Getty Image
Most amateur golfers are very acquainted with brutal putting woes most pros don’t have to deal with on a regular basis. Unfortunately, one man who was in prime position to secure a victory at a recent PGA Tour Champions event fell victim to those woes and likely cost himself a win in the process.
Paul Goydos isn’t exactly a household name, but he spent around two decades on the PGA Tour after earning his card at Q-School in 1993. While he only won a grand total of two events, he racked up more than $12 million in earnings before deciding to take his talents to the Champions Tour shortly after becoming eligible for the senior circuit in 2014.
Goydos got off to a pretty hard start, as he won five tournaments in his first four years on the Champions Tour.
However, he’s been dealing with a drought stretching back to 2017, and while it appeared he was on the verge of bringing it to an end at the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club over the weekend, he was unable to do so thanks to what transpired on the 17th hole on the final day of the tournament.
Goydos had a one-stroke lead over the rest of the field with two holes remaining on Sunday and was in prime position to take home the $330,000 purse set aside from the winning golfer.
His tee shot on the par-3 17th landed on the green before he putted to get within about three feet from the cup, but what seemed to be a pretty easy par transformed into an absolute nightmare when Goydos was forced to put a triple-bogey down on the scorecard with a five-putt made possible with the help of the four putts he missed from a relatively short distance.
https://twitter.com/ChampionsTour/status/1695891389937017279
If Goydos had managed to par the hole, he would’ve almost certainly walked away with the victory.
Unfortunately, that collapse resulted in him falling from the top of the leaderboard and ultimately finishing two strokes behind eventual winner Vijay Singh in a tie for third (which meant he still took home $158,400).