Golf: Five card stud at Toshiba Senior Classic

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - No first round in Toshiba Senior Classic history

has ever been so wild.

Of the five Senior PGA Tour players atop the opening-round leaderboard

in wet, muddy conditions at Newport Beach Country Club, there were five

distinctly different angles.

But, as the 50-and-over golfers gear up for today’s second round and

consider rainwear for Sunday’s final round, one thing seems certain.

No one is running away from the field in Toshiba Classic VII, which is

right on schedule for another close finish.

“I think the field will be bunched up (this weekend),” said Dave

Stockton, one of five leaders at 6-under-par 65.

Hale Irwin, the 1998 Toshiba Classic champion, said Thursday the

strength of the Toshiba field reminds him of a major championship, then

Irwin sent out a signal Friday to remind his peers of his presence with a

4-under 67, his best opening round in six Toshiba Classic appearances at

Newport Beach.

Two others, including 1996 Toshiba Classic champion Jim Colbert,

joined Irwin at two strokes off the pace, while a logjam was formed at

the top.

Aside from Colbert’s two-stroke win, no Toshiba champion has won by

more than one stroke.

And with Stockton, Jose Maria Canizares, Bruce Fleisher, Bob Gilder

and Dana Quigley all sharing the first-round lead, it could be the most

eclectic group of leaders the tournament has ever seen when you consider

their paths to 6-under-par.

Like Stockton, Canizares made seven birdies and one bogey, posting his

lowest round of the year.

“Yeah, I’m a lucky boy,” Canizares said, when asked about his frequent

smile. “All my life I’ve been a lucky boy.”

Canizares, the first player to tee off Friday, had plenty of reason to

smile after his best-round ever in the Toshiba Classic.

Gilder, a Senior Tour rookie who captured his first title two weeks

ago at the Verizon Classic in Tampa, Fla., started slow and finished hot,

while Bruce Fleisher started hot and finished slow.

The tournament’s fifth leader, Senior Tour “Ironman” Quigley, was

perhaps the embodiment of Friday’s first round, calling his 6-under “a

very peculiar round for me.”

Quigley was everywhere but the fairways and greens, but scrambled well

to make up for it, recording par-saving shots on six holes.

“Imagine shooting 65 and hitting only eight greens?” said Quigley, who

actually did it.

With five players tied for the lead, it ties a Toshiba Senior Classic

first-round record. In 1996, Jim Colbert, Lee Trevino, Bob Murphy, Homero

Blancas and John Schroeder shared the opening-round lead at 3-under 68,

the first year of the Senior Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club.

“Hey, I’ll take any kind of lead,” said Gilder, the last to post a

tournament-leading 65 in the $1.4 million event, in which the winner gets

$210,000.

“When I’ve ever been in the lead, I’d want to stomp on (the rest of

the field). I’d want to bury them. They feel that way too when they’re up

there leading. It’s a very competitive game.”

Gilder birdied five of the last six holes to gain part of the lead,

while Fleisher, the Senior Tour’s 1999 Player of the Year and Rookie of

the Year, smoked the first three holes with birdies, then cooled off

until the back nine.

“I hope to strike it better over the weekend,” said Fleisher, who

birdied 10, 12 and 15 to pull into a tie for the lead. “I just try to be

very patient, because I have a very difficult time with these (poa

annuna) greens, trying to find the speed and break. It takes a very

positive mind-set and I had a good one today.”

Stockton, a two-time Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year, has played in

every Toshiba Classic since the inaugural event in 1995 at Mesa Verde

Country Club and the 6-under 65 was the lowest first-round score he has

ever posted.

Stockton has never shot better at Newport Beach. When he finished

second at the ’95 Toshiba Classic, Stockton shot a final-round 64 at Mesa

Verde.

“It was a good day for birdies for me,” Stockton said. “My goal every

time out is to make four birdies a round, and to make seven, that’s

great.

“It was just a very good round for me. My partners, Larry Nelson and

Doug Tewell, had trouble making putts all day. But I didn’t. I shot 66 in

the pro-am on Wednesday and that felt about the same, except I enjoyed

the sunshine more (Friday).”

Quigley said he “escaped” and described his round “really ugly,” but

added that he “didn’t leave anything out there today.”

Right on the heels of the five leaders, however, is Irwin and a hungry

Colbert.

“What I want is to be the best 59- 60-year-old player that’s ever

played,” Colbert said earlier in the week.

Irwin, the Newport Beach course-record holder at 9-under 62,

accomplished in the final round of his 1998 Toshiba title run, carded a

68 in the first round of the 1999 Classic, his previous best round in

Toshiba lid-lifters.