ShareThisPaul Goydos counts as one of the truly appealing characters on the PGA Tour. He's approachable, funny and intelligent, as he displayed last year when he wore a ratty Long Beach State baseball cap while tussling with Sergio Garcia in the Players Championship and later when he compared navigating Oakland Hills in suburban Detroit (site of the PGA Championship) to "playing Scrabble without any vowels."
Goydos' quick wit, good-natured demeanor and paternal dedication -- he spent most of 2004 away from the tour, after he was divorced and gained full custody of his two daughters -- made this week's news all the more jarring. His former wife, Wendy Goydos, died unexpectedly last Saturday morning of an undisclosed cause.
The family was still awaiting autopsy results late in the week, according to Bobby Kreusler, Paul Goydos' agent. Kreusler said Goydos learned of Wendy's death upon returning home to Southern California from Hawaii, where he missed the cut in last week's Sony Open.
Goydos previously had said Wendy long fought an addiction to painkillers. She also dealt with migraine headaches for many years, Kreusler said Wednesday.
Goydos will take a temporary leave of absence from the PGA Tour in the wake of Wendy's death. He had planned to play in next month's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, but Kreusler is unsure when Goydos will be ready to rejoin the tour. His priority now, obviously, is caring for his daughters, 18-year-old Chelsea and 16-year-old Courtney.
PEBBLE MUSINGS: At least one tour pro offered a mixed review of the changes at Pebble Beach. The course will be stretched by more than 200 yards -- and several fairways will be pushed closer to the Pacific Ocean -- in advance of next year's U.S. Open.
Arron Oberholser, the 2006 AT&T champion, got a first-hand glimpse of some of the changes when he played Pebble in November. Oberholser heartily approved of the new fairway bunkers on No. 3 (added in 2007), though he's not a fan of the new bunkers along the left side of No. 6 because "it doesn't look natural."
As for the lengthening of No. 9, already a demanding par-4 along the bluffs above Carmel Beach, Oberholser said, "The new tee is probably not the best idea, but it's an answer to the length of today's players. It's cool to move the fairway closer to the water on that hole. I just don't think they needed to move the tee."
TEENAGE TALK: Hawaiian 18-year-old Tadd Fujikawa made a spirited run with his third-round 62 at last week's tour event in Honolulu, but don't expect to see much more of him this season: Fujikawa doesn't have playing status on any tour. ... A more accomplished teenager, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, 17, has accepted sponsor exemptions into next month's tour stop in Los Angeles and the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando in March. Ishikawa, who won on the Japan Tour at 15, already is ranked No. 60 in the world and snared a special invitation to The Masters on Thursday.
CAMPBELL'S MULLIGAN: Chad Campbell made his 2009 PGA Tour debut this week at the Bob Hope Classic (he shot 66 in the first round Wednesday) six days later than he anticipated.
It would have been annoying for Campbell if he simply forgot to sign up for last week's Sony Open in Hawaii. But here's what made it aggravating, infuriating and embarrassing: Campbell didn't realize the oversight until he was 30,000 feet in the air, winging his way from Dallas to Honolulu.
"Not good," Campbell told the Associated Press after he returned home. "I actually thought about it on the plane, that there was a chance I didn't commit. I found out when I got off the plane."
He played one round at another course in Hawaii, then headed home. Not a great way to start his season.
TAP-INS: During an appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman" last week, Clint Eastwood intimated he would be playing in the AT&T next month at age 78. Eastwood, who last played in the event in 2003, has not confirmed his plans to tournament officials. ... Reports from across the pond suggest Colin Montgomerie soon might be named Europe's Ryder Cup captain for 2010. Now that could be jolly entertaining.
(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick@sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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