It’s all in the choice

Hale Irwin isn’t the type to get attached. There are some baseball

players who use the same glove their entire careers, but golfers are

much different about their equipment -- as Irwin proves.

Last year, Irwin changed almost every club in his bag before

winning the Toshiba Senior Classic for the second time.

Before teeing off in the first round, Irwin switched to forged

blade irons, changed from graphite to steel shafts, added a couple of

new fairway woods and a new sand wedge, then went out and shot

67-64-65 for the finest round of 54 in Toshiba history. He dominated

the field with a tournament scoring record 17-under 196.

Irwin’s victory at Newport Beach Country Club catapulted him to

the top of the 2002 money list and he never looked back, winning the

Senior PGA Tour money title and becoming the first senior to eclipse

the $3-million mark in single-season earnings ($3,028,304). It was

his third money title.

But Irwin’s at it again.

“This year, I’ve changed (clubs) once again. I’ve changed from

Cobra to Taylor Made. The only constant in my bag is my putter,”

Irwin said Tuesday during a phone conference.

Irwin also said technology in today’s equipment, including balls,

has not only helped him in the past few years, but the last few

weeks.

“I’m hitting the ball farther than ever,” said Irwin, who added

that everyone on the tour is longer off the tee now with Titanium

shafts, club heads and balls.

“The ball doesn’t curve as much. You can just take dead aim and

fire.”

Must be nice.

*

Irwin, who said before the Toshiba Classic last year that he hoped

to remain “interested” in competing for another money title on the

Senior PGA Tour, won 34th career senior event here last year and

apparently remained interested in winning another money title.

Irwin, who won the 1998 Toshiba Classic after firing a

course-record 62 on Sunday, won the tournament in March -- three

months before his 57th birthday.

“When someone tells me I can’t, it tends to motivate me,” Irwin

said. “I’m not one that looks back but looks forward, try to create

opportunities for success.”

Irwin and Bob Gilder each won four official events in 2002, the

fewest number of victories to lead the Champions Tour since Jim

Colbert and Bob Murphy each had four wins in ’95.

Irwin, who became the first two-time Toshiba champion, entered the

final round last year with a three-stroke lead and won by five shots,

a larger margin of victory than the past six Toshiba champions

combined.

For Irwin, who won $225,000 for his 2002 Toshiba title, winning

last year’s event marked the 12th time in his career that he has won

a tournament at least twice.

Last year, Irwin played in 27 events and said this year would be

about the same.