Golf: Gates open for Toshiba Senior Classic

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As tens of thousands of people come through the

main entrance to the Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club

this week -- kick-started by today’s Toshiba Pro-Am -- they will walk

through the latest computer technology utopia, courtesy of the title

sponsor.

But as they step outside to the lush fairways at Newport Beach,

tournament officials will be on their hands and knees praying for the

same weather we’ve enjoyed for the past several weeks.

While Newport Beach superintendent Ron Benedict calls it a drought --

he wishes we’d had more rain this winter -- the event’s tournament

director, Jeff Purser, has probably done enough rain dances to cause it.

The three-day event, considered the most philanthropic tournament on

the Senior PGA Tour, is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with pro-ams and

practice rounds earlier in the week.

There will even be a warm and fuzzy feeling to the whole thing this

week in the Toshiba Classic, the only in-season professional golf

tournament in Orange County and now the middle of three Senior Tour stops

in the state.

Fuzzy Zoeller, viewed as part golfer, part savior for the so-called

sagging senior circuit, will never win a golf tournament on personality.

But the most anticipated rookie on the Senior Tour this year is expected

to add spice to the 50-and-over circuit.

Long a gallery favorite for his relaxed approach to the game, Zoeller

won 10 PGA Tour titles, including major championship victories at the

1979 Masters and 1984 U.S. Open Championship. He will play in today’s

pro-am and speak Tuesday morning at the Toshiba Community Breakfast at

the Newport Beach Marriott.

After last year’s event battled the threat of rain almost daily,

Purser continued to plead his case to the Senior PGA Tour, asking for a

later date.

The tour granted Purser his wish and pushed the Toshiba Classic back a

week on the calendar, making the Newport Beach stop the second of three

straight California weekends for the players on what is now the Great

West Coast Swing -- beginning with the SBC Senior Classic at Valencia

Country Club, which concluded Sunday.

With Zoeller and the usual cast of notable seniors like Lee Trevino

and Chi Chi Rodriguez, along with good weather, Purser is expecting the

Toshiba Classic to strike gold again for its lead charity, Hoag Hospital,

the beneficiary of most of the $3.7 million raised by the tournament in

the last four years.

“Even though we got the tournament in last year, we didn’t have the

best weather in the world and that kept a lot of people away,” Purser

said. “Our galleries were significantly down last year compared with 1998

and ’99 when we had wonderful weather.

“If we’re fortunate to get great weather this year, and with Fuzzy and

Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson and Tom Kite and Chi Chi coming out, then I

think we have a real good opportunity to get back to the level of

galleries of previous years, and obviously that’s our goal.”

Purser is hoping for about 90,000 fans for the week, the bulk of which

will come Saturday and Sunday.

The eighth annual Toshiba Classic, long an island on the Senior Tour

schedule, had company last March for the first time and it paid off with

the second-strongest field on the tour last year, luring 30 of the top 31

money leaders from the previous year, the best turnout among non-major

championships.

The cozy, 6,584-yard layout at Newport Beach is one of the reasons why

the players have been attracted to the $1.5 million Toshiba Classic. The

traditional tree-lined golf course built almost 50 years ago has been

described by some players as the utopia for a seniors golf course.

Even with today’s economic climate, Purser expects the event to reach

the $1-million mark in charitable giving for the third year in a row.

Last year the Toshiba Classic became the first stop on the tour to

achieve the million-dollar benchmark in back-to-back years.

“It’s too early to tell, but we’ve worked hard to put ourselves in a

position to (raise another $1 million),” Purser said. “With good gate

sales ... we have the opportunity to reach those goals. We’re not quite

there yet, but considering what’s going on in the world and at home,

we’re pretty pleased where we are.”

The tournament has had seven different winners in seven years and

featured three playoffs in the last five events.