Toshiba Classic fed Orange County thirst

Richard Dunn

The beginning stages of the Toshiba Senior Classic came at an

interesting time in Orange County sports history.

It was June 1994, and major league baseball players were preparing

to go on strike, about six weeks from the union’s self-imposed

deadline to walk, with the threat of the rest of the season being

canceled, including the postseason (the ’94 World Series was indeed

canceled).

It was also a time in Orange County when the Rams were preparing

to bolt Orange County and play their final NFL season at Anaheim

Stadium. Golf was on the rise, but it hadn’t started its incredible

boom of two years later when Tiger Woods joined the PGA Tour. Still,

golf was blowing past tennis in Yuppie recreation and Orange County

was building a new high-end public golf course every month, or so it

seemed.

Orange County had come into its own years ago, but the PGA Tour

never made it back after toiling here for five years from 1959 to

1968, long before the county’s huge growth spurts.

The PGA Tour, desiring a presence in Orange County and having

struggled for years to land a regular stop here, had come to the

realization that Orange County was distinctly different from Los

Angeles, which has always hosted the tour at Riviera or somewhere

else. The PGA Tour played at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa --

about 20 minutes from Disneyland and 10 minutes to the beach -- from

1959 to 1962 in the Orange County Open, the tournament famous for the

legend of champagne Tony Lema.

Somehow, except for the 1968 Haig Open at Mesa Verde, a

one-year-wonder tournament, the PGA Tour got sidetracked by Torrey

Pines and the desert area clubs and forgot about Orange County. The

LPGA Tour came to Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park in the 1980s

-- just like the ladies’ tour was at Industry Hills for a couple of

years in the early ‘80s -- but eventually pulled out, mainly because

the women weren’t making birdies.

But there was Orange County, without a professional golf

tournament, a small yet very big pocket of the Southern California

golf scene.

In June 1994, the first whispers were heard and stories reported

about a Senior PGA Tour stop coming to Orange County in March 1995,

with Mesa Verde scheduled to host the event. On Oct. 25, 1994, a

press conference at Anaheim Stadium was held to announce the

inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic, after six months of deliberation to

find a title sponsor. Don Andersen, executive director of the

now-defunct Orange County Sports Association, which used to operate

the Freedom Bowl and Disneyland Pigskin Classic for college football,

hosted the press conference like a public relations pro. It was held

in the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame , which OCSA also operated

out of Anaheim Stadium.

With OCSA as the tournament manager and Andersen the event’s first

tournament director, the inaugural Toshiba Classic was less than five

months away, barely enough time to pull it off, but, with some

experienced folks at the controls, like Mesa Verde Country Club golf

chairman Bill Wallace, the club and OCSA managed an excellent event

in terms of aesthetics and enjoyment. The weather was great and it

was the first time for everything. The first time Lee Trevino had

come to Orange County to play competitive golf. The first time

playing Mesa Verde for virtually everyone in the field, except a few,

like Bob Dickson and Chi Chi Rodriguez, who played in the Orange

County Open in the early 1960s.

OCSA was courting National Car Rental for several weeks as a

possible title sponsor for the event, but a deal fell through late in

the process after countless hours of negotiating and trips to the

Upper Midwest, where the company was based. Organizers were so sure

about National Car Rental coming onto the scene as a title sponsor,

there was already talk of the sponsor associating the tournament with

St. Patrick’s Day, because the company’s colors were green and white

and St. Patrick’s Day would fall on the first round of competition.

National Car Rental, however, was later sold.

“Then, out of the clear blue sky, Bob Neely (of International

Sports and Event Management) came in with Toshiba,” Wallace once

said, referring to the former executive director who originally

brought Irvine-based Toshiba Computer Systems, Inc., to the table in

the 11th hour.

And, once tour officials identified Orange County as a market unto

itself, the Toshiba Senior Classic was able to become a reality.

“Truth be told, we’ve been working on it for four years, but we

couldn’t get all the ingredients together,” Ric Clarson, then the

Senior PGA Tour’s Director of Administration, said.

At the time, the tour had two other Southern California stops, at

Rancho Park in Los Angeles for the Ralphs Senior Classic and Ojai for

the FHP Senior Classic.

“We have, since the infancy of the tournament at Rancho Park (in

1990), recognized we needed several years for (Orange County) to

become established and to determine the marketplace,” Clarson said at

the time. “By now, it’s clear that Orange County is its own market,

particularly for a Senior Tour golf tournament.”

If there was any doubt in the minds of tour officials about Orange

County’s corporate muscle, all three Southland title sponsors in

October 1994 were headquartered in Orange County.

For Mesa Verde Country Club, its membership hustled to host the

event, even though the club struggled with the parking demands, and,

eventually lost the tournament after one year.

Mesa Verde had experience hosting USGA and professional golf

tournaments and was prepared to take on the enormous task of getting

things ready fast (less than five months). Mesa Verde was the Senior

PGA Tour’s first choice, after Andersen and his OCSA associates

investigated rival Orange County clubs such as Coto de Caza, Dove

Canyon, Yorba Linda and Los Coyotes. “Those guys,” Wallace said,

referring to Senior Tour officials, “are all familiar with Mesa

Verde, and when Mesa Verde got in the picture, the PGA kind of pushed

it ... the advantage we had was that (Mesa Verde) is a 37-year-old

golf course that’s mature with trees and everything else. It’s a

well-developed golf course.”

Mesa Verde’s palm trees provided great theater for an opening act

and all willing participants thought the golf course looked great and

George Archer’s victory was storybook.