Hoffman now enjoying the life of Riley

Fickle game, this golf.

There's an endless list of examples that support that notion, and for the latest consider the gentlemen who walked into the media room Tuesday at their hometown event, the Buick Invitational in San Diego.

Chris Riley, followed by Charley Hoffman.

Had it been a couple of years ago, there would have been shadows cast by Riley and his Ryder Cup glow, in which Hoffman and his Nationwide Tour card could have gone unnoticed. But that was then and this is now. Riley casts doubt, not shadows. And Hoffman? His long, free-flowing blond hair is impossible to miss, which is OK because he's got a fresh personality that shouldn't be missed, either.

They're old friends who played collegiately at Nevada-Las Vegas and have crossed paths headed in different directions on the PGA Tour. Riley, at 33, is struggling mightily, so much so that he spends most of his time on the phone in search of sponsor's exemptions. Hoffman, 30, comfortably kept his card as a rookie a year ago, and last week broke through for his first win.

It earned Hoffman $900,000 and enough world ranking points to push him to No. 92, not quite where he once told Riley he would be -- top 10 in the world -- but certainly he's headed in the right direction.

"I hadn't even played a [PGA] Tour event yet and [Riley] pretty much said, 'Oh, you're not going to be top 10 in the world,' " said Hoffman. "I said, 'We'll see.' "

The conversation took place a year ago, when Riley was in his eighth PGA Tour season, Hoffman his first. They have known each other since junior golf, but because Riley got out of UNLV in 1996, a few years ahead of Hoffman, he had a headstart on his pro career. Riley took great advantage, too, as for five straight seasons starting with his sophomore campaign in 2000, the 5-foot-11-inch, 160-pounder parlayed his driving accuracy and deadly putting stroke into money-list finishes within the top 71. Twice he finished in the top 25, he won a tournament, but the true highlight came in 2004 when he made the United States Ryder Cup team after nearly winning the PGA Championship.

"That was my World Series, yeah. That was my Super Bowl," said Riley.

At Oakland Hills that week, there was a memorable win for Riley alongside another junior golf friend, Tiger Woods, and a 1-1-1 performance. But for most people, the week is remembered for the 18 1/2-9 1/2 drubbing the US took and the criticism Riley got when he allegedly asked to sit out because he was tired. Since then, things have only gotten worse for Riley; he was 184th on the money list in 2005, 150th a year ago, and he's dependent upon sponsor's exemptions like the one he received into the Buick Invitational.

The only thing is, Riley realizes he won't be the hometown kid every week, that the exemptions will go to players such as John Daly and Lee Janzen. "If I get in the tournament, that's great, but if I don't, I understand," said Riley.

Meanwhile, as quickly as things have gone one way for Riley, they have rocketed just as fast in another direction for Hoffman. Having played so poorly in his first two years as a pro that he had to find work on the mini-tours and in Europe in 2002-03, Hoffman won a Nationwide Tour event in 2004 and finished high enough on the money list in 2005 to earn a promotion to the PGA Tour in 2006.

It was around that time that he had his "top 10" conversation with Riley. And at the end of '06, while Hoffman was drawing comfort in a $1,115,193 rookie season, Riley was forced back to Q School, which is where he hit rock bottom in the first round.

"I shot 83," said Riley. "I walked back out onto the range and [players] were like, 'Geez, this guy played in the Ryder Cup and now he's shooting 83 at Q School.' It shows you what the game is all about."

It's about riding confidence and taking advantage of today's power game, which Hoffman is well equipped to do.

"When I was playing the Nationwide, I always felt that I would be better out here [on the PGA Tour] because the golf courses are bigger," said Hoffman, who has honed his game under the watchful eye of Shawn Callahan. During those years when his father, Don, was the immensely popular head pro at The Country Club in Brookline, Callahan grew up in Needham. Today, father and son are on the staff at the Butch Harmon School of Golf outside Las Vegas.

