Some just "get" Hawaii more than others, and for them the islands’ unique gifts keep on giving. A quick look at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship leaderboard is the latest evidence.
Fred Funk, who lapped the field to win the 2007 Turtle Bay Championship, and Paul Goydos, who overcame Tadd Fujikawa fever to capture the Sony Open in Hawaii the same year, share first going into Sunday’s final round at Kapolei.
Corey Pavin and Vijay Singh, who both also won at Waialae Country Club, are two back.
Pavin has sung Hawaii’s praises and extolled its spiritual virtues since a memorable win at Waialae in 1987. His playoff loss to Mark Wiebe at last year’s Pacific Links was one of eight Champions Tour top-10s in his finest season since 2006, but he has struggled this year — particularly on the greens.
Until Saturday, when his scorching 11-under-par 61 — in "Kona-ish winds" — left him at 131 early and gave Funk and Goydos something to shoot for.
"Obviously I like Hawaii a lot," Pavin said. "Besides playing well in tournaments I was married over here, I love coming here for vacation. There’s just something about coming to Hawaii that puts me at peace. Maybe the spirit of the Hawaiian Islands helps me out."
Funk, who shot 62, has also won on the island of Hawaii (2008 Mitsubishi Electric) and Singh on Maui (2007 Mercedes-Benz Championships).
In contrast, Goydos’ victory at Sony came 10 weeks after he salvaged his playing privileges by finishing second in his final 2006 start. He had just one other victory on the PGA Tour, in 1996. When he won on the Web.com Tour in 1992, he was still substitute teaching to make ends meet.
His self-deprecating sense of humor has sometimes been more memorable than his golf game, and so has his ability to raise two children as a single parent while playing on tour. But now, he is eagerly anticipating a "pressure-packed" senior career. Goydos turned 50 in June and his kids are living on their own and settled into school.
He started his senior career in August and tied his tour-low of 66 Friday, then blew it away with Saturday’s 63. That included a hole-out from 92 yards for eagle at the 11th and a 15-foot par putt on the 17th that neutralized a chip shot moments earlier that bounced at the top of the slope and rolled back to Goydos.
"My second shot on the Champions Tour that ended up behind me," he bragged.
If he keeps playing the way he has here, there will be more serious shots to brag about.
"I like the weather here," he says of Hawaii. "It’s hotter, it helps. And golf here is a little different in that the courses are designed to be played in wind and their defense is the wind, not length. If you built a 7,800-yard course in Hawaii, with its wind you would probably never finish.
"Too many courses are built with length as their defense. In Hawaii, that just seems not to be. Waialae is a fantastic golf course. You’ve got to shape the ball and fit it to the course.
"This course is not the same, but again its defense is the wind, which we have not had. That’s why the scores are so good."
There is no reason to expect that to change in today’s final round. On the Champions Tour, and especially in Hawaii when the wind takes time off, the only way to win is go low.
"My first event I was 5 under the first day and Kenny Perry said, ‘Keep the pedal on the ground, keep making birdies,’ " Goydos recalled. "This golf course, with the weather so hot and no trades whatsoever, scoring has been ridiculous. … Guys have been going crazy.
"I’ve played pretty good on this tour and gotten trampled."
