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Why Masters fans were all making Charley Hoffman jokes on Thursday

Josh BerhowBy Josh Berhow
April 9, 2020

Today was supposed to be the first round of the 2020 Masters, but by now everyone knows that isn’t happening. Yet that didn’t stop the Charley Hoffman jokes from flying around on Twitter on Thursday morning.

If you’re out of the loop, allow me to explain. No one dominates the first round of the Masters like Mr. Hoffman. The 43-year-old has always played well at Augusta National, and his opening-round prowess is a big reason why.

In Hoffman’s first Masters, in 2011, he opened with 74, but since then he’s went on a tear. From 2015 to 2019 his first-round scores have been 67, 71, 65, 69, 71, for a scoring average of 69.5, which is almost three strokes better than his scoring average in any of the other rounds. Those strong starts have led him to six top-30 finishes.

As Justin Ray pointed out on Twitter, Hoffman has the best combined first-round score in the Masters since 2015 at 17 under (Jordan Spieth is next at 14 under and Phil Mickelson is 10 under).

So, with everyone missing the Masters on Thursday morning, everyone, in turn, missed Hoffman racing up the leaderboard. Can Hoffman continue the trend at a November Masters? We can’t wait to find out.

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