Sarah Hoffman has spent the past four years playing on the Symetra Tour.Courtesy of LPGA
Decades from now, when masks are reserved for Halloween and Mardi Gras, your grandchildren will be asking what you did during “the great pandemic,” besides quarantining and making Zoom calls. Even if she never earns an LPGA Tour card, golfer Sarah Hoffman will be able to say that she toiled on the front lines during COVID-19.
When sports went dark in mid-March, Hoffman, who has played on the LPGA’s developmental Symetra Tour since 2016, rejoined her other profession, working as an orthopedic nurse at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor before rejoining the tour. With around $15,800 in on-course career earnings, nursing has for some time supported the professional golf aspirations of Hoffman, a three-time All-American golfer at Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan, where she earned a nursing degree in 2013.
She had worked at the University of Michigan’s hospital before, but this was markedly different. Early on during the pandemic, Michigan was a hot spot for infection.
“I was really anxious about going back,” Hoffman, 30, said. “We didn’t know much about COVID then, so it was definitely a scary decision. … I didn’t know if I was going to get COVID myself or if I was going to pass it on to my parents, which forced me to live elsewhere.
“Even in my [orthopedics] unit, there was a very high level of care I wasn’t used to. I needed to learn a lot about many disease processes I wasn’t used to taking care of. It was definitely anxiety producing, but much different than it was for the ICU nurses. But I knew I could help, and I didn’t want to regret not going back and helping my co-workers.”
Courtesy of LPGA
All elective orthopedic surgeries were postponed, but there were still those needing procedures that couldn’t be deferred, including accident victims and other emergencies. Still, whether it was an intubated COVID patient or one waiting for a hip replacement, every patient was isolated.
“Everyone was there without family; visitors just weren’t allowed,” Hoffman recalled. “You had patients leaning on you for more emotional needs than ever, so it was a high-anxiety time.”
Hoffman knew going in that a bad day on the golf was course was far easier than a tough hospital shift. Still, one of the times she began to feel she made the right decision about returning to Michigan Medical was when she got on her cellphone and directed a patient’s wife to a vantage point in a parking lot where he could see her waving.
“That was very special,” she said. There were also times she joined other staffers celebrating recovering COVID patients as they left the hospital. “Clapping them out” it was called; an altogether different sort of celebration than she’d ever experienced on the links.
“You have this special bond with your patients,” she said. “Nursing’s just this perfect blend of science and human relationships.”
Hoffman returned to golf in July, skipping the farthest tourneys to avoid flying. She came back to events with masks, of course, along with hand sanitizers on the first and 10th tees, no rakes in the bunkers during practice rounds, and few spectators, outside of caddies, tournament officials and perhaps a family member.
“It was certainly nice to have golf be my biggest daily worry again,” she said. “I’m just thankful to have my second job back.” The Symetra Tour ends the first weekend of November. After that, “I’ll go back to earning some money for next year’s tour,” she said.
On the course, Hoffman’s learned to go easier on herself. “I’m letting go of bogeys sooner, thinking more about process, and not putting so much weight on every shot. Overall, I’m just being thankful I can have nursing but also chase this passion of playing professional golf. … Nursing is always rewarding, but I would tell you it’s 10 times more so during a pandemic. I just feel humbled that I could help.”
Her dream remains an LPGA spot, of course. “Maybe nursing and golf can go hand in hand for a long while,” she laughed, “but maybe I won’t need the money from nursing in a few years when I win my first U.S. Open.”
■ LUNCH ON LINE: Add the annual March of Dimes New York Sports Luncheon to the long list of sports events that the pandemic has forced to go virtual. The digital version of the luncheon, MOD’s 37th such event, will be held Dec. 1 at noon ET, with broadcaster Mike Tirico handling emcee duties, and retired New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning being feted as a “MOD Mission Champion.” Top-level sponsors returning include CBS Sports, ESPN, MLB, NBA/WNBA, NFL, NHL, NBC Sports, PGA Tour, New York Mets/SNY, Turner Sports, the Wasserman Foundation, WWE, and the YES Network. For more information, contact Natasha Hirji, nhirji@marchofdimes.org.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
