Scott Hoch

Hoch was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. While attending Needham B. Broughton High School, he won the 1973 NCHSAA Men's Golf State Championship.

Hoch was a member of the golf team at Wake Forest University before graduating in 1978. In 1978, Hoch reached the final of the U.S. Amateur, losing 5 & 4 to John Cook.^[2] His good play earned him membership for top international team competitions like the 1978 Eisenhower Trophy and the 1979 Walker Cup. The Americans won both events. His achievements in 1978 led to an invitation to the 1979 Masters Tournament where he tied for 34th place, the second low amateur only behind Bobby Clampett.

Hoch turned professional in 1979 after competing in the U.S. Amateur.

Hoch has won several tournaments, including the Western Open, the Ford Championship at Doral, the Heineken Dutch Open and the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. He also won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average in 1986. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Hoch is widely known for missing a two-foot-long putt that would have won the 1989 Masters Tournament on the first playoff hole, which he lost to Nick Faldo on the next hole.^[3] At the 1987 PGA Championship, Hoch three-putted the 18th hole on Sunday from inside of ten feet. A two-putt would have secured a playoff spot for him.

Hoch is also well known for his infamous quote regarding playing in The Open Championship at the "home of golf" at St Andrews. Hoch referred to this course, considered hallowed ground by most golfers around the world, as "the worst piece of mess" he had ever seen.^[4] Partly due to his Open Championship criticism Hoch has been characterized as an "ugly American." However he has played extensively abroad and done fairly well, with three victories on the Japan Golf Tour, a victory at European Tour's 1995 Dutch Open, and multiple victories on the Korean Tour.^[5] He also has runner-up finishes at the 1987 Dunlop Phoenix Tournament, 1994 Casio World Open on the Japan Golf Tour,^[6] 1995 New Zealand Open on the Australasian Tour, and the 1996 Dutch Open.

Hoch is the rare American golfer who has criticized the Ryder Cup. Before his participation in the 2002 event he described the Ryder Cup as "overrated" and thought that the competition had gotten too "inflammatory."^[7]

In May 2007, Hoch won his first Champions Tour event, the FedEx Kinko's Classic. In February 2008, he won his second and third events in consecutive weeks.

In April 2019, Hoch won at the age of 63 the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf with Tom Pernice Jr. This first win in 11 years made him the oldest winner on the Champions Tour.^[8] Hoch's record held until October 2021, when Bernhard Langer broke it at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

In 1982, Hoch said that he feared he was going to die after an intruder came into his hotel room in Tucson, Arizona, held him and his wife, Sally, at gunpoint, and tied them up for an hour.^[9]

In 1989, Hoch said that he was "really hurt" after being named "Least Popular Golfer" in a poll of Tour players conducted by the Dallas Times Herald.^[9]

• 1977 Northeast Amateur

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 20, 1980	Quad Cities Open	−14 (63-66-68-69=266)	3 strokes	Curtis Strange
2	Apr 25, 1982	USF&G Classic	−10 (67-69-70=206)*	2 strokes	Bob Shearer, Tom Watson
3	Jul 22, 1984	Miller High Life QCO	−14 (67-67-66-66=266)	5 strokes	George Archer, Vance Heafner, Dave Stockton
4	Apr 30, 1989	Las Vegas Invitational	−24 (69-64-68-65-70=336)	Playoff	Robert Wrenn
5	Feb 20, 1994	Bob Hope Chrysler Classic	−26 (66-62-70-66-70=334)	3 strokes	Lennie Clements, Jim Gallagher Jr., Fuzzy Zoeller
6	Sep 3, 1995	Greater Milwaukee Open	−15 (68-71-65-65=269)	3 strokes	Marco Dawson
7	Jul 14, 1996	Michelob Championship at Kingsmill	−19 (64-68-66-67=265)	4 strokes	Tom Purtzer
8	Aug 31, 1997	Greater Milwaukee Open (2)	−16 (70-66-66-66=268)	1 stroke	Loren Roberts, David Sutherland
9	Apr 29, 2001	Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic	−16 (68-68-67-69=272)	1 stroke	Brett Quigley, Scott Simpson
10	Jul 8, 2001	Advil Western Open	−21 (69-68-66-64=267)	1 stroke	Davis Love III
11	Mar 9, 2003	Ford Championship at Doral	−17 (66-70-66-69=271)	Playoff	Jim Furyk

*Note: The 1982 USF&G Classic was shortened to 54 holes due to weather.

