Redhawk Golfers Club Player Profile

October 2024 

Greetings fellow members of the RHMC. I have volunteered to take over the task of putting together a player profile for our quarterly newsletter. It will be tough to live up to the great work that Don McAuliffe did with the past profiles. Thanks Don.  I will try my best to put out something that is interesting each quarter. This quarter as a practice run, I will share my story. Not the most exciting, however, it is a little bit of practice.

I was born and raised in Escondido. At that time Escondido was a small community. My friends and I rode bikes all around town without too much worry about being run over. When the family went on the occasional trip to the big city San Diego, it felt like it took forever to get there. There was not much to see as we drove down old highway 395. Escondido seemed to grow at the same rate as my three sisters and me.  We went to the newly opened San Pasqual High School, and I graduated as part of the first class that attended all four years of its early existence. My sisters followed. My four children were also born in the same hospital as I and all graduated from the same high school. Our upbringing was comfortable although a bit boring.

My excitement came from playing sports. Football and basketball were my favorites. My father tried to get me into baseball. The sport that he, his brothers, and their father loved. I have a picture of my grandfather catching while Babe Ruth was batting in a barnstorming game played in San Diego. However, baseball was not for me. I feared that damn little ball.

The little ball I liked when I was a kid was the golf ball. My stepfather was an assistant pro at Escondido Country Club back in the day and he introduced me to golf. I did enjoy the individualism in the game of golf. The outcome was and is based on how well you and only you play that shot, that round. I played during the summers with a kid named Mark Wiebe. He was a pretty good player, and I enjoyed the competitive rounds we played. The loser had to buy the Cokes. After a couple of summers together we parted ways, Mark continued to play golf while I focused on basketball and football. He went on to win a couple of PGA tour events and my basketball career ended with my last game in high school. The football career was over after one year at Palomar College. I did not get back to golf until my mid-forties. 

I could continue with my narrative but, it is not very exciting, so I will save the words for our next player profile. I will, however, leave you with some bullet points. These topics may be a good way to think about future profiles.

   · Family – I am currently, and happily, married to the lovely Devon Goodbody. Between us we have eight children and fourteen grandchildren.

   · Work – My work life started when I was twelve in construction. I stayed in that field for 25 years. From there to the corporate world as a production manager in the operation side of reverse osmosis and fluid separation products, to a 5-year stint as a bartender / restaurant manager. This is where I met Devon. After bartending I worked in hospitals involved with construction infection control (protecting the patients and staff from anything harmful during hospital remodels) and finally my last career to this point as a certified personal fitness trainer.

   · Travel – I love it! I have been to Ireland, France, Spain and Italy, as well as destinations throughout the USA. 

   · Education – I graduated from Cal State San Marcos in May of 2023 (just before my 65th birthday) with a degree in Political Science. Started at Mt. San Jacinto JC in 2018 at the urging of my wife and sister-in-law.

   · Dream foursome – Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Nelly Korda and I at Augusta.

   · Courses – There are many courses in the world that I would love to play. To date I have only played what I consider top courses, Torrey Pines south, Spyglass and Pebble Beach.

   · Golf claim to fame – I won the 2011 Temecula Creek club championship, shooting a 78 the first week and following that up with a 77.  At the time I was a 9 handicap at TCI.

That is all I have for myself. If anyone has someone in mind that would be a great candidate for our player profile, please let me know. If it is you, all the better. Comments and helpful ways to make the upcoming profiles a hit are welcome. Please email me at michael@goodbodyconsulting.com