Goydos tops Nicklaus in winnings

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LOS ANGELES, California -- Two days after winning the biggest cheque of his career, American Paul Goydos was still grappling with the implications of his Sony Open victory in Hawaii.

The 42-year-old rocketed to 39th from 134th in the world rankings after clinching his second PGA Tour title and has overtaken golfing great Jack Nicklaus in Tour earnings.

Goydos needs no reminding, though, that the lucrative tournament purses of today dwarf those on offer when Nicklaus racked up his 73 titles on the U.S. circuit, 18 of them majors.

"Once you start talking about the money list, those numbers really start getting silly," Goydos told reporters on Tuesday as he prepared for this week's Bob Hope Classic at Palm Desert, California.

"I had a better day Sunday financially than any year in my career."

The Californian earned a cheque for $936,000 with his one-shot victory at Waialae Country Club, more than he has won in any full year since turning professional in 1989.

That lifted his overall PGA Tour earnings to $6.62 million, ahead of the $5.73 million piled up by Nicklaus between 1962 and 2004.

Goydos, whose only other Tour victory came at the 1996 Bay Hill Invitational, is amused by another golfing statistic.

"Since my last win, Tiger (Woods) had only managed to win 50 times, at least professional events on Tour," he said with a laugh. "I don't know how many other events."

World number one Woods has, in fact, won 54 Tour titles since claiming his first at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, seven months after Goydos celebrated his own maiden success.

"I look more at how I handled myself, what did I learn, those are really the things I need to take from this week and beyond," added Goydos, whose PGA Tour title drought of more than a decade spanned 256 tournaments.

"I don't think you should necessarily evaluate yourself based on where you finish on the money list, but how your game is going and things like that."

His elevated world ranking is no exception.

Foreign concept

"Boy, that's a pretty foreign concept," he said. "A friend of mine said I was 39th in the world and I said: 'That can't be right.'

"That is just a number. I don't know how they came up with it. I will say that they got the No. 1 guy (Woods) right but that that it might be a bit of a crapshoot."

For the moment, Goydos is focused on this week's 90-hole pro-am celebrity event.

"Good things have happened and I tend to think that those tend to go in bunches, or at least I'm hoping that way," he said.

"I've got some confidence, the confidence that you get from winning means that when you are playing well, you're actually getting something out of it. I'm actually looking forward to playing well."

Goydos is scheduled to tee off from the 10th hole at 1018 local (1818 GMT) in Wednesday's opening round on the 7,305-yard Classic Club layout, one of four courses hosting this week's tournament.

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