Golf: It’s a warm, Fuzzy feeling

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Fuzzy Zoeller played 18 holes Monday in the Toshiba

Pro-Am at Newport Beach Country Club, but has still only played half of

the golf course.

“I played the back nine twice,” Zoeller said while enjoying a

19th-hole beverage with his amateur partners, which included lottery

winner Gary Genseal and friend, Jeff Hoyt, of San Marcos.

Genseal, of Los Angeles, drove down to the Roger Dunn Golf Shop in

Santa Ana to buy a $20 lottery ticket and won a nine-hole round with Mr.

Personality himself and the Senior PGA Tour’s most anticipated rookie in

2002.

“I’m the real lucky one,” Hoyt said. “I got to play in the Toshiba

Pro-Am (for free) and with Fuzzy Zoeller (without buying a lottery

ticket).”

Zoeller said he’s glad to be in Newport Beach and away from the strong

winds at Valencia Country Club, site of last weekend’s SBC Senior

Classic, the first of three legs on the tour’s California Swing.

“It’s a very nice golf course,” Zoeller said of the Newport Beach

layout. “After last week, it’s nice coming here. The golf course here

seems somewhat flat. It doesn’t have a lot of areas to pitch. It’s the

type of golf course I was brought up on.”

Zoeller, the Senior Tour player in the most demand for his time from

fans, media and tournament officials, will speak this morning at 7:30

a.m. at the Toshiba Community Breakfast at the Newport Beach Marriott

Hotel and Tennis Club.

“I open the floodgates. I don’t really speak,” Zoeller said. “It’s a

Question & Answer, really ... it’s not too early for me. I’m up at 4 a.m.

every day. I just hope they don’t burn the eggs.”

While television producers and sponsors are banking on Zoeller to help

spice up the sagging Senior Tour, the gallery favorite and two-time major

championship winner is simply thrilled to be playing on the 50-and-over

circuit.

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

Zoeller said.

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

ready to take the spotlight and provide the tour with a ratings boost.

“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.”

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

career money leaders, is excited about the general format of the Senior

Tour, besides the optional use of a golf cart.

With no cuts and only three rounds, life just got a little easier.

“I think when you get older, especially some of the older guys who

come out on the PGA Tour tower and try to compete, they do well for three

rounds,” Zoeller said, “but it’s that fourth round that kind of gets

them. So that three rounds of golf, to me, makes it just very easier. Not

necessarily to pick up shots on anybody, but just as far as stamina. Just

seems like it’s much easier to play.”

The pre-tournament lottery to play with Zoeller served as a

fund-raiser for the managing charity, Hoag Hospital.

Amateurs Steve Carfano and Darryl Taylor also played in Monday’s

pro-am with Zoeller.