Golf

Local favorite Morgan Hoffmann moves on in FedEx Cup

Maybe it wasn’t the performance Morgan Hoffmann wanted to give his hometown fans, but it was good enough to keep him playing.

The 25-year-old from Wyckoff, N.J., battled his swing all day on Sunday and shot a final-round 2-under 69 in The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., finishing five shots behind winner Hunter Mahan.

Hoffmann played in the second-to-last group with Mahan, and started the day just one back of the lead. Despite hearing chants of his name and shouts of support throughout the round, he couldn’t match Mahan, but still advanced to the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs next week at TPC Boston.

“I’d like to get used to that,” Hoffman said about the fan support. “That would be awesome. But, no, it was so cool. Seriously, this is the coolest experience I’ve ever had.”

The local kid who grew up playing at neighboring Arcola Country Club in Paramus just got into this event. He was ranked No. 124 to sneak in the Top 125 that got invited to The Barclays, the first of the four-tournament playoffs. By finishing tied for ninth, he is now ranked 72nd and has a good chance to be in the Top 70 that will make it to the third leg in Colorado.

“I was just trying to play as aggressive as possible, just like I said I was going to do,” Hoffmann said. “That’s really where my focus was.”

Rory McIlroy had his three-tournament winning streak broken, shooting a final-round 70 and finishing at 5-under for the tournament.

“It was going to come to an end sooner or later,” McIlroy said. “But at the end of the day, great thing about golf is always there’s next week.”

The biggest jump in the FedEx Cup standings came from Australian Stuart Appleby, who shot a final-round 65 and finished tied for second, two shots behind Mahan.

“I try to set out every round to have six birdies,” said Appleby, who made seven birdies, five of them on a back-nine 31. “I got to the back nine and thought, well, six might not be enough. Then you get back to this is the FedEx and this is the playoffs; if I could time my performances more like this, it would be nice.”

Appleby, who last won at the 2010 Greenbrier, went from being ranked 98th in the standings to 19th.

“I’ve won tournaments but they feel so long ago,” he said.

Notables not making it to Boston included Retief Goosen, Nick Watney, and Lee Westwood.