Golf: Schwab Cup debuts on Senior PGA Tour

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - If sponsors are going to stick out more carrots for

players on the Senior PGA Tour to fetch, you can bet they’ll play with a

little more hunger.

There’s no sin in chasing the big bucks in competition, and Charles

Schwab, one of America’s leading financial institutions, is making sure

of that.

New on the Senior PGA Tour this year is the Charles Schwab Cup, in

which the winner receives a $1 million tax-deferred annuity from Charles

Schwab & Co.

Total annuity payments of $2.1 million will be awarded to the top-five

finishers in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup that involves all 38

official Senior Tour stops in 2001, including the Toshiba Senior Classic

at Newport Beach Country Club.

Cup points are awarded for top-10 finishes (and ties) at all 38

events, with the points system mirroring each week’s tournament purse.

The player point totals are based on how much money each player has

won. For example, last week’s Senior PGA Tour winner in Mexico, Mike

McCullough, won a $225,000 championship paycheck, translating to 225

Charles Schwab Cup points.

Larry Nelson, last year’s Senior Tour leading money winner, continues

to lead the competition with 537 points.

The year-end Cup leader will inherit a $1 million annuity, while the

Senior Tour’s next four finishers will earn $500,000, $300,000, $200,000

and $100,000, respectively.

The winner of the Toshiba Senior Classic will get 210 points, based on

the first-place purse of $210,000.

Schwab himself is expected to arrive in Newport Beach today and greet

players through Friday.

The Georgia-Pacific Super Seniors continues at the Toshiba Classic,

where a first-place purse of $34,000 awaits the two-round winner of the

60-and-over field.

George Archer, last year’s Super Seniors champion at Newport Beach

after beating Lee Trevino in a two-hole playoff, returns this year to

defend.

Archer won the inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic at Mesa Verde Country

Club in 1995 and still holds the tournament scoring record at 199.

Mike Hill captured this year’s first Super Seniors event at the

Verizon Classic in Tampa, Fla., his eighth career 60-and-over

championship.

Archer led the Super Seniors with four titles last year, earning more

than $360,000 in Georgia-Pacific money.

Jim Colbert turns 60 on March 9, barely missing the age eligibility

limit. Instead, he’ll tee it up for the first time in the Super Seniors

at the SBC Senior Classic at Valencia Country Club next week.

Ted Goin of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., earned the fourth and final open

qualifying spot Tuesday morning in a three-man playoff at Strawberry

Farms.

In two holes, Goin defeated Ray Carrasco of Irvine and Gary Vanier of

Pleasant Hills, Calif. Vanier and Carrasco then played two more holes to

determine the alternate’s spot, which was captured by Vanier.

Tom Watson’s scheduled Three-hole Walking Clinic was canceled Tuesday

because of rain, but a crowd of about 100 people gathered at the 19th

Hole at Newport Beach Country Club for a question-and-answer session with

the legend.

The official Senior PGA Tour weather forecast for today, via The

Weather Channel, calls for drier conditions to build by late today and

continuing through the weekend.

Players somehow got in 18 holes Wednesday morning in the Toshiba

Senior Classic Pro-Am, but the afternoon pro-am was limited to nine

holes.