Half Man, Half Amazing

Lost on Masters weekend was the first Nationwide Tour win for Olympia’s Andres Gonzales. Can America handle the return of the ‘stache?

by Brian Beaky
 

Photo courtesy sbnation.com

Until April, Olympia’s Andres Gonzales was known mostly for incredible handlebar mustache and his one-sided Twitter conversation with Tiger Woods — that is, when the 220-pound masher wasn’t being mistaken for “Eastbound and Down’s” Kenny Powers.
In fact, those two elements — combined with a hilarious wit and a more-than-solid golf game — shot Gonzales to the front pages of websites like ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports last year during U.S. Open week, when the Worldwide Leader’s Rick Reilly penned a column in which he called Gonzales “more fun than a boxful of puppies.”
Now, though, Powers — er, Gonzales — is known as something else … a PGA Nationwide Tour winner.
While Bubba Watson was making a charge on Sunday at the Masters, Gonzales was doing the same all the way across the country in San Jacinto, Calif., completing a wire-to-wire victory in the Soboba Golf Classic at Soboba Springs. The win was the first on the Nationwide Tour for Gonzales, who placed 192nd on the PGA Tour as a rookie in 2011.
Gonzales lost in a playoff at Soboba Springs last year, but led this year from start to finish, including an even-par 71 on the final day to finish at eight-under for the weekend, three strokes clear of the field.
In addition to the $135,000 paycheck, the win puts Gonzales atop the Nationwide Tour standings, and in excellent position to finish in the top-25 and earn his way back alongside childhood friend and college roommate Ryan Moore on the big Tour in 2013.
“I’m overjoyed right now,” he said. “I was nervous today because I knew if I won this one I’d have a pretty good chance of getting back on the PGA Tour.”
This past Sunday, Gonzales was back in the Puget Sound region, celebrating in authentic Andres Gonzales style — not at El Gaucho, or the Met, or any of the region’s top steakhouses, but with a greasy-spoon meal at Lakewood’s Burs Restaurant (From which he Tweeted: “Home sweet home. Burs Restaurant in full effect. #lovewashington”).
After all, that’s the Andres we love — as he calls himself, “half man, half amazing.” Want more? Check out his Twitter feed and, of course, a photo gallery of that amazing ‘stache. He may now stand above the crowd on the Nationwide Tour, but he’ll always be a man of the people.
 
 

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