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Mike Goodes isn't sure what he'll remember most about his first Champions Tour event of the 2010 season, but it might be the Friday he played alongside Tom Watson. Or it might be the three rounds in the 60s he shot to finish in a tie for sixth. Or it might just be the extra week he got to spend in Hawaii.

But any way he figures it, Goodes will never forget his first event of the 2010 season.

For someone who didn't come up the way we assume professional golfers are raised, just being on the Champions Tour is an accomplishment for the Reidsville pro. But that's not enough for Goodes. When he looks back on his first week of this season, he'll do so the same way he hopes to remember his entire professional career.

By not having to look back and wondering "what if?"

"I told my wife that when it's over, I don't want to look back and think I didn't work hard enough," Goodes said Tuesday afternoon as he rode in the back seat of a car in Oahu, living the life and spending some extra time in Hawaii. "I want to keep doing this as long as I can. I know it's going to come to an end one day. My biggest fear is not being eligible (to stay on the tour) and looking back and thinking I didn't work hard enough."

That's not likely. Goodes, 53, is one of the hardest working players on the PGA's 50-and-older circuit, a man who didn't play on the regular tour, didn't come out of some college golfing factory, didn't come out of the junior ranks and didn't have some European pedigree. He won two state amateur titles 17 years apart, went to qualifying school at the age of 50 and somehow, against all reason, made it happen.

"Only in golf," he said.

Goodes continues to amaze those on the Champions Tour. A year ago in February, in his second season, he won the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Fla. Now, beginning his third season, he's won more than $1.5 million playing professional golf. And this past weekend he found himself living a dream.

"The big story was Watson," he said. "I was fortunate to play with him on Friday when he shot 63. It was like watching a maestro. The man has a fake left hip. He's 60 years old. It was a true honor to mark down his scores."

Watson went on to win the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship, holding off tour rookie Fred Couples by a stroke. And just off the pace was the man from Reidsville who will go up against Watson and Couples and rookies like Paul Azinger and Tom Lehman all season long.

"He's not going away," Champions tour veteran and golf analyst Andy Bean said last year after playing with Goodes.

Goodes is hoping to give himself some insurance toward that this year. His goal is to crack the top 30, the key to everything on the Champions Tour, the cherished all-exempt status that would qualify him for, well, everything.

"All the majors, the Charles Schwab Cup, all the tournaments," he said after earning $75,333 in Hawaii. "It was important to get off to a good start like this."

He'd worked through the entire offseason at Robert Linville's Precision Golf off Bur-Mil Club Road in Greensboro, doing studio work mostly, focusing on his swing when the weather allowed and doing endless work inside on the little things that separate golfers and those who merely play golf.

"Every day," Goodes said. "I was working a lot on setup and alignment with my putting, standing over a mirror, making sure I repeated the same stroke time after time. I guess it paid off. I actually putted pretty good. I didn't have a thee-putt at all and only one bogey. That's amazing for me. I don't know if I've ever done that."

He wants one fewer putt per round this year.

"That might not sound like much, but out here those strokes add up," he said. "I felt like for the first outing, I did OK. You never know how you'll feel after two-and-a-half months off."

Goodes was feeling pretty good riding around the islands Tuesday afternoon in the back seat of a car talking to people back home. He was living the life, and for a guy who didn't grow up destined for this, he knew it.

He'd played three rounds of golf with the best senior players in the world in the first event of the season, watched Watson win and saw all his offseason work start to pay off immediately. It might not have been his day in the sun, but it wasn't bad.

"I could get used to this," he said, laughing out loud as the wind blew and the radio played in the background. "It's a pretty tough life over here. But I think I could survive."

Goodes was enjoying the moment, an everyman golfer not looking too far back or too far ahead.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com