Toshiba Senior Classic Page 2 Column: The Senior Tour’s fifth major

championship?

Richard Dunn

While the Toshiba Senior Classic goes for miles in charitable

giving, the wins are measured by inches on the golf course.

This Senior PGA Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club, the only

in-season professional golf tournament in Orange County, has become the

best show in Newport Beach and arguably the greatest stop on tour.

But, for the true proof in any tournament’s pudding, check out the

final scores and margins of victory.

The scores show it is no easy golf course, even though it isn’t long

(6,584 yards). Subtle and difficult greens arm the layout with sharp

teeth.

“The winning scores here have been 10-to-12-under,” Newport Beach

Country Club President Jerry Anderson said. “A lot of these tournaments

are (posting winning scores of) 18-to-20-under, even for three rounds. So

this golf course has held up extremely well for the Senior PGA Tour

players. People are out there having fun. They’re not burning it up.”

Not to mention the fact that the Toshiba Classic has featured playoffs

in three of the past five years, it usually thrives on razor-sharp

finishes.

Aside from Jim Colbert’s two-stroke win in 1996, no Toshiba champion

has won by more than one stroke. That’s six out of seven years we’ve had

a one-shot winner. And, a different winner every year.

While close, nail-biting Sunday rounds are not unique on the Senior

PGA Tour, consider last year’s Countrywide Tradition, a major

championship played at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Doug

Tewell won by nine strokes after shooting a course-record 62 in the final

round on the Cochise Course layout.

The Toshiba Senior Classic, which had a nine-hole playoff, again,

might be the tour’s fifth major championship. It certainly has the feel

of one with the customary strong fields (last year’s Toshiba ranked as

the second-best field on the Senior Tour in 2001).

Prior to teeing off in last year’s first round, 1998 Toshiba Classic

champion Hale Irwin said: “I think you’ll see that tight grouping again

on Sunday. We’ve got a great field out here. It almost feels like a

major.”

George Archer (1995), Bob Murphy (‘97), Irwin, Gary McCord (‘99),

Allen Doyle (2000) and Jose Maria Canizares (‘01) have all captured

Toshiba Classic titles in one-stroke style.

Even in the year of the asterisk (2000), when Doyle won a

rain-shortened 36-hole tournament because of inclement weather and a

final-round cancellation, there was a case of suspense, albeit late

Saturday afternoon in the second round under dark, threatening clouds.

Howard Twitty missed finishing in a tie at six-under 136 with Doyle by

less than an inch, when his 15-foot putt from the fringe at 18 to

conclude his second round wouldn’t fall.

Had Twitty made his birdie attempt, there would have been a playoff

Sunday between him and Doyle for the Toshiba title on one of the par-3

holes.

Trailing Doyle by one stroke as he got to the 18th hole, Twitty said

it was in the back of his mind that he needed a birdie if the final round

was canceled (which it was).

“I hit a real good putt on 18,” Twitty said the following day. “It had

a good chance. When you see it raining, you think you might still have a

chance, but the course was pretty wet (Sunday for the final round).”

Twitty’s putt burned the right edge of the cup as it slid past. One

inch, perhaps, cost him a shot at a playoff.

“It was a lot less than an inch,” said Twitty, who settled for a

second-place tie and earned $104,000, still his highest finish on the

Senior Tour.

When it comes to the opening round, things also get a little sticky

with close quarters in the kitchen.

At least two players have been tied for the lead after the first round

in every Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach since 1996, when the event was

moved from Mesa Verde Country Club after the inaugural in ’95.

Twice, including last year, the leader board has been jammed with five

players after the Friday round.

In 1996, Colbert, Lee Trevino, Murphy, Homero Blancas and John

Schroeder shared the opening-round lead at 3-under 68, while Dave

Stockton, Bruce Fleisher, Bob Gilder, Dana Quigley and Canizares all shot

6-under-par 65 to tie for the first-round lead in some of the toughest

conditions on the Senior Tour (wet and muddy).

Furthermore, the Toshiba Classic has a special feel outside the ropes.

“I think the Senior Tour is lucky to have this site,” Al (Mr. 59)

Geiberger said. “Socially, people like to come out to it.”

Geiberger said the Toshiba crowd is a good mix of devoted golfers and

general socialites, while the fan-friendly layout is ideal for a golf

tournament.