Skip to content
Paul Goydos is eager to play in his first Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club. The event, which was moved from its traditional March date, is Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
Paul Goydos is eager to play in his first Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club. The event, which was moved from its traditional March date, is Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
Randy Youngman Staff columnist mug for The Orange County Register

Now that Paul Goydos feels at home on the Champions Tour, it seems fitting that he gets to tee it up in a “hometown” tournament as his first full season on the 50-and-over tour draws to a close.

And Goydos, a longtime Orange County resident, says he’s looking forward to competing for the first time in the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club the last weekend of October.

“You don’t get home games very often (on tour), so it’ll be nice,” Goydos said last month during a two-week break in the schedule and fresh off a runner-up finish in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in New York. “You don’t get the opportunity to play in front of family and friends that often. It will be fun.”

Though the event is in Orange County, Goydos will not enjoy the usual home-course advantage. In fact, most of the players in the Toshiba field will have more recent course knowledge of NBCC. That’s because Goydos lives in Coto de Caza and is a member at Dove Canyon Golf Club, where he usually plays when he isn’t on tour, as well as at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach.

Goydos hasn’t played NBCC “in probably 20-25 years” since the days of the Taco Bell Newport Classic Pro-Am (formerly the Crosby Southern Pro-Am). But he has friends who are members, so he plans to play a few practice rounds “to re-familiarize myself with the course” before the Toshiba Classic.

“Newport is a good course – not an ocean course, per se, but with that (ocean) influence,” Goydos said. “It’s a short course by tour standards, but it’s one where you always wonder why you didn’t shoot two or three strokes better. And from what I’ve heard on the Champions Tour, the course and the event have been well received. The tournament is also well positioned on the schedule.”

In its first 20 years, the Toshiba Classic was an early-season event, usually in March, but was moved this year because of the construction of a $40 million clubhouse at NBCC that is not yet complete (see below). This year, the Toshiba Classic is the last Champions Tour event before the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship – the equivalent of the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship and FedEx Cup finale.

Only the top 30 players on the Schwab points list are eligible for the Schwab Cup Championship in Scottsdale, but Goydos already has his spot locked up. Going into the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach in late September, Goydos was 16th on the points list and eighth on the tour money list with $850,281 in 17 events.

After the Schwab Cup Championship, the player at the top of the points list will earn a $1 million annuity as a bonus, with the rest of the top five also receiving staggered annuities as bonuses.

Goydos likely won’t be in the hunt for the Cup – in late September, it looked like a three-man race among Jeff Maggert, Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer – but he’s happy the Champions Tour has enabled him to resurrect his career after an injury-plagued end to a PGA Tour career that ended with two wins and $12.7 million in earnings over two-plus decades.

When Goydos turned 50 and joined the Champions Tour late last summer, he admittedly had no expectations – understandable considering his struggles after two left-wrist surgeries in 2012 that limited him to eight PGA Tour events over the next two seasons and saw him miss 14 of 19 cuts in the 2013-14 wraparound season.

“I wasn’t playing particularly well when I came out here (on the Champions Tour),” recalled Goydos, probably best known among golf fans for shooting a 59 in the 2010 John Deere Classic. “So the expectations weren’t there.”

But he had an epiphany 14 months ago in his first Champions Tour event, the 3M Championship at Twin Cities TPC in Blaine, Minn. He shot 67-68-67 and finished in a tie for ninth.

“That was a ‘Hey, maybe I can still play out here’ moment,” he said.

Soon thereafter, he proved that point by winning the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship with a three-round total of 19-under par, posting five top-10 finishes in nine starts and earning close to $700,000 to qualify for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship despite playing only a half-season on tour.

When he returned for his first full season in 2015, he was sold on the Champions Tour – even before he won for the second time, in February at the Allianz Championship in Florida.

“I have really enjoyed playing on this tour,” Goydos said. “The competition is great, and the tournaments are well-run. Most of these tournaments are communityrun events and have a community feel to them. I like that. You see the same people every year, and they remember the shots you hit last year. That’s kind of cool.”

Goydos also likes the fact that length off the tee isn’t the dominant factor of success on the Champions Tour, like it was on the PGA Tour, and he laughs about how inadequate he felt when “Jason Day was hitting it 80 yards past me. That’s not good for your confidence.” Now his 274-yard driving average is middle-of-the-pack, and he can take advantage of his driving accuracy of 71 percent fairways hit.

“It’s been a fun experience, and I’m working on being more consistent out here. You always want to get better,” Goydos said.

He also doesn’t have to stress about making the cut every week – there is no cut in a 54-hole Champions Tour event – or changing his travel schedule if he doesn’t play well. Of course, no matter what happens at the Toshiba Classic this month, it’s a short drive home. And you can’t beat that.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

On the outside, Newport Beach Country Club will look different to spectators arriving for the Toshiba Classic in late October. That’s because a $40 million, state-of-the art clubhouse is under construction at the entrance to the private golf club.

Inside the ropes, however, the course will look the same to players competing in this year’s event – with the exception of a slightly renovated first hole. The tee box, previously a 339-yard, dogleg-left par-4, has been moved to the right and rebuilt, turning it into a tempting, relatively straight, risk-reward hole that will dare the long hitters – including defending champion Fred Couples – to try to drive the green. The hole will play 15-20 yards shorter than in the past.

The original plan was for the clubhouse to be finished in time for the tournament, which is why its usual date in March was moved to October this year, but now tour officials are saying the plan is to keep the Toshiba Classic in the current fall slot, just before the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

The Toshiba Classic is seeking volunteers to work this year’s event. If interested, register online at ToshibaClassic.com. Registration fee is $75 for new volunteers (and $20 for returning volunteers), which will cover the cost of the uniforms.   Tickets also can be purchased on the website for the annual “Breakfast with a Champion,” featuring World Golf Hall of Famer Mark O’Meara as the keynote speaker, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort.

TOSHIBA CLASSIC

When: Oct. 30-Nov. 1

Where: Newport Beach Country Club

Format: 54 holes, stroke play

Miscellaneous: The Toshiba Classic features the longest-running venue on the Champions Tour, with the longest-running title sponsorship, and has established itself as one of the tour’s top philanthropic success stories, raising $17 million-plus for local charities over the past 17 years under the operation of Hoag Charity Sports and the Hoag Hospital Foundation.

PURSE: $1.8 million; first place, $270,000

Defending champion: Fred Couples

Tickets or more information: Call (949) 660-1001 or visit toshibaclassic.com