Stern test awaits

Bryce Alderton

The 10th annual Toshiba Senior Classic begins today at Newport Beach

Country Club, and, while there is never a secret formula for success,

some professionals have offered their thoughts on what it takes to

win on the shortest Champions Tour course players will encounter this

year.

Hale Irwin, the only two-time winner of the event, holds several

tournament records, including the lowest round -- a 9-under-par

final-round 62 in 1998 for his first title. Irwin, the tour’s career

leading money winner, played the course for the first time this week

in Thursday’s pro-am.

“The players have all complimented the course and I’m glad to be

back,” said Irwin before his round. “You have to score consistently.

I think 12- to 15-under-par has a good shot at winning.”

Irwin holds the 54-hole tournament scoring record when he shot a

17-under 196 two win in 2002. Rodger Davis came within one stroke of

that record in winning last year’s title.

Players have raved about course conditions and said the

6,584-yard, par-71 layout offers a stern test of golf not seen on

other Champions Tour venues.

“If you talk to a guy who bombs it and doesn’t drive it as

straight, he wouldn’t pick this course as one of his favorites,” said

Allen Doyle, the 2000 champion who has never finished out of the top

eight in five tournament appearances. “You have to be a good

short-iron player and if you drive it good, you have a chance. These

greens slope from back to front and are normally faster than the ones

we play. There are horses for courses and I’d like to think this is

one for me.”

Gil Morgan, the tour’s leading money winner who claimed last

week’s SBC Classic, has finished in the top 10 in five of six Toshiba

Senior Classics.

“Putting is the common denominator,” Morgan said. “No matter how

you are playing tee to green, rarely would you win and play decent

when your putting is below average.”

Morgan ranks fourth in putting average this year (1.709). Mark

McNulty, playing his first tournament at NBCC, leads that category

with a 1.667 average.

The deep rough has grown to about 2 1/2 inches and the greens

offer subtle breaks. The 368-yard, par-4 seventh is considered by

many to feature the toughest green to read on the course.

“You have to drive it well and hit good iron shots,” said two-time

Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, making his third tournament appearance

this week. “The greens are subtle. You hope to get the putter hot and

make birdies.”

Last year, NBCC played to a 70.311 stroke average after a 70.409

mark in 2002.

The easiest hole both years has been the 492-yard par-5 15th. Last

year the field averaged 4.469.

The 203-yard par-3 eighth hole is rated most difficult heading

into today’s first round. A steep bank toward the right of the green

makes for a challenging up-and-down and the green breaks subtly

toward the Pacific Ocean.

This year’s field of 78 includes Jack Nicklaus for the first time.

Nicklaus played in the Wednesday and Thursday pro-ams and said the

course reminded him of a layout he used to play near his boyhood home

in Columbus, Ohio.

“You are required to hit the ball straight and you don’t have to

be a gorilla to play it,” Nicklaus said Thursday after completing the

pro-am. “These are small greens with poa annua grass, which I grew up

on.”

The 64-year-old winner of 70 PGA Tour events in an illustrious

career will tee of with Tom Kite and Doug Tewell at 10:55 a.m. today.

This is the first tournament he has played in more than a month and

will be the only one before the Masters -- April 8-11 -- which he is unsure of whether he will enter.

“I had never been out [to NBCC], but had scheduled a West Coast

trip and wanted to get my golf game in shape,” Nicklaus said. “I

needed to play golf along the line, so I picked [NBCC]. It is an

older-style golf course where you have to place the ball on several

holes. On the greens, you have to be careful where you putt the ball.

The course is in nice shape.”

A clogged leaderboard has become the norm after the first round in

the nine prior tournaments. No player has held more than a one-stroke

lead following the first round since the tournament moved to NBCC in

1996, one year after Mesa Verde Country Club hosted the first event.

Only two players have held sole possession of the lead following

the first round since 1996 -- Allen Doyle in 2000 and Jim Ahern in

2003. Ahern’s 7-under 64 last year is the best first-round score in

eight prior tournaments at NBCC.

Some of today’s featured groups include: Craig Stadler, Bruce

Lietzke, Dave Barr at 10 a.m.; Irwin, Lee Trevino and McNulty at

11:28; Fuzzy Zoeller, Bobby Wadkins and Chi Chi Rodriguez at 9:16;

Hajime Meshiai, Sam Torrance and NBCC head pro Paul Hahn at 12:34.

As Tom Kite said on the range Thursday, “There are a lot of guys

shooting a lot of good scores out here.”