After dry summer spell, Goydos cracking jokes again
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
SAN ANTONIO -- Seven tournaments. Three missed cuts, including his first British Open. One WD. Two medicore finishes.
Not the best summer, but nothing out of the ordinary.
"Dark period,'' Paul Goydos said.
And yes, we chuckled.
Those glib one-liners from Long Beach State's front man and everyone's favorite Dirtbag -- the baseball team's idea of a great nickname -- have a way of cutting right to the chase. No excuses. No might haves. Or could haves.
Goydos plays life as it lies. He embraces the lean times on the same way he does weeks like this year's THE PLAYERS Championship where he pushed Sergio Garcia into a playoff before walking away with a world of respect and new fans -- but no trophy.
And, yes, people are still talking about his Long Beach caps. Got stopped a half dozen times in the airport the other day on the way to the Valero Texas Open where he's doing his best to put an end to his latest dark period.
A pair of opening 66s at La Cantera Golf Club left Goydos sitting two shots off the lead Friday afternoon. And don't be surprised. He's finished in the top 10 the last two times he's been here.
"I do like it here,'' Goydos said. "This is a fun little golf course we play. It's a golf course that doesn't necessarily favor anybody. It's not necessarily super-long.
"Kind of have to keep it in play. It's firm, which is nice, and you kind of have to mind your Ps and Qs a little bit, which I like.''
And the fact that the winner is usually about twentysomething under?
"If you're driving the ball in play,'' Goydos said, ''You get a lot of short irons.''
And if you're scoring like he is . . .
"I shot 1-over the first nine holes on the first days, struggling,'' Goydos said. "Started hitting it little better the last 27 holes. I think I only missed two, three greens for a round and a half. Pretty good for me.''
Goydos shot 30 coming home Thursday and went out in 31 Friday -- more than enough to make us forget the recent line score and think back to May with the PLAYERS and a tie for 10th at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
"I don't think that's anything different in my whole career -- go through every year,'' he said of the summer blahs. "I have months and times that I struggle. It's just a function of one, not playing well and, two, everybody else is a lot better than everybody thinks.
"This tour, if you're not playing really well, it just -- they just stomp you down to the ground, basically. I was right on the edge of playing halfway decent at the PGA. British Open was my first British Open and just -- I didn't play well. You can't prepare for the conditions. ''
Not those, at least. With the cold temperatures and 45 mph gusts, it was a struggle for everyone. But Goydos loved the windswept course.
"Definitely my top-five golf courses I ever played,'' he said. "That may be a little low.''
But golf wasn't the only new experience for Goydos this summer. Remember what we said about playing it as it lies? Well, off the course, he's a single parent dealing with a freshman in college and a junior in high school.
And next weekend he'll have his hands full with both girls and two friends when they join him in Las Vegas for the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
"I'll have four teenage girls in the room next to me,'' he said, shaking his head.
He can handle it. He's spent the last few months watching Chelsea turn 18 and go from a kid to an adult who has to deal with consequences. "It's interesting to see the dichotomy,'' he said. "They have to act responsibly and start figuring things out.''
Responsibility has been the recent household theme and so far, so good. Chelsea took the lead enrolling in college and 16-year-old soccer-playing Courtney has mapped out a timeline to get her driver's license in early January.
Dad, of course, will have the final say.
But the next milestone? Making sure they can make the Vegas trip with just one carry-on apiece for the weekend.
Goydos laughs that his career has had more ebbs than flows. He's won twice in his career, the latest at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii.
Along the way that career has taken some interesting twists. He's been a substitute teacher in Long Beach and the central subject of a book on life on the PGA TOUR -- A Good Walk Spoiled. And, he's spent a lot of time in PGA TOUR press rooms -- not being interviewed, but rather just talking about everything from sports to society.
He's always played this game and life on his own terms. He plays the clubs he wants -- not the ones he's paid to carry. He's more at ease in mock-neck T-shirts than $200 golf shirts. And he's met those dark periods with a combination of sarcasm and humor.
And the brighter times? Well, take Friday.
Goydos birdied two of his first three holes, then added two more front-nine birdies to turn at 8-under for the tournament with that 31. He gave one back at the 14th, but got it back at the 15th. And, he heads into the weekend with yet another chance to contend.
". . . That's the way the game ebbs and flows with me,'' Goydos said. "It's a lot more ebbing the last few years than flowing but my tide have been higher.''
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