OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — After five weeks, three countries and two top-three finishes, the golfer Charley Hoffman, his wife and their two young daughters returned home to San Diego. Hoffman asked his firstborn, 6-year-old Claire, what had been her favorite part of the trip. She said it was a stop they made at Niagara Falls immediately after Hoffman’s star-crossed playoff loss to Jhonattan Vegas at the Canadian Open at the end of July.
Her answer cut to the heart of how Hoffman, 40, has summoned the swagger to crash the PGA Tour’s parade of millennials. On a pace for his most lucrative season since he turned professional in 2000, he has over the last three years played some of his finest golf.