Time to play

Richard Dunn

Never before has weather played such a positive role in the Toshiba

Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club, but today, as winter

turns to spring, 81 of the finest 50-and-over senior golfers in the

world will experience the good walk that is seldom spoiled on these

fairways.

And, as the dawning of the age of equipment on the PGA Champions

Tour escalates to higher levels and changes the way professional

golfers approach the game, there could be a course-record performance

in the 54-hole tournament, which continues through Sunday.

With warm weather and lightning fast greens, whoever finds the

putting stroke, as defending champion Hale Irwin said Thursday, will

win. This year’s champion of the Toshiba Classic will earn $232,500.

“The ultimate compliment is when people expect you to play well,

but it doesn’t give you any strokes off your scorecard,” Irwin said.

“You still have to do it. The guy who putts well each week will win

... here on this golf course, it’s not extremely difficult from tee

to green, but the greens are tough.”

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

winning the Toshiba Classic for a second time (he also won in 1998).

Before teeing off in the first round, he 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

17-under-par 196 (67-64-65) for the finest round of 54 in Toshiba

history.

“You have to hit it straight here and hit the greens,” Allen

Doyle, last year’s runner-up and 2000 Toshiba champion, said

Thursday.

All of the past Toshiba champions, except 1997 winner Bob Murphy,

will be in the field this weekend. That means George Archer (1995

winner), Jim Colbert (’96 champion and sporting a new beard), Irwin,

Gary McCord (1999), Doyle and Jose Maria Canizares (2001) are all

teeing it up today.

Other name players include barbecue sauce king Fuzzy Zoeller,

international golf icon Gary Player, ambassador Chi Chi Rodriguez,

Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.

There have been three playoffs in the event -- a tour-record

nine-hole playoff in ’97 between Murphy and Jay Sigel, the laughable

five-hole playoff in ’99 with McCord, John Jacobs, Doyle and Al

Geiberger, and another nine-hole marathon in ’01 between Canizares

and Gil Morgan.

The tour also comes here again under a different heading -- it’s

no longer the Senior PGA Tour, but the Champions Tour. Players are

now encouraged to walk, instead of riding in the customary golf

carts.

As the tour becomes less nostalgic and more competitive with the

purses increasing and players using high-tech, space-age equipment,

the money leaders and tournament contenders are players named Bruce

Fleisher and Dana Quigley, not Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer, both

of whom are playing in Palmer’s Bay Hill Invitational this weekend.

The seniors are playing for less prize money this year because of

at least four fewer official events, but the Toshiba Senior Classic

increased its purse this year to $1.55 million, up $50,000 from 2002.

Further, the Toshiba Classic was the first on the tour last year

to implement the interactive player Q&A; sessions with fans after a

round.

After last year’s Saturday round, Rodriguez and Zoeller were miked

up and sitting together high on a scaffolding near the first tee. The

crowd loved it. This year, McCord and Jacobs will entertain the crowd

after today’s first round in a Q&A; session with fans, while Rodriguez

and Zoeller will repeat their stage feat after the second round.

Among the tour’s fan friendly initiatives, which were new last

year but most not used until this year, are dropping the ropes behind

the final group. The Toshiba Classic did that last year after all

three rounds on the final three holes, with the Saturday and Sunday

galleries fairly sizable.

“You’re walking right in there behind the players and watching

their shots,” Toshiba Classic Tournament Director Jeff Purser said.

“The sad thing about watching golf on TV is that you can’t really

tell if it’s a great shot, because TV is two-dimensional. The great

thing about dropping the ropes is that you get to stand right behind

them and watch their shots.”