PGA Tour playoff record (2–2)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1989	Masters Tournament	Nick Faldo	Lost to birdie on second extra hole
2	1989	Las Vegas Invitational	Robert Wrenn	Won with birdie on fifth extra hole
3	1995	Shell Houston Open	Payne Stewart	Lost to par on first extra hole
4	2003	Ford Championship at Doral	Jim Furyk	Won with birdie on third extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Jul 30, 1995	Heineken Dutch Open	−15 (65-70-69-65=269)	2 strokes	Michael Jonzon, Sam Torrance

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	1989	Masters Tournament	Nick Faldo	Lost to birdie on second extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Nov 14, 1982	Taiheiyo Club Masters	−10 (73-70-66-69=278)	3 strokes	Masahiro Kuramoto
2	Nov 28, 1982	Casio World Open	−6 (72-71-69-70=282)	1 stroke	Tsuneyuki Nakajima
3	Nov 30, 1986	Casio World Open (2)	−12 (67-72-68-69=276)	6 strokes	José María Olazábal

PGA of Japan Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponents	Result
1	1985	Casio World Open	Wayne Grady, Hubert Green, Nobumitsu Yuhara	Green won with par on second extra hole Grady and Yuhara eliminated by par on first hole

• 1990 Korea Open
• 1991 Korea Open

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Dec 14, 1986	Chrysler Team Championship (with Gary Hallberg)	−32 (61-63-64-63=251)	1 stroke	Mike Hulbert and Bob Tway
2	Dec 14, 2008	Merrill Lynch Shootout (with Kenny Perry)	−31 (65-60-60=185)	4 strokes	J. B. Holmes and Boo Weekley

Other playoff record (0–2)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponents	Result
1	1985	Chrysler Team Championship (with Gary Hallberg)	Charlie Bolling and Brad Fabel, Jim Colbert and Tom Purtzer, Raymond Floyd and Hal Sutton, John Fought and Pat McGowan	Floyd/Sutton won with birdie on first extra hole
2	2000	Franklin Templeton Shootout (with Carlos Franco)	Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron	Lost to birdie on first extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	May 6, 2007	FedEx Kinko's Classic	−15 (67-66-68=201)	2 strokes	D. A. Weibring
2	Feb 10, 2008	Allianz Championship	−14 (67-67-68=202)	1 stroke	Brad Bryant, Bruce Lietzke
3	Feb 17, 2008	ACE Group Classic	−14 (68-66-68=202)	Playoff	Brad Bryant, Tom Jenkins, Tom Kite
4	Apr 28, 2019	Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf (with Tom Pernice Jr.)	−23 (62-48-46=156)	5 strokes	Paul Broadhurst and Kirk Triplett, Carlos Franco and Vijay Singh

PGA Tour Champions playoff record (1–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponents	Result
1	2008	ACE Group Classic	Brad Bryant, Tom Jenkins, Tom Kite	Won with birdie on first extra hole
2	2011	Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Kenny Perry)	David Eger and Mark McNulty	Lost to par on second extra hole

WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

• Most consecutive cuts made – 10 (1983 Masters – 1987 PGA)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (4 times)

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place

¹Cancelled due to 9/11

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament

Amateur

• Eisenhower Trophy: 1978 (winners)
• Walker Cup: 1979 (winners)

Professional

• Presidents Cup: 1994 (winners), 1996 (winners), 1998
• Ryder Cup: 1997, 2002
• UBS Cup: 2001 (winners), 2002 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2004 (winners)

• Fall 1979 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates

• Scott Hoch at the PGA Tour official site
• Scott Hoch at the European Tour official site
• Scott Hoch at the Japan Golf Tour official site
• Scott Hoch at the Official World Golf Ranking official site