Toshiba Senior Classic Golf: Zoeller, Crenshaw head list of 2002

Senior Tour rookies

Richard Dunn

The rookie crop on the Senior PGA Tour is always of interest to

local golf fans attending the Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach

Country Club, which is held early in the season when the newcomers are

just warming up.

This year, Ben Crenshaw and “Mr. Personality” Fuzzy Zoeller head the

list of four automatically exempt rookies by virtue of their career

earnings on the PGA Tour.

Wayne Levi and sweet-swinging Tom Purtzer are also making their Senior

Tour debuts in 2002.

From the Senior Tour’s National Qualifying Tournament last fall, some

old friends earned their cards for the 2002 season, including R.W. Eaks.

Eaks, who won back-to-back Taco Bell Newport Classic Pro-Am titles at

Newport Beach Country Club in 1995-96, qualified for the Senior Tour with

a ninth-place finish in the qualifying tournament. But Eaks won’t turn 50

until May 22 and isn’t eligible to play in this year’s Toshiba Classic.

Howard Twitty and Larry Ziegler are also back on the senior circuit

and Ziegler will return to the Toshiba Classic.

Twitty, the medalist at the Senior Tour National Qualifying

Tournament, finished tied for second behind winner Allen Doyle at the

2000 Toshiba Classic, his best result on the Senior Tour. He also played

in last year’s Toshiba.

After losing his playing privileges last year, Ziegler defied the odds

and regained his fully exempt status by finishing second to Twitty at the

2001 National Qualifying Tournament.

At 62 years, three months and four days, Ziegler became the

second-oldest player to earn his card via “Q School.” J.C. Goosie was

three months older when he qualified. Ziegler had played in every Toshiba

Classic since the tournament started in 1995 at Mesa Verde Country Club

and missed for the first time last year.

With the gallery favorite Zoeller joining the 50-and-over circuit,

there is sure to be some extra spice on the Senior Tour in 2002.

“The greatest thing about golf is there’s no end to it unless you’re

dead,” Zoeller quipped. “You just go from here to the Senior Tour.”

Television producers and sponsors are banking on Zoeller to help

kick-start the sagging tour, which has struggled with television ratings.

Zoeller, however, a two-time major championship winner, is simply glad

to be playing.

“I think I’m going to have to fight my caddie for the cart,” Zoeller

said. “That’s the only problem I see ... (the Senior Tour) is going to be

a little bit different.”

Zoeller, the 1979 Masters champion and 1984 U.S. Open winner, has long

been a favorite on the PGA Tour because of his relaxed approach to the

game.

“Hopefully I can bring a few more smiles out there,” Zoeller said.

“That’s kind of the way I play the game. Whether it’s good or bad, I’m

still smiling and gagging like everybody else. But if we can make one

person smile, (then) maybe make the guy next to him smile, it will kind

of bleed on.”

People, of course, have tried hard to wipe that smile off Zoeller’s

face, especially after he joked about the food Tiger Woods might order at

the champions dinner after winning the 1997 Masters. Nobody laughed.

Sponsors dropped him, but Zoeller, at the time at a difficult point in

his PGA Tour career in his late 40s, has recovered nicely from his public

relations nightmare and put it all behind him.

And, now, he’ll be among the most sought-after players on the Senior

Tour, which has new plans this year to attach microphones to players

during rounds and have them stop to answer questions that fans submit

during the round.

“Anything we can do to get the people more involved is a plus,” said

Zoeller, a 10-time winner on the PGA Tour who ranks 65th on the tour’s

career money leaders. “(People will) find out that we’re all just not a

bunch of clones. We are human beings out there.”

Crenshaw also has two major championships under his belt -- the 1984

and 1995 Masters -- but starts his first year on the Senior Tour with a

different set of priorities.

“I suppose the only way I’m different than a lot of fellas when they

hit the Senior Tour is that their families are out of the house,”

Crenshaw said. “It’s you and your wife and you’re able to travel and

you’re able to play a lot of golf.

“You want to just have fun at this stage and you want to play good

golf, no question, but what I have to balance is my family. I’ve got

three young daughters that are really going to be tugging at my heart. My

gosh, they are 14 (Katherine), 10 (Claire) and almost four (Anna). So I’m

in a little different situation.”

Levi, who maintains a deep interest in the stock market, turned 50 on

Feb. 22 and was scheduled to play in his first event at the SBC Senior

Classic in Los Angeles.

A winner of 12 PGA Tour titles, Levi was selected the PGA Tour Player

of the Year in 1990 after four victories from May to September. In 1982,

he won the Hawaiian Open with an orange ball, the first time a player won

with a ball that wasn’t white.

Purtzer isn’t the biggest name in golf, but he’s someone to watch

closely.

Purtzer, who finished five PGA Tour events in the winner’s circle in

his career, is often described as having the sweetest swing in golf.