Playoff bound

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As 43-year-old golf professional Fred Stamey

retrieved the flag on the second playoff hole Monday and secured it

upright on the green, he turned toward his cart and said, “I guess this

golf course is known for long playoffs.”

That was after Stamey sank a pressure-packed 3 1/2-foot par putt to

extend the playoff with Mike Fergin, the former Newport Beach Country

Club assistant pro who remembered these greens well, while playing in the

event for the first time.

Fergin, 35, drained a 10-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to

defeat Stamey and win the seventh annual $10,000 Tommy Bahama Newport

Beach Open at Newport Beach Country Club.

Fergin, who won $2,000 and a watch, shot 33-34--67 during his morning

round in the one-day mini-tour event hosted by the Newport Harbor Area

Chamber of Commerce. He made five birdies and one bogey in chamber of

commerce weather.

Stamey, of Boise, Idaho and Palm Desert (in the winter), also carded a

67 to force the first playoff in Newport Beach Open history.

Both players made bogey at No. 1, the first playoff hole, including a

missed 2-foot putt for par and the win by Fergin. Stamey’s second shot

from the left rough grazed a thick pine tree, keeping him in jail.

“I missed that one on the first hole,” Fergin said. “Maybe I wanted it

too bad.”

On the second playoff hole on the par-4 No. 2, Fergin barely missed a

14-foot birdie putt for the victory. It stopped a half inch from the edge

of the cup. But Fergin’s par created a knee-knocking 3 1/2-footer for

Stamey, whose putt trickled around before dropping in the hole.

That’s when Stamey began talking about past Senior PGA Tour events on

this golf course for the Toshiba Senior Classic, which has featured two

nine-hole playoffs and a five-hole playoff in five years.

On the third playoff hole, the 549-yard par-5 No. 3, Fergin played

from the fairway, using a lay-up shot well out of reach of the water

hazard on the left. On his third shot, he stuck an 8-iron from 112 yards

out to 10 feet from the flag.

“Earlier in the round (on No. 3), I went driver 8-iron to three feet

(for birdie),” Fergin said, “so I figured I’d do the same thing in the

playoff.”

Fergin, a Canadian Tour regular who never played in the Newport Beach

Open before because the event was previously held in May, ended the

suspense with his 10-footer, which broke slightly right to left.

Stamey, who pocketed $1,300 for second place, had a 24-foot birdie

attempt on the third playoff hole, but it lipped out, giving Fergin a

free run.

“I thought, ‘OK, it’s over here.’ Let’s not go any farther (in the

playoff),” Fergin said.

Fergin, an assistant pro at Newport Beach from 1993 to ‘96, when he

decided to play professionally on a full-time basis, played in the PGA

Tour’s Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines this year after shooting a

jaw-dropping 62 in a Monday qualifier at El Camino Country Club. Fergin

shot a course record that day in February at El Camino, snapping the 64

set by Jim Myers.

A Tustin resident who recently started to train in Newport Beach with

Bodies by Carrido, Fergin still has a passion to crack the PGA Tour one

day.

“That’s my goal, to play with the big boys,” he said. “Everyone who

plays in these mini-tour events, that’s their passion, and these small

ones always help.”

Last year’s champion, Darren Ernst of Costa Mesa, shot 3-under 68 and

tied for third with Rob Kaas and former Costa Mesa city champion Bryan

Saltus. Ernst, Kaas and Saltus earned $783.

Since the event became a mini-tour for pros in 1998, it has had four

different champions: Fergin, Ernst, Perry Parker (1999) and Eric Woods

(‘98).

Woods, a Corona del Mar High product and longtime standout on the

Canadian Tour, now owns the Swing Lab in Costa Mesa.

Finishing tied for sixth Monday (and taking home $575 each) were

Justin Boatman, Dan Buchner, Gary Sowinski and Bob Jacobson.

Scott Mallory and Steve Woods tied for 10th ($425 each), while Larry

Barber and Gregory Bustamente tied for 12th ($325 each).

Ray Carrasco, a longtime Toshiba Senior Classic participant, and four

other pros tied for 14th.

On the amateur side, Chris Veitch of Santa Ana Country Club won

low-gross honors at par 71, while Newport Beach’s Mike Giddings won low

net (69).