A year after gutting Q-School WD, Goodwin back at final stage

It was 58 degrees Fahrenheit in Savannah, Georgia, the morning of Noah Goodwin’s first round of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School’s final stage.

For Goodwin, though, it felt much colder.

“I walked outside wearing long underwear, Under Armour, two jackets and a winter jacket,” Goodwin recalls, “and I was still shaking uncontrollably because my body was just freezing.”

Goodwin, who had contracted a bad case of food poisoning earlier in the week, ended up withdrawing from the tournament. He’d still receive four guaranteed starts via his two-win campaign on PGA Tour Canada the previous summer, and he turned that into a full schedule on the Korn Ferry Tour this past year, though he continued to battle ailments and turned in mostly disappointing results.

“Life, man,” Goodwin said. “Life kind of just hits you sometimes, and you’re forced to roll with the punches.”

Goodwin is tired of rolling.

A year after his gutting WD, Goodwin finds himself back at final stage this week – and this time with a chance to earn one of at least five PGA Tour cards available.

Goodwin, the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and a two-time AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year, is one of 165 players in the field for the 72-hole qualifying event, which begins Thursday at TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Unlike some competitors, who either already have conditional PGA Tour or full Korn Ferry Tour status for next year, the 23-year-old Goodwin is merely a conditional KFT member after advancing through second stage.

A former first-team All-American while at SMU as well, Goodwin figured years ago that he’d be on the PGA Tour by now.

But, of course, life.

Goodwin had a shot to earn his full KFT card via PGA Tour University his senior year, but he opted to return for a fifth season. He won an NCAA regional title shortly after pulling his name out of PGA Tour U that spring, a victory that had Goodwin stayed in the program would’ve helped him crack the top five. The next season Goodwin settled for No. 12 in PGA Tour U’s Class of 2022 and headed to Canada, where he missed five of 10 weekends but also picked up two victories in what Goodwin called a “sporadic” summer.

When Goodwin arrived in Savannah last winter, he was more confident in his game. He played a practice round that Monday before getting dinner with his mom and girlfriend that evening. After leaving the restaurant, Goodwin almost immediately started feeling ill – hot and cold sweats, vomiting, diarrhea.

“I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been that sick,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin fought through his symptoms to play 18 holes on Tuesday and another nine on Wednesday, but unable to keep any food down, he hit a wall come Thursday morning – “I didn’t think I could make it through the round, and I didn’t want to be a distraction,” Goodwin explained. “I didn’t know when I was going to throw up next, and I didn’t want it to be in the middle of somebody’s shot. It was going to be bad news.”

Goodwin was later diagnosed with E. coli. He didn’t eat until Friday afternoon when he was able to take a few sips of broth. He lost weight and whatever confidence he had built up since Canada.

“I remember feeling totally deflated … unlucky and very down on myself even though it was something that was out of my control,” Goodwin said. “And I never wanted to feel that way again.”

With little margin for error, Goodwin parlayed his four guaranteed starts into a full schedule on the KFT. He competed in all but three of the tour’s 26 events while also sprinkling in a start at the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, where he finished T-33. Aside from a T-4 at the Compliance Solutions Championship in late June, however, Goodwin didn’t crack the top 15 and missed 16 cuts, including seven straight MCs before that top-5 showing.

“I’ve had a lot of time to reflect because you don’t have much else to do in a hotel room on the weekend,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin chalks up his disappointing rookie year on KFT mostly to injuries. He played through lower-back and hip issues, which came to a head in Springfield, Illinois, the week after the Compliance Solutions event. A byproduct of lots of internal rotation and limited external rotation, Goodwin’s hip pain had him struggling to get through the ball and compensating majorly.

“I was doing the Gary Player walkthrough on every shot,” Goodwin described.

Playing his seventh straight week, Goodwin took a week off after the missed cut and returned home to Dallas to get his body in order. Since then, he’s figured out how to better quell the hip issue, building strength and mobility and decreasing the amount of external rotation in his golf swing.

Though he missed six of his final eight cuts, including at the KFT’s penultimate event in Columbus, Ohio – a week where he “didn’t have anything – full swing, putter, short game, everything failed me,” and lost his status – Goodwin arrives at final stage feeling a more complete golfer.

“Sadly, we play a sport where results aren’t always immediate, and it’s been a battle wrestling with feeling like I’m improving and I’m close, and then having to face the music at the end of the day when my results aren’t showing,” Goodwin said. “I remember sitting in the hotel room after Columbus with my dad thinking that this is the lowest I’ve ever been. But I made a promise that afternoon, that Friday, that if there was anything in my power that could be done to never feel that way again, it would be done…

“The theme this year has been learning and growing – learning about my body and how to prevent injuries, better time management, how to make the most of when I’m out there, how to play seven weeks in a row. So, while it’s been extremely disappointing, I can say with 100% certainty that I’m a better golfer now than when I stepped foot in the Bahamas last January.”

Goodwin is eager to join his former SMU teammate Mac Meissner, who finished among the top 30 in KFT points last season, out on the PGA Tour. But he knows he can’t force matters, especially on a pair of punishing, water-lined golf courses like the ones that will host final stage. The weather forecast – sustained winds around 20 mph, scattered storms and brisk temperatures – will exacerbate the difficulty.

Goodwin, who may actually need the extra jackets this time, welcomes the adversity.

He’s better equipped to handle it now than ever.

“Patience is the name of the game right now,” Goodwin said. “It’s an ongoing battle; you want to be there [on the PGA Tour] now. But dues must be paid, and steppingstones must be crossed and placed into the ground, so that whenever you do stumble back a little bit like I did this year, you see the path forward again.”

And so, Goodwin keeps looking forward – and eating a little more cautiously.