Golf: Silver lining is donation to Hoag

Richard Dunn

Whether it’s a playoff or an unparalleled act of the golf gods,

every year the Toshiba Senior Classic has offered fans something special,

something different, something unique.

For three straight years, in fact, the Senior PGA Tour stop at Newport

Beach Country Club has, in a sense, been walking between the raindrops.

But Sunday lightning struck and knocked out the final round. Not

literally, figuratively.

There are cries about why the trigger was pulled so fast to cancel the

last round and shut everything down. After all, bright sunshine started

peeking through by noon in Newport Beach and it hardly rained in the

afternoon.

OK, so there was flooding on the fairways. But course superintendent Ron

Benedict’s crack grounds crew could’ve cleaned it up by hustling to fix

the bad spots, using sand or whatever means necessary to get the show on

the road.

But, with members of the senior tour scheduled to fly out of town by 7

p.m. Sunday for their next destination, and, because it was believed by

the time the course became playable it would eventually lose out to

darkness, the plug was pulled at about 10 a.m. Sunday.

Too bad the final round could not have been rescheduled for Monday, as a

beaming sun sparkled and brought out the brightest in colors.

In an attempt to avoid the forecast of rain, tournament officials changed

Sunday’s format and planned to send 13 threesomes off the front nine and

13 off the back nine, beginning at 7:45 a.m. and concluding at 9:33 a.m.,

with ESPN to televise the final round on tape delay from 3 p.m. to 4:30

p.m.

The 2000 Toshiba Classic was a memorable one, all right. Of all the days

for the area with the greatest climate in the nation to suffer an

unusually bad storm, it had to come the weekend of the biggest annual

event in Newport Beach and the only PGA event in Orange County.

Only Mother Nature knows why.

As I drove to the course Sunday morning, it wasn’t raining, but my first

indication that something was wrong came at the parking entrance gate.

There was no attendant to check my badge.

Then, I noticed signs had been blown down and not picked up in the

parking lot, as 35-mph wind gusts sweep through Newport Beach.

When I saw George Archer standing by his courtesy Cadillac in the parking

lot, I got a lump in my throat. “They wouldn’t cancel the final round of

the Toshiba Classic, would they?” I thought.

Hundreds of volunteers, mind you, had dedicated their lives to this

tournament in the past week; sponsors had put up oodles of dollars,

including $1.3 million by Toshiba; national television was awaiting. “How

could they not make enough of an effort to correct the problems on the

golf course?” I wondered?

The course was in bad shape, but, hey, everyone’s played in wet, sloppy

conditions, right? Hasn’t everyone played through the public puddles? And

what’s a little wind? That just makes it more interesting.

But I learned a lesson Sunday. On the Senior PGA Tour, the term

“unplayable” comes into affect.

Later, the winds crashed through the media center, breaking the double

doors open in the wrong direction and blowing through a Velcro seam in

the tent as 36-hole champion Allen Doyle was inside to talk about his

somewhat tainted title. Doyle was moved inside the clubhouse.

As I chatted with players in the locker room lounge, most of whom were

watching the PGA Tour’s Doral-Ryder Open on television or playing

backgammon to kill some time, I couldn’t help but remember what I thought

last April when the final round of The Tradition in Scottsdale, Ariz.,

was canceled because of unseasonable sleet and snow.

When I saw it on television last year, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, of

all places -- Arizona -- there’s a freak snow storm that pummels the Golf

Club at Desert Mountain. It was the last senior tour event to be

shortened to 36 holes because of inclement weather ... until Sunday.

I remember thinking how lucky we were in Newport Beach. Oh, sure, we’ve

had some chilly weather. It was cold and windy in 1997 when Bob Murphy

sank that 80-foot birdie putt heard ‘round the world to beat Jay Sigel in

a nine-hole playoff, at the time a Senior PGA Tour record.

Two years ago on a Tuesday -- a practice round for the players, but no

pro-am scheduled -- it rained hard and kept the players inside.

At least we’re not like Pebble Beach.

I remember thinking last April what a bummer it was for the folks at The

Tradition in Arizona, but, then, Sunday I knew exactly how they felt.

Every look was solemn on the faces of the Hoag Hospital officials who

operate the tournament, expressions I’ve never seen before in 10 years of

covering golf for this newspaper.

Somebody on the staff said the final-round cancellation was like a death

in the family. While that statement might be a little overblown, it was,

quite frankly, a perfect description of the sorrow cast on the faces of

volunteer officials.

Silver linings? How about that record donation to Hoag Hospital,

presumably topping $1 million. It could be somewhat less, because

tournament director Jeff Purser said the Toshiba Classic will reinvest

some portion of the proceeds into the 2001 event and do something special

for the sponsors who were washed out of a final round.

But, if the goal here is to raise funds for the hospital and put on an

excellent golf tournament, chairmen Hank Adler and Jake Rohrer & Co.,

once again, succeeded beyond belief.

There were two great days of action, just like the old days in the

Newport Classic Pro-Am. At least we’ll never forget this one, either.