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Golf: Toshiba Senior Classic scores big again

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Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Jeff Purser, Toshiba Senior Classic tournament

director, said Monday he was “100% satisfied” with the results of this

year’s Senior PGA Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club.

“There are two things I don’t have control over -- the weather and the

competition,” said Purser, who joked about offering players extra cash to

force a six-way playoff.

While the weather was nothing short of spectacular, World Golf Hall of

Famer Hale Irwin shot a tournament scoring record 17-under 196 to win his

second Toshiba Classic before an estimated three-day crowd of 68,000 to

crown the eighth annual Senior Tour event.

Further, this year’s Toshiba Classic raised another $1 million for

charity, the third year in a row the tournament has achieved the

milestone, which is unprecedented on the Senior Tour.

A day after the final round of the only in-season professional golf

tournament in Orange County, 120 sponsors played the course at Newport

Beach. “There are a lot of big scores today,” Purser quipped, “but

they’re having a good time.”

Considering what happened the last two years during the final round --

with the 2000 Toshiba canceled because of inclement weather and last

year’s played under a severe threat of a rainstorm -- it’s understandable

how many in the tournament camp were nervous coming into this year’s

event.

“It wasn’t even in the 2000s when we last had good weather for the

Toshiba Classic,” Purser said. “It was last decade. Imagine that.

“The real crux of the matter is that everybody was nervous about the

weather. We’d had great weather for weeks and weeks (leading up to the

event), then it started raining Thursday morning during the pro-am and

some of the pros were saying, ‘Well, it must be Toshiba week.’ I know

they’re joking, but it really made me sick to my stomach.”

The rain Thursday morning actually did wonders for the golf course,

according to several of the players.

“The golf course is in great shape,” Irwin said a day before the

tournament began. “It’s probably in its best shape since I’ve played here

(every year since Newport Beach took over as host in 1996, after Mesa Verde Country Club held the inaugural Toshiba Classic in 1995).”

The Toshiba Classic featured playoffs in 1997, ’99 and last year and

one-stroke victories every year except 1996, when Jim Colbert won by two

strokes. Then Irwin came along Sunday and shattered the tournament record

for margin of victory (five strokes).

“That guy’s an incredible athlete,” Purser said of Irwin, who also won

the 1998 Toshiba with a course-record 62 in the final round, in which the

Famous Bunker Rake at No. 17 stopped his ball from rolling in the water,

as he got up and down for par on his way to a record round.

“That birdie at 16 sealed (Sunday’s win), and I didn’t need a rake

this year at 17 to help me,” said Irwin, who nailed a 5-iron at the par-4

16, which rolled to within three feet of the pin and set up his sixth of

seven birdies on the day

Irwin, who won $225,000, became the tournament’s first two-time

champion.

But for the event’s managing operator, things couldn’t have turned out

better, especially considering the economic climate of our nation after

Sept. 11 and how it has affected charitable giving.

The Toshiba Classic, however, the largest single-day fund-raiser in

Orange County, again set the standard for the Senior Tour in terms of

raising money for charity.

“There were ramifications from Sept. 11, but in terms of how the

tournament was operated this year, it went as smooth as it can,” Purser

said. “We did exactly what we tried and expected to do.”

Purser added that the weekend’s excellent weather helped create good

attitudes around the week’s Toshiba camp among some 1,100 volunteers and

staffers.

“We’re pleased to welcome back two great friends this year -- Hale

Irwin as our champion and the sun,” Toshiba Classic co-chairman Hank

Adler told the 18th greenside gallery Sunday.

“Given the economic climate of the past year, there is no doubt that

this donation is the Toshiba Senior Classic’s finest charitable

accomplishment to date.”

The Toshiba Classic has now exceeded $4.7 million in the five years

since Hoag Hospital became the tournament’s managing operator and lead

charity.

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