Golf: Toshiba Senior Classic scores big again
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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