Goodes' victory is dream come true for amateurs

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Badz/PGA TOUR

Mike Goodes celebrated a Champions Tour victory after spending his career in the plastics recycling business.

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- We've all seen the TV ad where a fine golfer at a country club, after a relatively good round, starts giving serious consideration to chucking his 9-to-5 job to become a professional golfer.

Inside the Numbers

Goodes' Final Stats

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 21 T1 Pars 27 T71 Bogeys 6 T42 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 50.0% T68 Driving Distance 290.0 yds. 11 Greens in Regulation 85.2% T1 Putts per Round 28.3 T7 Putts per GIR 1.565 2 Sand Saves 0.0 T62

Sunday, reality imitated art when Mike Goodes -- an accomplished amateur from Reidsville, N.C., who didn't turn professional until he was 50 and spent the last two years having to Monday-qualify his way onto the Champions Tour -- joined a list of very unlikely winners.

Needing to make a 2-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole for the win, Goodes had to back off as a flock of seagulls -- the birds, not the 80s' hair band -- flew precariously close to him.

After waiting 52 years to win a pro event, what was a few more seconds?

"The good Lord was telling me to make a birdie here," Goodes said. And he did, calmly sinking the short putt and raising both arms skyward to celebrate his one-shot victory over Fulton Allem in the Allianz Championship at Broken Sound Club.

Goodes' wife, Jeanine, ran onto the green to hug her man. When Goodes' sister, Betty Perlman, joined them, Goodes did a double-take.

"You're not supposed to be here," he said.

Her response? "I don't care."

Not should anyone else.

This was one of those crazy days where the Washington Generals finally beat the Harlem Globetrotters. Few in the gallery had ever heard of Mike Goodes until this week. You could have had 78 choices to pick the winner in the 79-man field, and Goodes might not have been selected.

But Goodes knew he could win out here, and not just because he finished runner-up to Fred Funk in the final major of the Champions Tour last year. But that almost sounds redundant to the man who made a living in the plastics recycling business.

"Every tournament out here feels like a major to me," said Goodes, who parlayed that second into finishing 29th on last year's money list. "People say this win is a dream come true for me, but I never dreamed this big."

Allem, himself a Monday qualifier into the field, also wasn't surprised that Goodes won his first pro title this week. That's because they spent two practice rounds getting into the pockets of Andy Bean and Gene Jones this week. While they were splitting their earnings, Allem sounded prophetic.

"Why don't we finish 1-2 this week?" Allem told Goodes.

Sounded like a plan. On Sunday, they combined for more than $400,000 in earnings, with Goodes receiving a career-best paycheck of $255,000.

"Mike's a great player and an even better person," Allem said. "It's great to see someone come from way outside the recognition zone, so to speak, to win a tournament."

Goodes insists he never felt out of place as a pro when he was inside the ropes, but admitted he lost his comfort zone in the locker room. Sunday's win, thanks to a final-round 66 that left him at 15-under 201, will make him feel more like one of the guys.

"For him to not turn pro until he was 50 and win out here like this ... I wish the public could appreciate how difficult that is," said Hall of Famer Gary Player. "The scoring out here is just one shot less a round than on the regular tour. That's a marvelous accomplishment."

Goodes saw a version of his story more than a decade ago when another longtime amateur from North Carolina, Walter Hall, turned pro and earned almost $7 million on the Champions Tour.

"We said (Hall) is going to ruin a lot of good amateurs, because they're going to turn pro," Goodes said, smiling. "Not because they can't do it, but it's hard to get out here."

Harder to stay and even harder to win.

So all you amateurs enjoy this kind of performance, but it may be time to consider those three words in that TV ad before you type that resignation letter and send it to your boss.

"Whoa, big fella!"

Not many amateurs out there are as good as Goodes.