Sometimes, the path we choose becomes the road less traveled, and the detour is better than the original plan.

Grant Hoffman’s sports experiences in high school began a series of changes of direction that led him through college and championship seasons, to professional success in Florida and back to North Carolina, away from the games he enjoyed.

As a teenager, Hoffman wanted to be a football player, maybe be good enough for college, but he was tinkering with golf, too, though not with any intention of making it a job.

Hoffman was East Gaston High School’s starting quarterback from 1975 through 1977 and was second-team All-Gazetteland in 1977, an award given by the Gaston Gazette newspaper to recognize top athletes.  He was all-conference honorable mention as a senior, and a few colleges took notice, without offers.

“I was probably better at football than golf. I loved football and always looked forward to it,” he says. “If I could have gone to college and played football, that’s what I would have done, but I was too small – only about 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. I really didn’t start focusing on golf until about two years after high school.”

He played golf at East Gaston, along with football, and was all-conference all three years and WNCHSAA individual champion in 1976, the year EGHS won the team golf title.

With his football road ending and no one recruiting him for golf, Hoffman turned to the University of North Carolina-Charlotte for a year, where he played golf as a walk-on in 1978 – well enough to get a phone call from Randy Hines, the coach at Limestone College.

“I had kind of dropped out of school for a little while, then I got a call from the golf coach at Limestone. He had heard about me and asked if I would be interested in coming to school there, so I guess he caught me at the right time,” Hoffman says. “From that time, when he offered me a golf scholarship, that’s when I began my golf career. Randy really encouraged me and helped me, and he was one of the biggest influences in my whole life. I had a lot of folks who influenced my life, and that’s really important. But Randy had the biggest influence as far as golf because he challenged me to set goals and to achieve those goals. And I was fortunate to meet all of them except one, which was to win an individual national championship. I came close. I finished third one year.”

Hoffman was all-conference four years – 1978-81 – and conference player of the year in 1979 and 1980, the two seasons he also won the conference individual title.

He was a tournament individual champion five times at Limestone, and his team finished seventh nationally in 1979, third in 1980 and won the national championship in 1981 at the Saginaw Valley Golf Course in Bay City, Mich.

Hoffman turned pro.

“I won the Gaston County Amateur title two years in a row (1986, 1987) and went pro in 1991. I played on the mini-tour, and I just got married and we moved to Orlando and I planned to go to qualifying school the next year,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to win one tournament, and won some money in some others.”

The road ahead looked good this time. Until it hit another curve.

“I developed an elbow problem, a severe case of tendinitis in my left elbow to the point where I literally could not hold onto a golf club,” Hoffman says. “The orthopaedic doctor said to rest it a couple of weeks, but it never did heal. My elbow just couldn’t hold up under the pressure of hitting a golf ball, so in a fortunate way it led me to what I’m doing now.”

Hoffman, 57, is pastor of Center Cross Baptist Church in Asheboro. He and his wife, Sonia, have three sons, Garret, Colson and Joshua.

“I majored in business management in college, and shortly after I came back from Florida and moved back to Charlotte, I was offered my old job back as assistant pro at Rolling Hills Golf Club (in Monroe) and worked there several months,” he says. “Then one evening, during a crusade from Bailey Smith at First Baptist of Indian Trail, I felt a very strong urge to go into the ministry. I went and talked with my pastor.”

This time, he knew where the road was supposed to lead.

Hoffman attended Southeastern Theological Seminary for three years and received his Masters of Divinity. The former quarterback and golfer found his calling.

He still holds the course record at Glen Oaks Golf Club in Maiden – a 61 – and says he’s shot 62 and 63 several times. He’s passed his talent to his son Colson, who also has a low of 61, though he isn’t pursing the sport competitively.

Being inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame makes Hoffman’s road come full-circle.

“I’m honored to even be considered, to be quite honest,” he says. “There’s no possible way that I would even be considered if it weren’t for the people who had an impact on my life. I’m very grateful.”