‘Sunshine’ Breaks Through, Wins at Bay Hill

Until Sunday, the high point of Paul Goydos’ golf career came earlier this year when he was the Bob Hope Classic leader after two rounds.

He finished the Hope tied for seventh, collecting $39,167, his biggest payday as a pro.

But now Goydos, 31, a graduate of Long Beach Wilson High and Long Beach State, is a PGA winner and $216,000 richer.

Goydos shot a five-under-par 67 on Sunday to win the Bay Hill Invitational at Orlando, Fla., by one stroke over Jeff Maggert.

Tom Purtzer, penalized two strokes for hitting the wrong ball on Friday, finished two strokes behind in third.

“I wasn’t concerned with winning or losing,” Goydos said. “We wanted to take it one shot at a time and see what happened. And today it happened.”

Goydos became the second first-time winner on the PGA Tour in as many weeks.

He has the same large frame as Tim Herron, last week’s winner at the Honda Classic who goes by “Lumpy.” The nickname for Goydos is “Sunshine,” because he always seems to find something wrong even in a good round.

There was little to fault on Sunday at the Bay Hill Club, where a stiff breeze and greens that had gotten more crusty and firm from a week of warm weather kept low scores to a minimum.

Goydos took the lead for good on the par-five 12th hole, when he overcame a poor wedge by knocking in a 25-foot putt for birdie.

Then he finally got some distance by hitting a four-iron to within a foot at No. 14, a par-three that derailed others.

“Even I couldn’t miss that one,” Goydos said.

That gave him a two-stroke lead, the first time anyone had led by that many all tournament. And he played with the coolness of a winner down the stretch with an eight-foot putt for a sand save at No. 15 and a chip to tap-in distance for par at No. 17.

“Paul was a tough guy to catch,” said Maggert, who hit two in the water in taking a double bogey on No. 3, then didn’t convert enough birdie putts to get back in range until it was too late.

Maggert, paired with Goydos, birdied 18, but Goydos, playing conservative and laying up, made a tap-in par for the victory.

Goydos, a substitute math and physical education junior high teacher in Long Beach, won the Long Beach Open in 1990.

He joined the Nike Tour the next year and qualified for PGA Tour in 1993. His best finish before this year was a tie for seventh in the 1994 B.C. Open.

Last year, he almost lost his PGA card, needing three birdies on the back nine at the Texas Open in October to keep it. He did it, enabling him to live Sunday’s dream.

“Today was wonderful,” he said.

Even Sunshine couldn’t find anything to complain about.

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Third-round leader Danielle Ammaccapane lost five strokes in four holes on her way to an 81, and Liselotte Neumann took advantage, shooting a four-under-par 68 to win the Ping-Welch Championship at Tucson. It was Neumann’s second LPGA title in three tries this season.

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Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, who shed more than 30 pounds during a recent layoff, won the $1-million Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates by one stroke over Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiminez.

Montgomerie shot a 68 and finished with an 18-under-par total of 270 to win his first title of the year and the $165,000 first prize.

Jiminez, the third-round leader, shot a final-round 70 that included three bogeys.