irwin in 1990 ... Hoch's first (and only) $2 million season came in 2001 ... Besides his three Champions Tour wins and 11 PGA TOUR victories, Hoch has finished first in six other professional events around the world, including two wins at the Korean Open in the early '90s.