Champions Tour Insider: How Goodes shot a 57

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Mike Goodes fired a 57 while playing with a friend at Greensboro Country Club.

Some things defy logical explanation. They just happen and trying to explain how or why can be futile.

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Mike Goodes discovered one of those things during his mini-break from the Champions Tour.

Goodes, winner of the Champions Tour's Allianz Championship in February, shot 57 at Greensboro Country Club.

Yes, that's right. 57. And, yes, it was all surreal even for a man who has won professional titles against the finest.

The drives were so accurate you'd have thought he was plumb-bobbing on the tee. The irons were pin-seeking missiles. The putts were center-cut.

"It just got stupid," Goodes said.

"All of a sudden you add it up and it doesn't add up right."

The numbers added up correctly, all right. It's not all that hard to add up a bunch of 2s, 3s, and 4s and come up with the right total.

"I was very surprised and very stunned," Goodes said. "I had never shot anything in the 50s. A 61 is the best score I ever shot."

Greensboro Country Club's course is a Donald Ross design. All the instincts from the Golden Age of American course design -- the early 1900s -- are incorporated in the layout. Typical of Ross designs, the greens are small and tilted, back-to-front. The sides slope. The course measures barely 6,100 yards, par 71, with an unconventional 37-34 configuration of the nines.

"I don't want to make it sound like it was a U.S. Open course," said Goodes, who shot 31-26. "It's a nice little course, some tricky greens and tricky second shots. I just happened to hit the ball so close."

He had nine 3s on his card, six 4s and three deuces. That's 57.

By any measure and at any length, 57 is an extraordinary score.

Goodes eclipsed the course record, 59, set by Lee Porter, a former member of the PGA TOUR and a member at Greensboro CC. Goodes is from Greensboro but not a member of the club. He was playing with Eric Anthony, a close friend and member at Greensboro who shot a tidy 67.

Anthony can claim a bit of golf history, too. How many people do you suppose have shot 67 and gotten dusted by 10 shots? Surely, there is some history in that.

Goodes reached all the par 5s. Twice he made the putt for eagle; twice he two-putted for birdie.

The 13th hole at Greensboro CC comes back to the clubhouse. The plan on the first tee was to play 13 and call it quits.

Goodes was making birdies and eagles and by the time he got to the 13th hole, he was 10-under-par.

"We weren't going to quit then," he said.

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Mike Goodes won the Allianz Championship earlier this season.

No chance. Goodes eagled the par 5 14th to get to 12-under and that's where, he said, "it just got stupid.

"The score was unimaginable to me, to be quite honest," he said.

Ask Goodes to go over his card, every shot, every putt, every birdie, and he'll do it.

"It's pretty hard to forget," he said.

As Goodes closed in on breaking 60, when it appeared the magic number 59 was reachable, he thought: "It's what everybody dreams for."

Still, he never imagined a 57.

Check this: He reached 14-under with two holes left.

"At No. 17, I had about 25 feet for birdie," he said. "At No. 18, I had probably 12, 14 feet for birdied. But I'm not disappointed in a 57."

He was serious when he said it but let's be real. It sounds outrageous to suggest that a 57 could be disappointing, doesn't it?

During the Champions Tour's two-week break, Goodes worked hard on his game, especially the irons.

"It's been a good year but I've let some rounds get away from me recently," he said. "I've been playing good 15 or 16 good holes, two or three not so good. My scores have not been indicative of the way I've been playing lately."

He has concentrated on iron play since a couple of practice rounds with Fred Funk in Austin.

"We both drove it good," Mr. 57 said. "We did a lot of things similar. When I hit a nice iron, it would be 15, 18 feet from the hole. He hit a nice iron and it would be six, eight feet from the hole. I worked really hard on dialing it in a little better."

The work paid off and Goodes is hoping another lesson learned will pay off when he returns to competition this week at Dick's Sporting Goods Open.

"To be honest with you, sometimes when you get out of your own way, look what happens," he said. "I was playing with a friend, a $5 Nassau. I wasn't trying to hold on to a round, just hitting shots, staying out of my own way.

"Just simply hit the next shot. The more we can do that, any of us, whether you're a 10-handicap or playing in the U.S. Open -- that's not easy to do. We should be able to do it but it's not easy. We get to thinking about consequences. I've known the last several tournaments I've been playing pretty good, not finishing rounds. Part of that is maybe trying too hard."

Better to laugh and giggle, Goodes suggests, but it's not likely a professional golfer can dial into that mode in competition, at least not outwardly. But you can bet that Goodes will be thinking about having a few more laughs and giggles the next time he tees it up in serious action.

Can't blame him.

Champions Tour Insider notes:

• For the second straight year, Bernhard Langer is the leading money-winner after 12 official events. He's ahead of last year's pace by nearly $200,000. Langer has won $1,232,886 and leads Loren Roberts by $529,441, the largest margin at this point in Champions Tour history. In 2007, Jay Haas led Brad Bryant by $328,082.

• Langer holds similar margins in the Charles Schwab Cup race after 12 events, leading Michael Allen by 442 points.

• Mark McNulty (Principal Charity Classic) is the oldest winner this year at 55 years, 7 months and six days. Tom Lehman (Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf with Langer) is the youngest winner, 1 month and 19 days. The average age for winners is 52.23. Lehman and Michael Allen are the two players who have won their debut events on the Champions Tour.

• There have been five first-time winners in the 12 events so far: Mike Goodes, Dan Forsman, Nick Price, Tom Lehman and Michael Allen. The all-time record for first-time winners in a season is 11 in 1999.