Hoffman finished 10th in driving distance a year ago (304.4), a skill Riley has witnessed on many occasions. Though only two years ago he was a premier player on the PGA Tour, Riley concedes that his psyche has been damaged and that he fights the notion he can't keep up.

"I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to hit it like Tiger or Charley or Phil Mickelson," said Riley, who has talked openly about his competitive fires flickering with the birth of his two children, ages 2 years and 6 months. "But if I can get my putter going, I can compete a little bit."

His old San Diego and UNLV pal is banking on that.

"Believe me when I say it," said Hoffman, "he's going to be back and he's going to be fine with it. Once his kids get older, he'll do great. He'll rededicate himself to the game."

Who knows, maybe Hoffman is right. Maybe these San Diego kids will someday share the spotlight -- not stand in one another's shadow.

If it feels like the Buick Invitational is the season opener, there can be only one reason: Woods is making his first start of the year. The mere presence of the 31-year-old is enough to spike interest -- particularly on a week when the NFL is shut down to rest up for the Super Bowl -- but adding even more intrigue is the fact he owns six straight victories, going back to last summer's British Open. OK, so a disclaimer is necessary, because Woods insists there is no winning streak. "It came to an end when I lost in the first round of the [HSBC World] Match Play [Championship]," he has said, then he throws in the fact that the week after that tournament, he was on the losing side in the Ryder Cup. Ah, but Woods is thinking globally -- and strictly as a competitor. The more provincial crowd views this as a "PGA Tour winning streak," and thus it is still alive, for the World Match Play was a European Tour stop and the Ryder Cup is, well, no one in America seems to know what it is anymore, so enough of that. Woods's winning streak went from the British Open to the Buick Open to the PGA Championship to the Bridgestone Invitational to the Deutsche Bank Championship right here in our backyard. No. 6 occurred Oct. 1 in England, at the American Express Championship, but the only Woods sightings since September have been at unofficial tournaments -- the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and his own Target World Challenge (no surprise, he won both of those, too) -- so there's a genuine anticipation as he prepares to tee it up in a PGA Tour event for the first time in 115 days. Rusty? If that's what you're thinking, you best take a pill and treat your senselessness, because as he starts his 11th full season on Tour, Woods has an impeccable record in 10 previous openers -- four wins, and top-10 finishes in each start. This will be the third time in five years he has begun his season at the Buick Invitational, and let the record show he has won the prior two, including last year in a playoff . . . Arron Oberholser's trip to Maui for the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship got cut short when he hurt his back during a first-round 73. An MRI subsequently revealed he had a bulging disk, so he has withdrawn from the Buick Invitational and most likely will miss next week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where he is the defending champion. Making it even more painful is the fact Oberholser was born and raised in San Mateo, Calif., not far from Pebble Beach . . . When asked how Woods was going to adjust to life on Tour as a traveling father, Riley laughed. "I don't think he's going to be standing in the TSA lines like I do with carriages and bags," said Riley.

Fairway news: Hale Irwin is named honorary chairman of the 2008 US Senior Open, to be held in his native Colorado.

Clubhouse view: He'll be 63 at the time, which doesn't preclude the possibility he'll get a chance to hand himself the trophy.

Fairway news: Royal & Ancient officials announce a ban on cellphones by patrons at this summer's British Open.

Clubhouse view: There's nothing they can do about the cucumbers in the chicken sandwiches, however.

Roberta Bolduc of Longmeadow has been named chairman of the US Golf Association's 16-member women's committee. Bolduc has been a member of the committee since 1997 . . . Peter Uihlein of Mattapoisett, one of the country's top junior players, told Golfweek that he has verbally committed to Oklahoma State, saying it "was just a good fit for me." A junior at the David Leadbetter Academy in Bradenton, Fla., Uihlein is scheduled to enroll at OSU in the fall of 2008, and one would have to say the Cowboys will continue to be a perennial power. That's because in addition to Uihlein, OSU has received commitments from 2005 US Junior Amateur champion Kevin Tway -- son of PGA Tour veteran Bob Tway -- and Ricky Fowler, No. 2 in the junior rankings.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.