Delayed start for defending Men's City Golf champion

LAFAYETTE – One name missing from this weekend’s qualifying rounds of the Men’s City Golf championship is a recognizable one.

Brent Hofman, the defending champion and record seven-time winner of the event isn’t part of the field. He has a good reason.

Hofman is attending a family wedding in New Orleans but his streak of playing every tournament since 1993 will remain intact. As last year’s winner, Hofman automatically earns the No. 1 seed in the Championship Flight when match play begins July 23.

He will return to town in time for the next round after traveling back from New Orleans, making a stop in Bowling Green, Ky, where his son, Nic, is transferring to Western Kentucky after the Harrison graduate started his career at Purdue.

Since the Ackerman-Allen and Kampen Courses, which comprised the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, are where Hofman plays on a regular basis, he doesn’t foresee any challenges in starting the tournament, which is presented by the Bob Rohrman Auto Group, one week later.

“I would love to play in the qualifying but unfortunately I can’t,” Hofman said. “Those are my home courses, and I don’t think it changes anything. The only thing it might change is I have to get into the tournament mindset a little bit quicker.”

Hofman has now won city titles in four decades, an achievement that speaks to his longevity and consistency.

“That’s the thing I’m most proud of – being able to play pretty high competitive golf for a long time,” Hofman said. “There’s been ups and downs, but I’ve been able to do that, and I think that speaks volumes for my game, speaks volumes for my health and a lot of different things.”

Growing up in South Africa, playing golf wasn’t the first sport for Hofman.

He started his athletic career as a rugby player, but an injury derailed his path in the sport and was encouraged to play golf by his rugby teammates. One thing lead to another and Hofman started “hacking it around and fell in love with the game and that was the end of rugby and the start of golf.”

He was required to spend two years in the military and was stationed on a base that had a nine-hole golf course. That course was a significant improvement over the ones he started on.

“Most of the greens were sand mixed with oil,” Hofman said. “The fairways were mowed down pastures full of rocks and that was golf. I was stationed at an air force base and they had a great golf course.

“I was good at it coming out of high school and in the army, you don’t play for a while. I got back in it and improved my game.”

Hofman, who enjoys watching cricket, doesn’t think how his rugby career would’ve panned out.

“No, it wouldn’t have been much,” he said. “I was fast but too small.”

He came to the United States and the Lafayette area in 1991, played in the Men’s City Championships, and advanced to the semifinals. He returned to South Africa but came back to Indiana and enrolled at Purdue as a full-time student in 1993.

That was 29 years ago and his string of playing in every Men’s City Championship continues.

And if not for winning the title last year, that streak would’ve ended due to the family commitment this weekend.

“I’m lucky I’m the defending champ,” Hofman said with a chuckle.

Mike Carmin covers Purdue sports for the Journal & Courier. Email mcarmin@gannett.com and follow on Twitter and Instagram @carmin_jc

MEN'S CITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS

(Presented by the Bob Rohrman Auto Group)

Saturday

Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex

7:30 a.m. - Ash Puri, Dan Boocher, Adam Oaks; 7:40 a.m. - Pete Newton, Andy Oaks, Tom Newton, Jon Speaker; 7:50 a.m. - Cole Wetli, Earl Emerick, Keegan Wilson, Randy Rupp; 8 a.m. - Collin Haag, Grant Leroux, Alex White, Michael Odom; 8:10 a.m. - Shane Fry, Cameron Greene, Grant Bauman, Troy Greene; 8:20 a.m. - Tom Caldwell, Kevin Riley, Luke Riley, Mark Richardson; 8:30 a.m. - Kenneth Campbell, Moaaz Ali, Ben Mattingly, Matt Toney; 8:40 a.m. - Scott Busch, Alex Hipsher, Mike Rivas, Austin Conroy; 8:50 a.m. - Tom Cavanaugh, Mitchell Keene, Christian Vukas, Tim Adams; 9 a.m. - Nathan Allen, Kelly Greene, Noah Gaeta, Spencer Coverdale; 9:10 a.m. - Nels Bergmark, Blaire Westall, Jackson Williams, Larry Schafer; 9:20 a.m. - Joshua Kisfalusi, Ajani Johnson, Jack Ross, John Herron

9:30 a.m. - Tom Decker, Charlie Seaburg, Erik Skadberg, Steven Sanders; 9:40 a.m. - Randy Bond, Tanner Hieatt, Dustin Allred, John Thompson; 9:50 a.m. - Kyle Banter, Doug Miller, Matt Hannan, Joseph Yeaman; 10 a.m. - Joe Couch Jr, Joseph Couch Sr, Jon Chapin, Glenn Cassida; 10:10 a.m. - Colin McNeely, Aden Beaver, Tyler McNeely, Nick Thomas; 10:20 a.m. - Patrick Edwards, Tony Ostrom, Brian Fine, Matt Vought; 10:30 a.m. - Kevin Moore, Jesse Kuzmaul, Juan Gaeta, Paul Sadler; 10:40 a.m. - Brian Pennell, Bill King, Hayden Ritchie, Evan Acher; 10:50 a.m. - Enrique Langford, Dherrus Churchill, Gavin Dunbar, Alvaro Guillen; 11 a.m. - Michael Linnes, Mitchell Swan, Tyler Jackson, Phil Sharp; 11:10 a.m. - Lester Williams, Josh Curry, Matthew Clark, Greg Kendall; 11:20 a.m. - William Croto, Ben Larson, Mark Larson, Michael Durflinger; Jentry Spear, Jeff Cook, Andres Meyer, Kris Paul

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette Men's City Golf: Delayed start for defending champion