Hoch wins Allianz

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR

The last three years have been difficult ones for Orlando’s Scott Hoch, which is what made Sunday’s victory in the Allianz Championship so satisfying.

Hoch, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, had surgery on his left wrist in 2005 to repair two torn tendons and remove scar tissue, and he didn’t play competitively for 2 1/2 years.

Then on Sept. 20 of last year, Hoch’s caddy of more than four years, Greg Rita, had a seizure on the practice range during the Champions Tour SAS Championship in Cary, N.C.

The diagnosis was a brain tumor, which Rita is now fighting through chemotherapy.

This year didn’t start very well for Hoch either, as he said he played the worst two weeks of his career while healthy at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai last week.

A trip to Ledbetter’s Academy to work on his game told Hoch that he wasn’t far off. He changed putters to the Futura, which he had won with at Doral, and Hoch found it was better for his stroke than anything else.

Hoch won one event on the Champions Tour last year, and was in the midst of a logjam near the top of the leaderboard at the Allianz Championship this weekend. 

He was down three shots with eight holes to play when he decided to stop paying caution to the wind “and just hit my regular shot.”

With that, Hoch found his game, birdying five of the last eight holes to win the Allianz Championship by one shot Sunday.

Hoch finished at 4-under-68 to beat out Brad Bryant and Bruce Lietzke.

Afterwards, he dedicated his victory to his ailing caddy.

“He’s fighting it, fighting it hard and he’s a fighter,” Hoch said.

The big shot came on 17, when Hoch hit a 20-foot putt for a birdie that thrust him into a tie with Bryant. At that point, he knew the championship was his.

“I hit a 3-iron, second shot 17, that was probably the best shot I’ve hit this year – probably one of the best shots I’ve ever hit,” he said. “I couldn’t have hit it any better under the circumstances.”

At the moment he hit the ball though, the wind died down, sending the ball past the hole where it settled almost on the edge of the green.

The wind factor made the 18th for Hoch “a pretty easy hole.”

His third shot was a putt down the slope that stopped rolling inches from the cup. Hoch tapped in on his next shot for the birdie and the win.

Bryant said, “When Scott is playing well he has no weaknesses.”

Bryant was the clubhouse leader with a 6-under-66 after starting the day four shots behind leader Jerry Pate, who sought his second straight Champions Tour win.

Last year’s winner, Mark James, struggled with consistency Sunday and finished with a 70-66-74–210 for 25th place.