Golf: No surprise in Sweet-60 Colbert winning one week after

Toshiba Classic

Richard Dunn

It was late Monday afternoon, the first day of player practice

rounds for the Toshiba Senior Classic in Newport Beach.

Earlier, because of unplayable conditions due to rain, Senior PGA Tour

official Skip Whittet canceled the practice rounds, but the visiting

golfers could use the practice putting greens, which is where Jim Colbert

was spotted.

Like many of the players in the field, Colbert arrived on a charter

flight late Sunday night from Mexico, where Mike McCullough won his first

Senior Tour event at Las Vista in Puebla.

Colbert, though, had the lead with two holes remaining in the final

round at the Mexico Senior Classic, but missed short putts on 17 and 18

as McCullough won coming through the backdoor.

When Colbert was found all alone on a barren putting green late the

next afternoon at Newport Beach Country Club, after most of his peers had

called it a day (or never made it at all), he was still in a bitter mood.

Still kicking himself over those missed putts, including one from 2 1/2

feet.

Making those two easy putts would have secured the victory for

Colbert, who has been trying hard to enter golf’s pantheon of winning a

tournament in five decades (PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour).

Colbert, working on his putting stroke under dark clouds, was sort of

dressed in disguise. With a new goatee, and without his customary floppy

hat and hairpiece, he didn’t exactly look like the same Colbert who won

the 1996 Toshiba Classic.

But he certainly showed up with a familiar attitude.

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

played,” Colbert said. “I shot 62 (in the second round at the Mexico

Senior Classic). I almost shot my age. I’ll be 60 soon, but I don’t feel

60. I’d like to be like Sam Snead. He was awfully good at 59 and 60.”

Colbert didn’t get his trip to the winner’s circle in a fifth

different decade at Newport Beach, but he made his short putts, shot

67-71-70--208 and tied for 12th.

In a way, it was Colbert’s tuneup for his victory last Sunday in the

SBC Senior Classic at Valencia Country Club, two days after his 60th

birthday.

You knew the old Jim Colbert was back the moment you ran into him at

the Toshiba Classic and that it would only be a matter of time before he

won again.

For Colbert, who hadn’t won on the senior circuit since the 1998

Transamerica, he certainly didn’t waste any time.

Hoag Heart Institute, Orange County’s highest-volume, highest-rated

cardiovascular program, is spearheading the delivery of life-saving

technology to Orange County golf courses.

In February, as part of Hoag Heart Month, the institute partnered with

Medtronic USA, Inc., to donate 10 automated external defibrillators

(AEDs) to both public and private golf courses.

During the week of the Toshiba Classic, an AED was donated to Newport

Beach Country Club, one of three local clubs receiving the portable,

easy-to-use system, which is designed to restore a normal heart rhythm in

victims of sudden cardiac arrest, a condition that kills 220,000

Americans a year.

Pelican Hill Golf Club and Newport Beach Golf Course, both public

courses, also received an AED, valued at $3,500, and free training for

all staff members, worth $500 to $800.

It’s a scary thing when a golfer suffers from cardiac arrest on the

golf course, a long way from communicating with the outside world unless

a cell phone is readily available.

“Placing AEDs in public places has been shown to dramatically increase

the chance of survival for victims of these sudden-death episodes,” Hoag

Heart Institute Medical Director Dr. Joel Manchester said. “Hoag believes

so strongly in the benefits of AEDs that we are taking the lead in

deploying them throughout our community.”

AEDs were created for use by non-medical personnel who have undergone

basic training

Timothy Jenson of Newport Beach and Zachary Rabinovich of Newport

Coast placed in the top 10 in their divisions last weekend at the Junior

Amateur Golf Scholars Tournament at Shandin Hills Golf Club in San

Bernardino.

Jenson, 16, finished eighth in the boys 15-18 age group, while

Rabinovich, 14, ended 10th in the 13-14 age group.

Junior Amateur Golf Scholars is a year-round junior golf tour offering

monthly two-day events for juniors 13-18 in Southern California. Details:

(714) 952-3316.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.