SPEEDY GONZALEZ : S.D.’s Best Golfer--a Hero to His Family, If Not a Household Name

The entire Gonzalez clan was there.

First and foremost was Ernie (Speedy) Gonzalez, who happens to be a professional golfer, though you probably haven’t heard of him. Speedy’s wife, Judy, was on her way to watch him play in the MONY Tournament of Champions here Thursday when she realized she’d forgotten her ID card.

“Can you please let me in?” she asked a security guard. “I’m Mrs. Ernie Gonzalez.”

“Ernie Gonzalez who?” said the guard.

Somehow, she talked her way inside, and she was greeted by her father, her grandfather and her aunt and uncle as well as Speedy’s two sisters, Speedy’s parents, Speedy’s lawyer, Speedy’s lawyer’s mother and father, Speedy’s personal golf coach and a number of Speedy’s friends from the Bonita Golf Club in Bonita, Calif.

The Gonzalez clan had a grand time Thursday.

Speedy, who grew up in Chula Vista and attended United States International University, shot a one-under-par 71, leaving him one over par in the tournament.

One of his sisters, Rachel, was in charge of the beer, which she carried in a plastic grocery bag slung over her right shoulder.

Rachel, by the way, is a former softball player at the University of Arizona, and when Speedy hit a ball way off to the right (everyone screamed, “Fore!”), she said: “Let me catch it. I’ll throw it back onto the fairway.”

Walking next to Rachel was Speedy’s other sister, Linda, who probably is one of the reasons why Speedy is left-handed. Linda was mowing a lawn one day in the early 1960s and Speedy--18 months old at the time--stuck his right hand on top of the machine and burned the tip of his fingers. He has favored his left hand ever since.

They took him to the hospital after he burned himself and the nurses couldn’t get over how fast the infant drank the milk from his bottle. They nicknamed him Speedy.

It stuck.

Speedy’s dad (Ernie Sr.) was also there Thursday, and he said he once bought Speedy some right-handed golf clubs because it was common for most young left-handed golfers to switch and play right-handed. Golf supposedly is a right-handed game, but Speedy--who was 9 at the time--said: “I won’t play with those clubs, dad.”

Actually, Ernie Sr. thought Speedy was going to be a baseball player. His son had a great left-handed swing and set a community Little League record one year with 14 home runs. But Speedy insisted on playing golf.

Speedy met Judy, his wife, when he was playing the 1983 San Diego County Open golf tournament. He had asked her for a date after the third round, and she accepted. He said, “I’ll meet you by the putting green,” but Judy thought he said he’d call her when he got through on the putting green.

She left the course.

So Speedy was stood up.

The next day, he won the tournament, and before he accepted his trophy he saw Judy and said in front of everybody, “Now that I’ve won the tournament, can I get a date with you?”

The rest is history.

Anyway, the entire Gonzalez clan was there Thursday--even though you probably didn’t notice them.

And that’s the difficulty of being a young golfer--you’re incognito without even trying.

Speedy Gonzalez, 25, is San Diego’s best golfer, but he says: “No, no one knows me here. I was playing my first pro tournament here two years ago (the Andy Williams at Torrey Pines) and a lot of people said, ‘Ernie who?’ ”

Mostly, he’s noticed for being unorthodox. He is one of only three left-handers on the tour (the others are Russ Cochran and Doug Johnson). And he is chubby, having gained 40 pounds since joining the tour.

None of this really affects him, though. The left-handed part just throws off some of fans. At the Andy Williams tournament, for example, a fan said to him: “Don’t you know you’re standing on the wrong side of the ball?”

Said Speedy: “Yeah, but I can still hit it.”

Basically, he just gets teased a lot. Fuzzy Zoeller saw him playing with orange balls the other day and said: “That’s right! All you lefties use crazy-colored balls.”

Said Speedy: “Listen, being left-handed, you get some crude comments. I hear the people in the gallery talking. I just say, ‘You want to come out here and play me?’ ”

They better not. He’s good. His one and only tour victory (which made him eligible for the T of C) came last October in the Pensacola Open. He shot consecutive rounds of 65 and 63 and had the two-round lead when the rains came. It kept raining, and the tournament was canceled.

Speedy won.

Some people might say it was a tainted victory, sort of like getting credit for a no-hitter in a game that was rained out after the sixth inning. But let it be known that Speedy shot a 63 that second day with three bogies. In other words, he shot nine birdies and one eagle with those bogies.

And winning that tournament changed his life. Before that, he wasn’t eligible to play all the tournaments and had a rough time making money. But he won and suddenly could play in the Masters and this year’s Tournament of Champions. He now has the two-year exemption that all pro golfers covet.

“Hopefully, I’ll be out here on the tour for 25 years,” he says.

The best part about Speedy is that he hasn’t changed a bit, even though he gets free golf clubs and free golf shirts now. He always used to spit on the grass when he played baseball, and he still does

“If I do change and get big-headed, I hope everybody kicks my butt,” Gonzales said.

Don’t worry. The other night, as most of the golfers got dressed for a formal dinner, Speedy and Judy put on jeans and went for ice cream. They’re fun people.

And Judy just worships the grass Speedy walks on.

“It’s my job to be out here supporting him,” she says.

She is quite nervous during tournaments. She’s 100 yards away from him, but she’s mumbling phrases such as, “C’mon, sweetie,” or “We need this birdie, darling,” or “Back to even, all right.”

When he came off the course Thursday, she scratched his back, whispered something in his ear and kissed him on the cheek.

That’s what you need when you don’t attract a gallery and nobody knows you. The people here at La Costa are even a little guilty. Though most of the golfers were given large suites at the hotel here, Speedy was given a room that his sisters have nicknamed “The Dungeon.”

Linda says, “It has ants, for goodness’ sake.”

So thank heavens the Gonzalez clan showed up Thursday.