Toshiba Senior Classic Golf: Irwin turns the corner

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH -- Even with another dirt-low round Saturday, Hale

Irwin is still rolling up his sleeves and grinding, like a mechanic

tinkering with a finely tuned race car.

Irwin, the Senior PGA Tour’s all-time leading money winner and career

leader in victories with 33 tournament titles, started with a new set of

golf clubs before the eighth annual Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport

Beach Country Club, and, on moving day, began to run away from the

77-player field before an estimated crowd of 24,000 in perfect weather

conditions.

Speaking of perfect, Irwin, who shot 7-under-par 64 in the second

round to build a three-stroke lead heading into today’s final round, is

still trying to get there.

“I’m going to try a new 3-wood and a new 4-wood right now. They’re

waiting for me at the driving range,” Irwin said. “You’re always

perfecting.”

Irwin, the 1998 Toshiba Classic champion, said “it’s always fun to

play in the last group on Sunday,” and he’ll get that chance today as he

tries to become the tournament’s first two-time winner.

Allen Doyle, the 2000 Toshiba winner, Larry Nelson and Gil Morgan are

tied for second at 8-under and will try to catch Irwin. Tied for fifth at

7-under are Don Pooley, Walter Hall and Monday qualifier Michael Zinni.

“Keep ‘em coming,” Irwin quipped after Friday’s first round, referring

to his age (56) and ability to seemingly stave off a new crop of

50-year-olds each year, while continuing to dominate the Senior Tour.

Irwin birdied the par-4 No. 16 to separate himself from Doyle and move

to 10-under. Irwin’s lead stretched to two strokes when Doyle bogeyed the

par-3 17, after hitting his tee shot in the right bunker.

With the ropes dropped behind Irwin and Doyle for fans to follow at

18, Irwin birdied the par-5 finishing hole, where a bunker shot from 60

feet landed three feet from the flag.

“I hit a lot of fairways and greens,” said Irwin, who won the ’98

Toshiba with a course-record 62 in the final round with the help of the

Famous Bunker Rake at 17, which stopped his tee shot from rolling in the

water.

“When I shot that 62, I don’t want to say it was a miracle, but I was

making putts that day and greens were not as smooth as they are now,”

said Irwin, who has won 17 of 22 events in which he has led or been tied

for the lead after 36 holes on the Senior Tour.

But how important is the second round in this tournament? In the

previous seven events, the 36-hole leader has won the event just twice --

including Doyle’s rain-shortened victory. Jim Colbert enjoyed a monstrous

five-stroke lead after the second round in 1996 and eventually won the

second annual Toshiba Senior Classic by two shots.

Irwin made eight birdies Saturday, but it was his par at the par-4 No.

7 that “turned things around.”

Irwin hit a “very poor 2-iron” to the green, but recovered with a nice

sand wedge to within three feet of the pin on the most severe green on

the 6,584-yard layout.

Irwin, who hit a tree on the hole, called it “a miracle par.” But he

didn’t climb to the top of the leaderboard until the back nine.

At the par-3 No. 13, Irwin stroked a smooth 5-iron to within three

feet and made an easy birdie putt to fall to 8-under, creating a

three-way logjam at the top with Doyle and Nelson.

Then Doyle birdied 13 to drop to 9-under, but that lead lasted only

two holes, because Irwin birdied the par-5 No. 15, the easiest hole on

the golf course, to square matters.

“(The greens) are still a little bumpy, but they’re much more mature

these greens,” Irwin said. “They’ve done a wonderful job with these

greens. In fact, they’ve gone a wonderful job with the whole golf course.

It’s very difficult now to say that a ball took a bad bounce. The ball

rolls pretty true.”

Irwin added that part of the challenge at this stage in his career is

the challenge itself.

“You’re always trying to get better, every hole, every day, every

week,” said the three-time U.S. Open Championship winner, who won this

year’s ACE Group Classic in Florida for his Senior Tour-record 33rd

title.

Tom Watson, who started the second round with 12 straight rounds of

par or better, the longest streak on the Senior Tour this year, went

south quick on Saturday, but rallied on the back nine and finished at

1-over 72.