Monday, January 15, 2007

A good walk spoiled

In 1996, one of the greatest golf books of all time hit the shelves. A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein. As most of you know, it chronicled a few golfers on the PGA circuit. Some famous..some not.

Paul Goydos fit in the latter.

The book followed this substitute teachers stressful journey of qualifying through Q-school to eventually make it to the Tour.

Andy Warhol said that we all have 15 minutes of fame.....Paul had 15 pages.

After the book, he fell into "trunk slammer"-mode, where he got penned into the dreaded journeyman stereotype. Then in 1996 he won the Bay Hill Classic, only to disappear from the scene again.

Do you remember the last time anyone played with persimmon on the Tour? Yeah, 1996. And that was the last time Paul Goydos would win on Tour: 11 years, 256 tournaments ago.

Enter the 2007 Sony Open. By making 3 birdies in the last 4 holes, he trumped Charles Howell III by one shot to seal the deal.

Howell, an Augusta boy who played his college golf at OK State, was the can't-miss-kid coming on Tour. He's had his struggles as well, trying to live up to the media hype that surrounded him whe he first joined the Tour.
Howell looked in complete control, ready to Cowboy-up the new golf year by shaking off early season rust...he just didn't see the the guy with the PepBoy's hat in his rear-view mirror.

Now, instead of being remembered for a good walk spoiled...Paul has a new read: a good walk spoiler.


Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB

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