Toshiba Senior Classic Golf: What a playoff!
Richard Dunn
NEWPORT BEACH - It wasn’t always pretty, but last year’s memorable
playoff victory by Jose Maria Canizares with a birdie two on the ninth
extra hole was a thing of beauty.
For the second time in Toshiba Senior Classic history, a winner needed
63 holes at Newport Beach Country Club.
With nightfall approaching, Canizares holed a difficult left-to-right
putt from 24 feet at the par-3 17 to seal the deal.
But leading up to the finale was anything but predictable. Fact is,
Canizares and Gil Morgan were both unlikely candidates to take part in a
playoff when the Sunday round started. Morgan opened at seven strokes off
the pace, Canizares was five shots back. But leaders Terry Mauney, Bob
Gilder and Larry Nelson struggled in the final round.
“In golf you always have a chance. In 18 holes, anything is possible,”
said Canizares, after winning last year and earning $210,000 for the
victory, the largest paycheck of his professional golf career.
Morgan missed fairways and greens throughout the playoff, but kept
bailing himself out of trouble.
While Morgan was looking for his ball in the rough, Canizares had
three potential tournament-winning putts lip out in the playoff,
including the first two holes.
The duo had pars on the first six holes, and both birdied the seventh
hole (No. 18 on the course). After pars on the eighth playoff hole,
Canizares ended the second-longest playoff in Senior Tour history with
his birdie putt at 17.
Morgan got up and down for pars after missing greens on each of the
first two playoff holes, then repeated the feat from a greenside bunker
on the sixth extra hole (No. 17).
On the seventh playoff hole (par-5 No. 18), Morgan launched his drive
behind a tree in the right rough, but worked a low running hook into the
fairway, before pitching to 16 feet of the cup and sinking a birdie putt.
Morgan, on the eighth playoff hole (No. 16), had a chance to win it,
but an eight-foot birdie putt lipped out.
That opened the door for Canizares, who watched three of his own putts
lip out in the overtime.
Canizares hit a 3-iron to the green at 17, then sank his long putt
that curled right, posting only the fourth birdie of the day on the
signature hole, which played as the toughest hole on the course in the
final round.
Canizares, one of five first-round leaders, captured his first event
on the Senior Tour and first title anywhere since 1992 on the European
Tour.
Canizares, who had potential tournament-winning putts lip out on the
first, second and fourth playoff holes, rallied in the final round with a
4-under 67 to earn his way into a playoff with Morgan at 11-under.
The longest playoff in Senior Tour history was a 10-hole playoff
between David Graham and Dave Stockton at the 1998 Royal Caribbean
Classic, won by Graham.
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