Toshiba Senior Classic Golf: 30 out of 31 -- a .967 batting average

for Toshiba draw

Richard Dunn

Bruce Lietzke only shows up to these Senior PGA Tour events once

every so often. He’s like a caped crusader, landing only when necessary.

Lietzke, whose playing schedule was the envy of many on the PGA Tour,

never competing in more than 20 events in a year after 1989, is doing it

again on the 50-and-over senior circuit. He’s the world’s best part-time

player.

However, you will not read Lietzke’s quotes in these pages next week

during the eighth annual Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country

Club, nor will you see his score. He’s the only member of last year’s

elite top-31 money leaders who will not play in the Toshiba Classic.

Golf aficionados admire his ability to play one-third of the time of

his Senior Tour peers and still post automatic exemptions for the

following year with his earnings.

But this year he’s culprit keeping the Toshiba from a perfect record

in top-31 attendees, a benchmark by which all tournaments are measured in

terms of strength of field.

The Toshiba Senior Classic, which has always had one of the best

fields on tour despite its ill-timed scheduling and solo venture on the

West Coast, is now the middle of three California stops on tour and has

been pushed back from Week 9 on the calendar to Week 10.

Lietzke, who played in only 10 events last year yet finished 16th on

the money list at over $1.1 million, won two tournaments last year: The

3M Championship and SAS Championship.

An analysis directed by the Senior PGA Tour to determine the different

tournament fields throughout 2001 concluded that the Toshiba Classic had

the second-best field on tour last year.

The field study, based on the tour’s top 31 money leaders from the

previous year, placed the event No. 1 among non-majors as the 78-player

Toshiba field included 30 of top 31 money winners, who earn automatic

exemptions for the next year.

“The only tournament that had a better field was the Ford Senior

Players Championship, which is a major on the Senior Tour and operated by

the PGA Tour and not a local entity like Hoag Hospital,” said tournament

director Jeff Purser, whose management team has raised $3.7 million in

charitable dollars in the four years.

“We only missed Bob Murphy, who is a past Toshiba champion (1997),

because he had duties and a contract with NBC to cover last year,” Purser

added. “So we would have had all top 31. The next closest tournament was

29 and there was only one of those, and everyone else was 28 or below.”

With early player commitments (there are sometimes drops), the 2002

Toshiba field should rival last year’s, when the only in-season

professional golf tournament in Orange County had a stronger field the

Countrywide Tradition, a major championship that hosted 29 of the top 31.

“We appreciate the support of the Senior Tour players,” Purser said.

“Even during the years when we were the only West Coast event on the

early part of the schedule, the players supported this tournament and we

always enjoyed solid fields. Now that we’re part of the three-event West

Coast Swing for the second year, we look forward to hosting just as

strong a field, maybe even stronger.”

Purser added that the strong field is a reflection of many things,

including the golf course at Newport Beach and the way the tournament

hosts the players.