I don’t know why I love the underdog. Perhaps it is “the kid from out of nowhere” syndrome, or sympathy for the three legged dog. Whatever the case may be, Paul Goydos certainly qualifies on all counts.
Whether it wasn’t his day, or his forty-two year old nerves couldn’t survive one more hole, or he simply got beat by a younger, more talented player doesn’t really matter. In the end he bogeyed 14 and 15, chunked his wedge on 18 and missed the putt, any of which would have made his tragedy at the 17th a moot point.
But life isn’t fair and golf is worse than that.
Ever the philosopher, Goydos said, "The key is to have the lead with no holes to go. Until that happens, you're just playing." He went on to say, "To be honest with you, when the ball went in the water, the tournament is not over, Sergio ended it with his next swing, but you could make a nine on that hole; we've seen it. So you've got to just stay and hit the shot, and I hit it as good as I could and it went in the water.
"I had already hit it in the water on Thursday, so I already had a good yardage feel for the drop area. You move on. But then Sergio hit a shot, and I was kind of getting in the way at that point."
Paul smiled.
"This is why we play, to have a chance today," he said. "I'm reasonably pleased with how I played again, 2 over par after three and played the last 15 holes on a very tough day even par, and I felt like I got beat. Instead of the shot Sergio hit in the playoff, people may talk about how Goydos hit it in the water, blah, blah, blah, but Sergio hit it two feet. I got beat; that's golf.
"I played good golf, and as people have found out, that doesn't mean win, unfortunately. You can't control it. No defense; I couldn't tackle the little guy. He's probably not little, that's probably not a fair thing; he could probably take me pretty easily."
He laughed.
"But you can't knee-cap him," he said. "You just have to accept the guy beat you and move on. I got a chance to play with him two or three times already this year, and he's right there on the precipice of great things."
If you learned only one thing about Paul Goydos this week it was that he’s a really nice guy. Is he too nice to win? I hope there is no such thing, but if he is then that’s okay, too.
None of us will forget that, when everything was on the line, he hit the ball in the water, but I hope everyone will also remember that 30 seconds later he was congratulating Sergio on a great shot.
Like you, I’ll remember the Long Beach State “Dirt Bag” hat, which I’ll bet is sold out by now, but I’ll also remember that he took a year off of golf to take care of his family when they needed him.
He’s been divorced, injured and harnessed to a golf swing that looks more like mine than Tiger’s, but somehow he makes it work. His scoring average is 72.10, and his driving distance is 263 yards, but he does hit fairways 73.58% of the time. He’s a good scrambler and an average putter according to PGA stats. Nevertheless, in 2007 he pocketed $1,229,355 in 19 events while missing the cut 12 times, and 2008 is looking better with $1,215,176 in winnings in only 13 events.
In those same stats it also says that he is 5’ 9” and weights 190 pounds, but for some reason he looked taller. Maybe it was the way he carries himself, or how he dresses, or maybe he just looked taller when he wished his Mom a happy Mother’s Day in the middle of what he hoped would be his biggest moment in golf.
He won two tournaments -- the 1996 Bay Hill Invitational and the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii -- and I suspect that we will hear from him again, at least I hope we will.
They say that he doesn't like to be called everyman because he plays golf for a living and that's not something every man can do. And, let’s face it, he's not some guy working at Wal Mart that plays golf now and then. He’s a golf pro and yesterday he almost won the Player’s Championship, didn’t he?
