Hoffman returns to golf at the RBC Heritage

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WTOC) - With a tee shot, Morgan Hoffman defied the odds at the RBC Heritage.

“It was pretty surreal, a lot different than the lifestyle I’ve been living the last 2 1/2 years, and having people cheer your name out there, it’s very special,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman hadn’t played on the PGA TOUR in three years until Thursday. In 2017, he announced publicly that he had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

After a bleak diagnosis from doctors, in 2019 he left professional golf to seek holistic treatment in Costa Rica.

In December, another set-back. He broke his shoulder and two ribs in a motorcycle accident.

He’s in the RBC Heritage field on a major medical exemption and didn’t fully decide he would play Harbour Town until last week.

“I feel like a little 12-year-old kid again. I don’t know if many of people know that I actually went to high school on Daufuskie Island at IJGA with the Gary GilChrist Academy, so we would come over here to Harbour Town to play here on the weekends. And just playing this course is very euphoric for me. So, I really wanted to make it back,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said it was important for him to come back on his own terms and to have fun with it.

He hopes his story reminds people not to be afraid to advocate for yourself, and that you can do what you put your mind to.

“I don’t think I’m special in any way, I think I have been put in this position for a reason and I just want to help people believe in themselves and get through really anything that they’re going through,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the fan support this week meant the world to him and he plans to use his remaining two medical exemption starts in hopes of getting his tour card back.