Golf: In the Mauney at Toshiba Senior Classic

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - If the overnight golf gods decide to let Terry

Mauney win today without having to tee it up, they’ll make it rain until

the cows shoot par and force unplayable conditions at Newport Beach

Country Club.

Just like last year with Allen Doyle.

But if anyone wants the seventh annual Toshiba Senior Classic to go

the distance with 54 holes, it’s everyone else on the leaderboard who is

looking up.

“Terry’s never been here before, so we’ll have to see what happens

(today). But I’ll bet he’ll be doing his rain dance tonight,” Senior PGA

Tour legend and former Toshiba champion Hale Irwin said of Mauney’s

one-shot advantage heading into today’s final round.

Mauney followed Larry Nelson earlier with the lowest second round in

tournament history at 8-under-par 63, one stroke off the course record

held by Irwin, set in the final round in 1998 when he won.

Nelson and Mauney also became the only players in tournament history

to card a 63 at Newport Beach. The course record was 64 before Irwin

“shattered it,” he said after winning here three years ago. Marion Heck

carded a 63 in the final round of the inaugural Toshiba Classic in 1995,

but that was played at Mesa Verde Country Club.

“If it’s the Lord’s design to rain (today), then I’ll take the win,”

Mauney said.

Mauney birdied 17 and 18 to take the lead from Bob Gilder, who bogeyed

16 and 17 and wondered why anyone still wanted to talk to him following

his round.

“The two-shot swing at 17 was the key,” Mauney said. “I knew the game

was on then.”

Gilder, whose 5-under 66 left him one stroke behind Mauney as dark,

threatening clouds began to roll in late Saturday afternoon, played in

the group with Mauney and Dave Stockton, and Gilder and Mauney are

longtime friends who enjoy joking around with each other on the golf

course, even when $210,000 is at stake for the champion.

“I was trying to get the biggest lead I could get, but Terry wouldn’t

let it happen,” said Gilder, who was atop the leaderboard most of the

day, until things turned around on the par-4 hole No. 16.

“Terry’s one of the most personable people I’ve ever met, and he’s a

great guy. He deserves everything he gets. But he’s going to have to

fight for (the Toshiba Classic title).”

While the general feeling among golfers Saturday was that today’s

final round would become a victim of cancellation for the second straight

year because of inclement weather, Gilder implied the golf course would

be playable even in rain, because of three consecutive days of dry

weather.

In 1980 when Gilder won the Canadian Open, he shot 67 in the rain one

round.

“But you just don’t play in the rain anymore (on the Senior PGA

Tour),” Gilder said. “They call it off. Everybody just melts in it.”

If Gilder doesn’t get a chance to compete in the final round today,

he’ll probably kick himself all the way to Valencia Country Club, site of

the tour’s next stop.

“It’s going to have to rain pretty hard to cancel this final round,

because the golf course has to be unplayable (and it has been dry since

Thursday),” Gilder said. “Every time I looked up at the sky (Saturday),

it looked OK to me. I don’t see how this course can be flooded out by 6

a.m. (today).”

Gilder enjoyed a three-shot lead, but the wheels started coming off on

16.

“I got off to a really good start and then hit a poor shot at 16,”

Gilder said of his approach with a 7-iron, which he pulled right, setting

up a bogey. “I followed it up with a bogey at 17. But that’s OK. I’m

still there and I have a chance to win.”

Gilder’s tee shot at 17 landed on the right fringe, about “35 to 40

feet” from the hole, then he left himself a 10-foot putt on the

difficult, two-tiered green, which he missed as he carded back-to-back

bogeys.

Mauney, who shot a career-low round, tying a 63 he once shot at the

former Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open, rallied with birdies at 16, 17 and

18 to take a one-shot lead.

Mauney and Gilder both made birdies at 10 and 11, and Gilder birdied

12. “It got real interesting at that point,” Mauney said. “Then the trio

(of birdies) coming in, that was awesome. I made a 22-footer at 16 that

curled on the front edge, then at 17 I made my best shot and best putt

all day.”

At the par-3 17, Mauney stuck a 6-iron pin high, leaving him a putt of

about 12 feet with a nasty right-to-left break of “at least 1 1/2 feet.”

“My caddie said to just nurse it in there,” added Mauney, who sank the

birdie putt to tie Gilder for the lead. “I caddie, Rick Lewallen, can

really read these greens. I depend on him 90% of the time.”

At 18, Mauney reached the green in two, then two-putted for birdie.

Gilder, one of five first-round leaders, is one shot behind Mauney,

while Nelson is in third place, three strokes back at 133.

Stockton’s 18-foot birdie putt at 18 pulled him into a four-way tie

for fourth place with Tom Kite, Jose Maria Canizares and John Bland.

Stockton and Canizares were also first-round leaders. Bruce Fleisher was

also a first-round leader, but shot even-par 71 Saturday.

There have been one-stroke victories every year by Toshiba champions,

except one, when Jim Colbert won by two shots in 1996, the first year the

event was played at Newport Beach.